Grand Central

Getting back to the thread title and OP. Today's statement from Stuart Douglas and Jon Cook refers to the 'BSPA having exciting plans for 2019' ..... It's pleasing to find out that they have plans at all. Having kept then so quiet. But to find out that Stuart and Jon have found them exciting is simply mouth watering. It's like Christmas all over again. Waiting, and hoping and wondering IF Santa will bring the promised gift ... The anticipation just being heightened by not knowing until December.... I hope we are not left with Reindeer turd. Again.

I would say that 1000 was way too high a crowd level on which to base any financial plan for the majority of clubs, not just 'some'.

You make it sound so easy ... So it must be true. I would love to watch Championship level Speedway for £10 to £12 in 2019. But returning to planet Earth ....

You sound, from your much more 'knowing' perspective, to be suggesting that an 'one league' option could work better than before. I am happy to be be guided by you. I was of the opinion that it would be just as much of a FAIL as when tried in the 90s. Really surprised that you think it would be different this time.

True. People seem to be rather too glibly making statements of what is 'needed' or 'must' be done without the foggiest idea of the viability what is proposed ... Because we know so little of the details that matters. I just cannot believe that 'one league' is some sort of easy or even good fix for our situation. It may be the only one available come the winter but I do not look to it as any 'answer' in itself. One of the most obvious things about the current situation is the massive difference there must be between the 'top' clubs (financially) and the real strugglers for money across the premiership and championship. I find it very difficult to believe that enough 'common ground' can be found to combine such disparate businesses within a one league model with any great success.

Well I read what Torben had to say ... 1) Cardiff would be more attractive nearer the business end of the Championship where the meeting could be more 'vital' in the title race 2) moving away from the 'holiday season' will allow more fans to attend and this would be specifically the case for 'locals' 3) the later date should have a 'positive effect' on accommodation price. I cannot help being sceptical about his words though .... I have never heard anyone say they avoided attending Cardiff due to it being too early in the title chase but would suddenly do so if it were only 'more vital'. Most Cardiffs have been last week June to second week July which is generally not holiday season for most people. Goodness know why 'local' Cardiff folk would suddenly start attending in September when they have studiously avoided doing so for 18 years before . And I fully expect that the hotels will screw everyone in September just the same as July, especially as the Uni accommodation may be unavailable as well. I presume the Stadium is just not being offered to them any earlier than September for other reasons and he is just spinning it the best way he can. PS I am fine with September ... Just a little less BS from BSI would be nice.

I watched the whole meeting live on Saturday via this guy's Facebook page ... If you go through his posts it is all here ...Great stuff https://m.facebook.com/dmclmotoclub/

Yes but that individual would have needed to come to the conclusion you prefer. My guess is that the independent person is just have likely to have given preference to the Championship teams on Thursdays if it meant saving them. He may have thought that more important. It is just wishful thinking that the guy chosen would suddenly choose the 'right' path as you (or anyone else) might see it. He would just as easily go the opposite way.

This is an excellent point. The constantly advocated panacea of an independent body is bogus. The mere fact of it being independent would not produce the BETTER decision making needed. Any individual picked is JUST as likely to have advocated and pursued policies identical to those of the BSPA. Incrementally year by year I don't think there is any liklehood that we would suddenly have hit upon a genius to help, where they collective of the promoters failed. Just-like-that. The problems are much deeper than such simplistic thinking I'd need to hear something pretty revolutionary from such a guru to believe they would be any better at all tbh.

And hilariously this is all supposed to depend on receiving funds from local government to finance the operation. When you read up on the goings on with Ipswich Council .... I imagine that you could find the Burghers of Togliatti to be bastions of probity in comparision.

You are correct about all the Cardiff attributes you list. And are right to identify the horror show from Blunsdon last night ... But the extra Cardiff attendees I know of would not be going to Swindon on a Monday night even if they were serving up the best Speedway fayre ever produced. They still wouldn't be interested. Just to make clear that is offering no defence of the shameful nature of last night. Cardiff is just different in ever so many many ways for them.

Set for Glasgow just the week after next ... on August 4 https://www.glasgowtigers.co/woffinden-doyle-go-head-head-glasgow/ Bold move by the Facennas ... Hope it is a big success

A large number of the Cardiff 'extras' are from extended family ... My wife and her son & hispartner do Cardiff most years but don't/won't go to anything else. But that is not really down to the Speedway ... More due to the weekend away in Cardiff we tend to have with the meeting just part of that. I get the feeling that is quite a widespread situation. Also tend to see quite a few people who don't have a local track of their own any more but have got into the habit of making the annual trip to the GP. I don't think many of the extras i see or know if would ever be candidates for other British Speedway events though, no matter what the BSPA do... Cardiff has created its own niche ... Totally separate from anything else. EDIT ... one thing I already know is that whilst I am totally happy with a September date i may well have to go alone next year as my fickle 'extras' have already expressed their doubts... We shall see nearer the time.

Ah you went to the wrong school then ... I won't tell you what we studied in Biology ... But I was top of the class in the practical lessons.

Thankfully ever since I was at school and did a subject called 'History' I have understood the possibility of knowing facts about a time before i was born. Books (or even magazines) are a good source of this sort of information.

Err, Yes. But he's going back quite a bit. First Saturday Final was 1956 I believe.

Good to hear that from someone who was there. The TV people didn't seem to know what was going on so difficult to judge for us back home. Mind you BSI have usually gone to town on very innovative parades at Cardiff anyway. It has been rare for them to send the riders trundling out. They have done some real spectaculars down the years that have worked really well.

Us (enforced) TV viewers were given regular long-lens views of the man in the box last night. He looked a very lonely figure. In need of a friend or assistant. A co-pilot at least to take over the controls once it was beyond him. A serious note. On the (fortunately) rare occasions when a Speedway fatality occurs the referee is called upon as signficant witness at the inquest. On Saturday the referee judged that Robert Lambert was the cause of Jason Doyle crashing. I have yet to hear anyone concur with that opinion. It is rare to have such a unanimous view against a decision. But it would be his word that the Coroner would hear if the worst had happened, in that race or any other. We should remember that having a competent referee is not just desirable for a good race meeting; it is an absolute necessity.

The parade didn't work at all on TV ... It looked as if there had been no coordination between the organisers and TV people at all ... I just assumed it was tons better in the Stadium. Live. But perhaps not.

Last night's refereeing performance at the British GP must go down as one of the worst in the history of the SGP. He had one difficult decision to make all night but still managed to mess up several others that were straightforward. Live .. these incidents can produce the tensions and shout-out moments that add to the controversy, atmosphere and buzz. As the ref becomes a pantomime villain of sorts, he can become part of the show. But watching on TV .... Less so. You don't tend to get that 'extra dimension' you can at the track from such an incompetent in the box. It just irritates the hell out of the viewer and the injustice created festers more. I was begging for some FIM white coated medics to come along at the interval and escort the poor man back to his facility. Some one needed to help him get out of there for his own good.

All of them ... They will have the intelligence to understand the context in which the joke was made.

The voice of sanity.

It seems obvious that no one has had a change of mind on this subject even with hindsight. Usually it does not matter if people have different opinions to me. But in this case the fact that those actually involved remain totally obvlivious to the mistake they made means they will do the same stupid thing again. In those circumstances I will be left with only one course of action. To do "A Trump" And change my National allegiance to support the Russians. At least they understand the bloody rules.

Yes they can. Not out of choice but that is what happens with 'feelings'. I have been one of them myself. My allegiance changed dramatically in 1986. I went from being an ultra committed Halifax fan of 15 years standing to being a very semi-detatched Bradford attendee in one winter. Being born and brought up in Halifax meant that Bradford was always 'somewhere else'. Not my town. Not my team. My team had gone. Of course my allegiance was severed all too permanently by KC 's death. So I will never know what would have happened over the ensuing years if he had lived. But within a couple of years i found a new Team at Belle Vue and left the Dukes behind. And was able to enjoy October 25, 1993 as a true born again Aces fanatic ... at Wolves with very little passing ...But a packed high energy crowd with so much at stake in Every race and last hear decider which we won. Making it the best meeting i have ever attended despite the racing being mediocre at best. The celebrations in the bar that night were about the team ... Not the track

Well. I would have thought that obvious. The 'artificial' contrived nature of what was being done meant that they were not teams with any real identity left once they were being run miles away from their 'home'. Having such good 'lcoal brand' transplanted elsewhere was/is just daft. People from Stoke wanted to see Stoke. Branding them as such may have worked; possibly.