New Science

As long as you can retain your profit margin you don't need to sell double the amount of programs

Why does he keep calling Edinburgh the Monarks

I do buy a speedway star,just trying to give the promoters some feedback as to why I don't buy the event program anymore.I'm sure I'm not the only one

Got to agree with this post ! Been to every GP at Cardiff and used to buy a program.I havn't bought one for the last 5 years now as the price has ramped up and alot of the information, rider profiles and particularly GP statistics are exactly the same every year.Went to the ICC champions trophy cricket at Edgbaston yesterday,program 82 pages,full colour,good interviews and interesting stats,all for £5.If i'm ever going to buy a program at Cardiff again this is what I'm looking for.

I was thinking this but thought it was only me,Pearson and Tatum sounded really remote especially when their voices were raised and the sound from the bikes was minimal

It seems the selection of Chris Harris as wild card was on a need to know basis.The people who didn't need to know were 1, the riders, as some may have declined to ride in the semi finals(a BSPA fundraiser as Scott Nicholls puts it),2 the fans (most who think it takes away something away from the meeting)and 3 the national team manager who should have been consulted but was in the dark like the rest of us.If this decision was taken last October then it should have been communicated but wasn't until the week before the final to limit the fallout of what was an unpopular decision all round.BSPA havn,t come out of this in a great light

Or SKY are getting a bit of payback for dropping the GP coverage

Seems only in Britain there is no need to consult anybody,Bsi will just pick the wild card they want.Don't know anybody who didn't think the Cardiff carrot didn't add something to the British final. If Chris Harris deserves the wild card he should race for it like everyone else,Don't know how anyone can defend this decision !

Racing really picked up in the 2nd half of the meeting,hope not too many switched off after the first hour.Crowd was pitiful can't see this venue staging another GP.Well done Emil great win in such tragic circumstances ! Has anyone noticed the Gorzow sponsorship seems to have disappeared,was very prominent at the GP but haven't seen their logo at the last 2 GP's

Holy Allen rides for Cuventry

Great GP last night on a very well prepared track,congratulations to everyone involved ! Tai Woffinden boy those engines are good,great to see him involved at the sharp end of the meeting.I think someone fed you some duff information on it being a sell out Phil !

Might be an idea to have Auckland,Prague and Terranzano as the first 3 GP,s to get them out of the way

Shame the GP didn't catch fire until as late as heat 20,the rest was pretty processional.Watched the repeat,coverage was ok as was the commentary.Encouraged by Tai's performance,his bikes looked quick,think Darcy will be a real contender this year.It will be interesting to see how the finances add up for this GP compared to last year.It just seems a long way to go for 2 good races !

Ryan, a true master of the Showground,remember seeing him clinch a world cup for Australia at Peterborough,will be remembered with fondness by Peterborough and Torun fans.Best of luck for what he decides to do in the future !

Why is every one hell bent on shrinking speedway,already we have ditched a full set of B fixtures in the Elite league,ditched the Craven Shield and now finally ditched the Knock out cup,now people are advocating loosing 2 heats in a regular meeting,soon there will be nothing left of the sport.

Must feel like being at confession Phil,didn't here you describing Sky as" very stale" when the talks for the Sky contract renewal was ongoing. Appreciate you may be on a gagging order not to criticise the powers that be(BSPA,BSI,FIM,Ole Olsen,Nigel Pearson etc)At least in the past couple of days we have learnt your real opinions on Sky SGP coverage and speedway's possible European cup after both were scrapped this week.

Strange you didn't share this opinion before it was cancelled !

Can't be long before the White Knight gets his teeth into this thread !

Could be embarrassing for Nigel and Kelvin on a Monday night if Sky have no GP highlights to show.Might be a John Cleese moment "don't mention the speedway GP,I mentioned it earlier but I think I got away with it "

With regards to the sports you mention,it looks from the outside as if Sky are actually increasing their coverage of rugby and darts.A new deal has been signed to further increase coverage of the Autumn internationals and darts are expanding the size of its Premier league to 10 players over 16 weeks to sit alongside the 6 tournaments it covers live already.Darts is revelling in everything speedway doesn't have,sell out crowds,bulging sponsorship,improving product.rapidly increasing prize money and healthy viewing figures,cant see Sky wanting to detach itself with the sport growing so rapidly.As for snooker Sky only has a small stake with only 2 tournaments,snooker has 2 existing contracts with BBC and Eurosport,and can survive without Sky.Sky have the reputation of going after the sports they want hard(formula 1) and leaving the rest what they don't(6 nations rugby as an example).As for U.S sport a new contract for NBA has been stuck alongside the current NFL contract.If speedway is to be lumped with the other sports of ten pin bowling and show jumping then things are desperate. Personally I like watching the GP coverage although I don't think the current Elite league fare shows the sport in a great light,lets hope it doesn't have a negative effect on the GP deal and Sky still consider speedway desirable,so a new deal can be done .

Which are the other sports to be cut back on sky ?

Was the writing on the wall for speedway last year when it was pushed out to sky sports 4 and then even shunted further to the red button at short notice if say the county cricket ran over.Over the last 18 months there has 16 rights renewals involving sky sports to increase coverage of football,cricket,rugby,golf,formula 1 and minority sports such as British Basketball (not exactly what you would call cutbacks).With falling viewers reported for League and G.P coverage maybe its just a case of SKY feeling its not beneficial to them any more .Also worrying that SKY has now chosen attractive Super League rugby fixtures to directly oppose Monday night speedway coverage.Hopefully SKY will show the GP because if the coverage does go,the league could follow,resulting even more loss of revenue that promoters that can ill afford !Some posters may say its the change that the sport needs but the admission costs would not diminish just the quality of the participants.

There is an Italian GP because they are prepared to pay for it ! if your prepared to put up the readies you can have one where you want !

Didn't know there was any problem with the current silencer ?

Watch any match race in a testimonial, the 2 riders are always close and equally matched(even in they are from a different generation) because that's what it is an exhibition ,not real racing.Gunnar Karlsson beat his 3 sons,Peter,Mikael and Magnus at Peter's testimonial,it was an exhibition.