RobMcCaffery

From that very web page: Speedway Grand Prix 30 April - Krsko, Slovenia 14 May - Warsaw, Poland 11 June - Horsens, Denmark 25 June - Prague, Czech Republic 9 July - Cardiff, UK 13 August - Malilla, Sweden 27 August - Gorzow, Poland 10 September - Teterow, Germany 24 September - Stockholm, Sweden 1 October - Torun, Poland 22 October - Melbourne, Australia Speedway World Cup 23 July: Event 1 - Vojens, Denmark 26 July: Event 2 - Vastervik, Sweden 29 July: Race off - Manchester, United Kingdom 30 July: Final - Manchester, United Kingdom They haven't paid much compared to other sports deals that they have. It's just a minor addition to their motor sports that doesn't start for nearly two months.

It's mentioned here: http://sport.bt.com/watch-now/programmes/live-motorsport-on-bt-sport-S11363897479214 if it's anything like the Moto GP coverage it won't be on BT Sport 1. Since some of their direct (no-Sky or Virgin) customers still get BT Sport 1 free they've been shifting more and more to their other channels. BT Sport 2 is likeliest but it's still nearly two months before the first programmes.

I have long appreciated your information and insight regarding Swedish Speedway, but if you really believe that the relationship between British Speedway and BSI is anything like that I really would suggest you stick to commenting on your own country since you clearly have no clue at all regarding matters here. The stupidity of your comment beggars belief. Sadly you're not the only one who's fallen for the One Sport parasite's propaganda. I really thought better of you. It has been pointed out ad nauseam that the BSPA have boycotted One Sport Events because they deplore yet more insignificant international open meetings being added to the calendar and conflicting with British Speedway. I am beginning to wonder if it is wilful ignorance, not only by yourself but of those who cannot see that British Speedway is fighting for its existence here. Whether you agree with the BSPA's attempts to protect 80+ years of racing in this country, especially at weekends, at least understand that the last people that the BSPA or indeed the British Speedway community would worry about upsetting is BSI whose activities have sucked the sport dry in this country. But then it's easier to make cheap jibes than think or listen, isn't it? One Sport may work hand-in-hand with Polish Speedway but to suggest that the relationship between BSI and the BSPA is similar is quite frankly beneath contempt.

Report on Olle Ahnstrom racing at 96. No doubt Scandinavian members are already familiar with the story. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35686704

Conversations wander. Sincerest apologies for spoiling your thread. So, what do YOU have to contribute regarding Coventry's new stadium? I hope it happens but can't see it happening in time for 2017. What do you think the prospects are like and for the Elite League TV deal with Sky if Coventry drop out next year, even if temporarily? Please do enlighten us since we so clearly need your expert guidance and insight.

I knew I should have looked there since it's such an excellent site. I'm not surprised about Arlington but I wonder if more closely resembled grasstrack back then? The dividing lines were so much more blurred back then. We're lucky to still have these stadia that have served our sport so well for so long. I miss those that have fallen by the way though, even Crayford ;-) I'm hating the idea that I'll now have to say goodbye to Brandon and Blunsdon this year since these places have been part of my life for decades and I'm only an occasional visitor. The instability of our sport can carry a very heavy price, as I found when my own beloved Rayleigh closed just as I had fallen in love with it and the great sport it hosted. We need to cherish what we have, while we have it.

I'm relieved to see that the excessively restrictive nature of the Go Speed/Sky deal regarding online media is recognised at the highest level and hopefully the same mistake won't be made again. There is absolutely no point in including online rights in a TV deal UNLESS they are to actually be used!

Apologies, the site I used as a source obviously is in error. Still, it was before Brough Park and would indeed appear to be the oldest.....

First meeting at Monmore Green, August 1928.

Sadly it wouldn't be the first time that the top level of the sport screws up and shafts the second tier to survive.

Proved emphatically by Poole's followers - as if they have made the success happen themselves.

Thank you for that essential assistance to those with severe relationship problems. I've heard of one of those programmes. Thankfully I have a device which records TV and I know where to hide the remote from Mrs McCaffery (it isn't her fault - she WAS a Hackney Hawks fan), so no problem with clashes and I can record the Ice Racing ;-) It's very useful, you know.... I note that Friday at 8 clashes with the Wales v France rugby match on BBC 1, Best Walks with a View with Julia Bradbury on ITV, All Loved-Up! 50 Singalong Hits on Magic TV, Ainsi Soient-Ils on TV5 Monde and crucially Cuimhneachan on BBC Alba. Nothing like a nice bit of Gaelic on your TV. I think I'll be in the pub. The second repeat is at 5.15 am on Saturday on Eurosport for shift workers, those with a sleep problem or at 7 am on Sunday on Eurosport 2 for those just getting in from a damn good night out. Coverage of Alma-Aty gets its airings: March 8th 10 am - Eurosport and 13.00 Eurosport 2 March 10th 11.15 and 21.50, both Eurosport. So, only one opportunity to fall out with your partner in prime time there, although there could be discord over Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Ancient Egypt: Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings, Running Wild with Bear Grylls on D-MAX or again, maddeningly the final ten minutes of Japan Railway Journal on NHK World. I suspect we will survive. It is the FIM production that was carried on Motors TV in previous years - no credits so unable to identify the production company (in-house FIM?) or commentator. Heats are heavily edited to get two days' racing into one hour.

Coverage of Krasnogorsk is on Eurosport 2 tonight at 21.25, repeated at various times over the next few days with round 2 set for early March.

68 more like. The Rockets started out in 1948 at Rayleigh. it's now 42 years since the move to Hoddesdon. Very sad to see the colours changed and doesn't indicate a great deal of understanding by the new owners, just making the two teams part of their wider motor sport brand. It's not the first time that the yellow and blue's been threatened - the Lea/Lee Valley Park Authority wanted us to change to the park's green, blue and white once. I'd suggest the supporters keep the colours and let the new owners see the folly of their decision for themselves. Obviously they're new to speedway and still have much to learn. Also sad to see John Sampford lose his job. He's one of the most loyal Rye House supporters and servants I know. Way before he was offered the job in the 1999 comeback season you always knew there would be at least one Rocket fan at a meeting, no matter how far away from home. Sadly shabby treatment of people is one of speedway's biggest problems. Eventually you run out of people to dump on.

How can it be an exclusive interview in the Echo if it's also going to be in the Speedway Star?

I'd rather have a thriving amateur sport than a dying, desperate professional one.

As long as the planes keep to an altitude of more than a few feet above track level the sport should be okay. If the plane's low enough to be affected by a horizontal laser beamed a couple of feet off the ground then I think there would be other more pressing problems to worry about

Someone was talking about 'forum dreamers'. It seems that if stevebrum wants something then everybody else does. He'd rather drag the sport into oblivion than accept great speedway can happen without 'names' riding round on their own, half a lap clear of the rest. Humphrey Appleby and BV72 have given impeccable explanations of the reality of the situation. Sadly characters such as stevebrum can only continue shouting wild assumptions into the wind. Yes we'll lose people him and that could well be a mercy for many. Why pander to people like him if the price is trying to maintain the current farce, dreaming that if we do a few simple things then the 'names' will come flocking back. British speedway needs to rebuild in a sustainable form. Double-upping, restricted race nights and pandering to the constant needs of Poland, BSI and One Sport will simply not do it. Time for a clean break and for people to realise that, pretty uniquely amongst team sports, you do not need the greatest talents to have the greatest level of competition. It's all about four riders racing four laps. Spending a fortune to use riders whose cost cannot be covered by the increase in crowds may attract is the economics of the madhouse. No matter how much hot air is blown, top riders are not in Britain because they can make far better money elsewhere. Rebuild, see if we an get crowd levels back to the point where we can offer good money, then see what happens. Best of all we lose one of the worst forum obsessive bores!

Agreed. Post deleted. Someone else can do the work.

I see, because the PL is far from healthy that makes the EL okay then? It's all relative but British speedway needs to find a SUSTAINABLE level rather than live in a dream world where a few simple things need to be done to make it all perfect and have all the 'names; return. This thread inhabits that dream world where tracks are begging to move into the EL. May I suggest you stick to Fantasy speedway leagues because you're doing nothing to help save the remains of the sport in Britain. The crowds do not justify flying riders in from all around the world anymore. I wouldn't expect you to see the bigger picture but I'd have hoped the Wolves fans might have been a little more clued-up. Just because you want things to be a certain way doesn't mean all you have to do is shout and demand for it to happen. As ever, the situation is a damn sight more complex than your sad, simplistic approach. Look beyond the end of your nose for God's sake. Yes the PL has problems but far less than the appalling mess that is the EL - living on past glories and thinking that something 'will come up'. If your only defence of the situation is 'Well the other league has problems" then the EL really does have no future.

So, having screwed up their own league the EL now wants to strip several PL tracks of their race nights and wreck that league too? Tracks moving 'up'. Why should anyone join a sinking ship? I'm sure the supporters of King's Lynn and Leicester will be delighted right now their teams did it given their inability to recruit number ones. You can solve everything by moving to Thursdays and Fridays? The riders will queue up to return? Dream on.

You're quite right, but then we can see a farce a mile off. This 'World' event features European teams only and draws on a pool of riders many of whom who could easily qualify to represent all four qualifying teams in extreme instances. How can you take an event seriously when the winners could easily be determined by which of their riders are allowed to race for them and not their other team that might also be in it? Before anyone plays the 'progress' card, we've seen more than enough 'progress' in international events, to the point where our upper league is on the brink of collapse. No, the 'British lot' aren't generally interested, and why the hell should we be? The sport doesn't 'progress' by killing off one of its major leagues with a near 90 year old history. which is all these tinpot events are doing. Of course if you are based in a country where you stage as many speedway meetings in a year as we do in a week you might be enthralled by it all.

Sounds like a nasty outbreak of the Hokey Cokey...... ;-)

That's exactly the correct approach to take. It's all very volatile, but then the streamers are constantly having to dodge the copyright holders. Unfortunately many don't realise the questionable status of it all and end up wasting money on something they expect to be as reliable as legitimate boxes.

Enough to cover their costs? Let me know how you get to see clubs' profit and loss accounts.........