RobMcCaffery

Poole is based in a rather larger well-off conurbation than Somerset or Peterborough (or Scunthorpe) and has a much longer history so such a simplistic comparison is not valid. I find it sad that people believe that good racing is not important. Not all teams can win! I do suspect though that the support left in the sport follows wins and names, not the quality of racing. Perhaps that's a symbol of the appalling state of affairs across the sport? When the wins stop coming then what happens?

This is the Eurosport that has a contract for weekly live Swedish League racing and has managed to find time to show about four live meetings so far since May? This is the same Eurosport that showed after-meeting chat from a bike racing event rather than the first few heats of one of their own European Championship meetings? This is the same Eurosport that relegated DGP and SWC events to Quest and failed to show the rearranged SWC Final live? They may have the deals at the moment but their scheduling is chaotic.

Each to their own. I used to work in football and was sickened by the attitude of too many 'fans' so when I see it happening in speedway, albeit a long distance away I keep my viewing to TV and keep well clear of the appalling atmosphere of hatred and violence. People excused football for years saying "it's just a minority" then Sky protected its investment by playing it down. I leave it to others - my interests lie in speedway, not hating and threatening the opposition. Some like that though......sadly.

I watched all three and all had the same unacceptable bias. What's your point?

An atmosphere of aggression and conflict like football that needs not only to segregate fans but also 'pre-register' them before certain flashpoint matches? An atmosphere where supporters earn their clubs fines for violent conduct? An atmosphere where fans invade the track during a race to steal the opposition's flag? Lovely! If that's success give me failure any day. No thank you, no matter what the racing!

And people are envious of Polish Speedway?

80,000 crowd+, Wembley atmosphere and knowing that one rider out of sixteen would be crowned World Champion on the night. It's not that difficult to understand, eh? (Okay, as long as you didn't eat, drink or go to the loo).

Factoring in fixed set-up costs in costing travel expenses works fine when dealing with the Revenue or your finance department when making an expense claim but in the real world such costs are irrelevant. My tax and insurance are charged whether I travel one inch a year or 25,000 miles. That to me is sunk cost. Yes the car suffers wear and tear and depreciation over a journey but driving a knackered 53-reg Peugeot it's minimal, so my realistic marginal cost is just my fuel and a bit of oil which I could calculate but my cost per hour for such things. while it won't make me rich would cost ;-) We all have our professional standards..... To me, a trip to speedway costs me about 15p per mile in practical terms. Of course in accountancy you can load costs in to inflate this but after 35 years working ion Finance, what would I know? If I load things like opportunity cost in I could easily beat SCB's rather artificial figure. As for high insurance quotes, it does rather rely on the driver's history doesn't it? Perhaps SCB has something to tell us, apart from telling us what a wonderful car he has? Now, while we're on cost accounting, anyone like to work out the cost of posting all this? If so, please do it in private ;-) (Of course if I were ferrying old Williamson around it's £1.50 per mile, if only to cover the cost of cleaning out the ashtrays afterwards.....) Regarding dedicated fans I must point out that back in the late 70s when the family moved from Essex up to Cradley country I used to sneak back to Rye House on Sundays in defiance of the family's 'new start'. If there was a match at, say Canterbury on the Saturday I used to sleep in the Rye House car park on the Saturday night. This is not why it's full of potholes by the way. Apart from being disturbed by the police usually about 4 am it tended to go well although the loos were terrifying enough in daylight. In the morning I used to get woken by a very confused Hugh Saunders who was in charge of track preparation back then, rising hourly through the night to water the track. I'd get invited into the shed at the back of the pits for a breakfast. Not the most extreme piece of fan dedication but just an example of how stupid you can be when you're young ;-)

It happened to me in a European Cup football qualifier at MTK Budapest back in about 2000, against Rosenberg, I think. They were losing - and certainly lost when it was re-staged the following night. Obviously UEFA had taped up the off switch ;-)

He wouldn't be the first person to have been moved on after a failure, even if it is to a more prominent position. Sometimes you just need to move people. Of course it's not a demotion and I didn't suggest that, and if people could think before they typed they'd realise that, but it does get someone away from a toxic situation. If you're going to have a go at least read the comment properly first. That was not said. Nice try but no cigar.

Direct personal experience of consumer prices. In the south east of England the gap might be narrower these days but outside that economic bubble the difference is stark. If you want me to quote academic research this is a lame sports forum not an academic discussion! If you want as pointless, petty argument I'm, sure BWitcher will be more than pleased to accommodate you.

Shires has a town called Scunthorpe firmly in his editorial area so Tai is a local story. He has no excuse. Seeing the amounts of references to East Anglia I'd say this is either from BBC East in Norwich or BBC Radio Suffolk in Ipswich. The attitude in certain regions is much more positive than in the national BBC Sport service in Salford. Not seen Noddy in ages! I remember pulling into the car park at Vetlanda for the Intercontinental Final in 1982 saying to the driver "Well, this is one place we won't see Noddy." One look at the guy guiding the car parking proved me wrong....

I very much doubt an ultra-professional body like IMG would have been too impressed by Warsaw.

It is indeed a completely different set-up and near impossible to compare to the usual British model of a sole promoter renting a stadium commercially.

I lifted my block on this character temporarily out of curiosity. It is tempting to suggest that the poster's poison comes largely from the point of view of a Wolves fan hating the Cradley hero. Cue the self-serving waffle...... Block replaced.

Not necessarily a great thing considering the fortnights only last four months. Would people here really want a season of 6-8 home meetings? It's about cost per meeting, not per season. After all the cheapest speedway is 0 meetings.

You also have to factor in the high cost of living in Sweden so in real terms that SEK 170/GBP 13.70 admission charge is relatively even cheaper for a Swede than for us.

I'm advocating a return to the success of years ago, but not necessarily by the same methods. We have allowed costs to spiral and that has to be rectified. Without that there is no point in bringing the sport into the 2010s if it's breathing its last. We learn from the past without re-creating it.

He relies on phrases like "going off in a huff" or "throwing toys out of pram" because he can't realise that people aren't interested in feeding his ego, or more likely relieving his bordeom, by getting into one of his 'debates' which in fact are nothing of the sort. He just looks for everything he can dispute, picking petty holes and claiming it's intelligent debate. Then when people quite naturally walk away in disgust he uses his stock phrases to try to belittle them. Sometimes I feel like taking him off block and turning him inside out because I could if I could be bothered. I'm not. I prefer speedway to provoking arguments which must then be 'won'. It's sad really. Anyway, time to think of the sport and not sad figures like him. He makes no contribution to the sport or this forum. Now, regarding speedway, I suspect realisation is finally beginning to dawn that the sport as it is currently constituted form is coming to the end of its life. It will live on, as it usually does but financial reality will eventually arrive. The sport in Britain has to be reconstituted as a semi-pro sport which owes nobody a living and where outgoings are kept below income. If certain riders and name-obsessed supporters are lost then so be it, as long as the changes give us a sustainable base from which the sport can be re-grown. We have to offer a value for money night (ir afternoon) out, with a regular fixture list and credible teams. We need to find new talent and give them a sport they can afford to compete in. We need to take the appalling strain out of the sport. I've worked at a dying track and know just how much strain is created. British speedway is exhausted in trying to find dates on which to race, finding the money to pay the riders, desperately finding a way to win and keep a crowd. No wonder there's no forward thinking, survival is the only consideration. We need to re-shape the sport on a cheaper basis, but most of all it once more needs to be fun - for ALL. But what would I know, it's the likes of BWitcher who have all the answers.......don't they?

Such a charmer. Okay I've run this through Google Translate and got it into some form of readable English. Defamation is not subject to prosecution since it is subject to civil, not criminal law. I suppose if people want to post stupid, reckless allegations about fraud in a public forum why should anyone try to help protect them from their stupidity? Sadly 'billy bollocks' didn't get through the translator. Good luck with your efforts to learn English. I'm sure you'll get there eventually. I think it's becoming pretty apparent why the whole Exeter saga failed to produce a new track.

Utter rubbish. There is no point in carrying on a conversation with people who'll insist black is white just to have a good argument. That's not debate. Typical post. Carry on like this and your audience will be just the other trolls.

There are still plenty of small bus and coach hire companies who could lay on a cheap bus like the one used by Hackney - obviously a newer 'banger' though. What helped the Hackney situation was that it was operated by Sampson Coaches, run by Peter Sampson, a former rider who went on to found Paradise Park, the home of the speedway museum. It helps if the operator's a friend of the sport. At the other end of the scale, one of the best-regarded operator of coaches in the UK is Parry's International which of course is well-known at Wolverhampton. Dave Parry was a Wolves junior who rode with Phil Crump at Crewe. There's no way you could describe one of his fine coaches as a banger though.

The fact that its's notable that all EL tracks ran a meeting in the same week in the height of summer shows what a desperate situation we are in. Weekly speedway, 30 meetings a year. How did we ever manage? Isn't 'the future' wonderful?

It's a haven of peace and logic compared to the toxic EL section Al. I get the impression Phil's run out of moderators. Mind you, they wouldn't be needed if many people here used both their brain cells.

Branford won the British under-21 Championship in 2013 so isn't exactly unknown and has been riding over here since 2010. I think he stayed at home last year though. Although born in Adelaide he has dual nationality through his mother. His father, Darrell also rode. As mentioned above he doubles up in the PL with Edinburgh and the NL with Rye House. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Branford