AndyM

Thanks for the update. Can't wait to see Ken back in action for the Aces next year. Sure Ian will be plotting on the quiet and we'll be none the worse for our traumatic end to the season.

Congratulations to Kenneth. We'd feared he might be out for an entire season, so this news is most welcome. Get well soon - we look forward to seeing you back in Aces colours, hopefully in March.

Just thinking ahead - this might help force the UK to adopt squad system and more home grown riders in reserve positions. After all, it might be embarrassing for the system if a rider was scheduled to ride for two teams in the same competition, but we only had guest or RR facilities to substititute!

Wholly in favour. It would add interest to the domestic programme, which in the case of EL is verging on boring when you're up against the same teams and riders repeatedly, without excessive disruption. If successful, it couild be expanded and hopefully we'll eventually reach the stage where there is a genuine European superleague. As for the economic viability, with riders travelling around Europe already it wouldn't necessarily make that much difference - if organised effectively. Much more productive to have the leagues collaborating than in virtual competition and conflict, as we currently have.

The two are not mutually exclusive. If there is interest in other countries, it should be encouraged by the wider speedway fraternity. But it's still the job of the BSPA to get its own house in order in the UK, SVEMO in Sweden etc. Or did you think the BSPA might move to expand its own territories by admitting clubs from elsewhere - how about Ireland, France and Italy so we can emulate RU!!

Totally agree with Kevin about the risks from divorcing GP from their grass roots, but still interested in the notion of sponsored GP 'teams' - which could in theory be the result of a collaboration between, say, UK and Polish league teams. Wasn't Jimmy Nilsen going to set up a team of GP riders a couple of years ago? Did anything ever come of that, because I haven't heard anything since.

Admittedly I've seen them most often at Coventry, but Sandy Lane is reasonably wide - I'd have thought it was great to watch them fence-scraping there!

Sidecars made appearances quite often and have been excellent - why on earth do you think they aren't a spectacle? They've often provided better entertainment than the speedway match. Maybe that's the problem!!

Oh yes? Who made the rule that football fans can't watch speedway or vice versa? Everybody is unique and has the potential to be attracted to a sport. Attract people in their formative years and you could easily win a fan for life, regardless of their other preferred interests.

Entonian, you're evidently a person after my own heart. Speedway doesn't take marketing seriously. That's a point I've made repeatedly over the years, to which answers have never been forthcoming from the people that count. Real marketing expertise to segment and target the right potential audience for speedway could make a huge difference to how effectively new punters are attracted and sustained. And the beauty is, it doesn't need to cost a lot of money - but does need some time, thought and effort. A few of us proposed to do something very similar for Belle Vue but were rejected by the (then) promotion. However, in terms of the design and implementation of a marketing campaign, I think it's been all too passive for far too long. Time the sport was a lot more proactive and started a guerilla marketing campaign - the sort Nike, Coca Cola and other corporates are noted for, but which could be launched at any level in any locality by any organisation with a mind to blitz the competition. And our competition is any alternative form of leisure activity. What sort of energy for a fight do we have?

Very true! Highlights my point about the expertise up there at Rugby, or rather the lack of it...

If that were the case, speedway would be getting 70,000 attendances and football scraping together 1,500 for a top fixture. We've got to stop kidding ourselves that this is a top class product we run that will appeal to the masses. It's got to be a massive leap in entertainment value if we expect speedway to win kudos and become a sexy sport to watch. I say that more in sorrow than in anger - for all the quality racing enjoyed by afficianados, the sport will die out sooner or later at league level if it isn't improved radically.

Whether he deserves to be there or not is now irrelevant. Promising rider, not yet the complete article. Has to learn the GP psychology, for sure, but shouldn't be any worse than other newcomers.

A challenge to stave off the boredom of their NEDs! I did hint that someone with sporting experience was desirable, but the management competencies are more vital. Ensuring there are no ulterior motives is the principle reason why I suggested a retired businessman.

Whether or not you find football tedious, it provides a lot more for the paying customer than your average speedway match. You can see some matches with 15 minutes of entertainment in little more than an hour and a half. OK for my mother, who would use the time to catch up with her backlog of newspapers to read, but many new fans would walk away shaking their heads and saying "is that it?" Time for promoters to make better use of the interval between races, other than the occasional cheerleaders and bad interviews? As for the senior figure we need to provide effective vision, I reckon we'd be much better off choosing someone from outside speedway to provide genuine management competencies and perspective from other sports - something of a Bernie Ecclestone without the ripping off. Even a retired PLC chairman, someone well-versed in planning and taking vital decisions. We have to be realistic and say that speedway is in the state it's in because we don't have those skills already.

How would they qualify? There's apparently no qualification mechanism other than arcane selection in a closed room, presumably by Ole and his BSI cronies! They've specifically rejected anything like the GP Challenge. And it's not picking out of a hat - it's selection to criteria known only to those who do the selecting.

And indeed their GP prospects if they screw up one night. The greater the risks, the greater the tension, the greater the spectacle. Protect the top 8 if you must (I'd restrict it to the top 3 myself), and weight it if you want, but it must be free, fair and open for ANY rider to fight their way through. After all, if Boris Becker had been subject to the GP restrictions, he'd never have won Wimbledon as an unseeded teenager!

I thought the world championship was supposed to be contested by the best fit and available riders? This is a complete farce of a selection process. If they wanted to freshen up the process, the only way to do it is for ALL places to be contested in qualification meetings.

Conspiracy theories abound.... The more open the process, the less liable to corruption and misinterpretation.

Totally arbitrary decision, whether you view it in terms of GP performances, league form or any other way. Unjustifiable other than through sheer prejudice rather than merit (ie. Zagar's selection was pre-determined - they only had to choose who they liked least of the remainder!)

I was fully expecting a statement of this sort from at least one rider, and probably more - though not necessarily Andersen. Whenever decisions are taken by a secret selection process, howls of anguish at the injustices caused are inevitable, and won't go away until the process is explained in full. Why does it need to be so secretive at all? Time to return to a fair and square on the track qualification process that no-one can argue with.

As part of their review, the promoters - or the sort of representative with the requisite qualities - have to take a long, hard look at what the viable number of profitable speedway tracks is likely to be in a few years time. Encouraging as many as possible to enter and join EL now is all very well, but if costs are continuing to rise it's not going to help them when the same clubs start to die off...as they very well might. Kev - any idea what sort of person we're talking about? Can't think of anybody within speedway, myself. Also, I think Chief Executive might be a better title than Commissioner - implies accountability and authority. Not much point having a visionary Commissioner if their recommendations are simply going to be ignored by the metaphorically blind!

Doesn't operate with any concept of equal shares these days, does it? In the days of the individual world final, every country was allocated a turn to run the final. Frustrating but fair. I guess it's more to do with the revenues these days?

Perhaps, like F1 tracks, the competition will go to the highest bidding venue? What might Swindon fork out for the honour of hosting the world cup?

But if you remember the England sides of the past sitting uncomfortably for photographs in their matching slacks, blazer, white shirt and striped tie in an effort to look professional? Think they'd have been happier in jeans and donkey jackets!