Rico

We're in the same boat. I tried a few times to get through and was actually on hold to speak to the ONE person who is dealing with the buses. I got cut off after over 8 minutes waiting :twisted: I ended up e-mailing the lady directly and if I haven't heard anything back by later on today I'll be trying again. The e-mail address on the site is pernilla.larsson@svemo.se although previous correspondence with her shows it as pernilla@svemo.se - assuming I do hear back from them I will post on here what I find out. It looks like from www.svemo.se that the Avesta stadium has the capacity for 2000 seating and 8000 standing. Also looks like they have chopped the ticket prices a bit as it looks like 450kroner for a seat and 300kroner for the terracing. I fear pandemonium on Saturday night ! Rico

taken from www.speedwaygp.com Good to see that they are arranging transport for the fans based in Stockholm. 26-05-03 CHANGE OF VENUE FOR NEXT GRAND PRIX Benfield Sports International (BSI) today announced they have been forced to change the venue of the FIM Meridian Lifts Swedish Speedway Grand Prix on 31 May from the Olympic Stadium, Stockholm, to the Avesta Stadium, Brovallen, Sweden. Rolf Sundberg, Secretary General, SVEMO, commented: “We have had no choice but to move the Grand Prix to Avesta as it appears the strike action here in Sweden will not be over for some time yet. We have now put our contingency plans into action and the Grand Prix will be held 150km from Stockholm at Avesta Stadium, Brovallen. “Tickets already bought for the event are still valid and we have made special transport arrangements for fans wanting to travel from Stockholm to Avesta Stadium. Supporters who wish to take advantage of this transport offer must call SVEMO on +46 11 23 10 80 to reserve a seat. A full ticket refund will be given to those who have already purchased tickets but cannot attend the event and his can also be arranged by contacting SVEMO on +46 11 23 10 80 before Saturday.” John Postlethwaite, Chief Executive, Benfield Sports International, said: “Obviously it is disappointing that for reasons totally beyond our control the Grand Prix will not be held at the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm. I would like to take this opportunity to thank SVEMO and the people of Avesta for arranging the Grand Prix to be held at an alternative venue at such short notice. “I’m sure the evening will be a great success and I can assure all broadcaster and sponsor partners that our usual high quality broadcast for the event will be fully in place. I think this is another example of the resilience of people in the sport of speedway who have a never-say-die attitude in the manner in which we run our sport. I’m looking forward to a great night of Grand Prix action on Saturday.

Party (and believe me, we are going to ) of 5 heading out 2 weeks tomorrow to Poland. Staying a couple of nights in Warsaw then heading down to our base camp in Krakow where we are staying for 5 nights. As for the GP, I hope Gollob puts in a good performance - he doesn't seem as well liked down there as he is in his home town. The crowd were not happy with his performance last year. Hopefully the track will be better than last year. It will have had another 8 months to bed in so hopefully it won't rut up in the same way it did. Prediction - Crump, Gollob, Rickardsson, Richardson and 7 x 5 hangovers. Rico

Or better still Rico will come to you 8) Bydgoszcz - aaah speedway heaven ! :twisted: We fly into Warsaw (worth a couple of days sightseeing for sure) either on Lot or BA, depends who is cheapest at the time. Train from Warsaw Central to Bydgoszcz takes around 4 hours (http://www.polrail.com/pkprozklad.html for timetables.) As for accomodation, we are booked into the Pod Orlem (http://www.hotelewpolsce.com.pl/podorlem.htm), a beautiful hotel, which is around £50 per room per night including breakfast. Other options are City Hotel (http://www.polhotels.com/Bydgoszcz/City/index2.htm) which is more modern and slightly closer to the track. Again this is around the £50 per room mark - this one does have the added advantage of being above the club where all the riders etc go after the meeting (I include our party in the etc ) In the past I have stayed at the Ratuszowy (http://www.polhotels.com/Bydgoszcz/Ratuszowy/) which is a bit cheaper and far more basic than the others I have mentioned, but we had no complaints - depends on your taste. There are plenty of other hotels, just give the web a search and you should come up with something to suit. You'll probably find some of the hotels fully booked for the GP, but rooms in the good hotels usually come available late on. As someone else has mentioned there is usually an Extraleague match on reasonably locally on the Sunday - Torun is apparently a beautiful town and well worth going to early (unless like last year when it was rained off - we asked the taxi driver to take us back into town, but he dropped us back off at the train station, so we headed straight back to Bydgoszcz.) Have also been to Pila which is about the same distance as Torun. If you need anything specifically give me a shout. The Rough Guide or similar also comes in handy when over there. Poland is a good place to go - I guess that's why I keep going back. Roll on Katowice ! Rico :roll: