Bavarian

POLAND v AUSTRALIA on Thursday, May 1, is transmitted LIVE on polish tv channel nSport, starts at 16.45 UK time.

I don't think they will get it on tv here in Germany, ayway. Sport 1+ say they would be prepared to show it again, if they get it for free, as was the case in the past three years. No other tv-station is really interested since speedway is such a minority sport here in Germany, that hardly anyone knows it exists at all. So, BSI/IMG, please make the official SGP live stream available here in Germany, as long long as there is no tv coverage. The live stream is still blocked out here in Germany!

Pretty tough qualifyers, with only four from Leicester, and five each from Terenazano and Stralsund going through. There will be some cracking racing in these junior meetings.

No one knows, not even here in Germany. The officials (DMSB) surpirse us every year with something stupid (much like Your BSPA), and this year we have got a Heat 0 in the Bundesliga. For better undersatnding, we had 14 heats in the Bundesliga up until last year, but this year a fifteenth heat was added. But instead of re-numbering the heats from 1 to 15, they go from 0 (zero) to 14.

Poole would probably be without Holder on May 10, as he rides in the SBP at Landshut. But would Eastbourne agree to postoned the league meeting?

And at Bydgoszcz they certainly dislike the chosen wild card Adrain Miedzinksi, who is a TORUN rider ! I will never understand why Miedzinski got in. A terrible choice! And the question is "why" choose him? He is already quite sure of getting another wild card in Torun as well. Why is he treated so favourably? There's lots of other exciting Polish riders (Buczkowski is just one of them), there are many more. Anyway, in Bydgoszcz they love to hate everything that comes from Torun, and Miedzinksi will not feel at home there.

OneSport's propaganda against the SGP is very much to blame here. A gerneral anti-SGP feeling was created by the propaganda in Poland during the winter and many people have said they would boycott the SGPs. Interest among the Polish fans for the SGP has fallen to an all-time low this year. This was evident even in the first round in NZ, with a lot less Poles traveling, compared to the past two years. Gollob is gone and there are only two Polish riders in the GP series. Neither of tehm has much charisma. Hampel was very mediocre in NZ and Kasprzak, even though riding exceptionally well, is a rider who has not a lot fans and followers even in Poland. Perhaps it is also a question of ticket prices at Bydgoszcz being set too high.

To Your information the SEC Quali was set for May 4 at Rivne in the Ukraine. This has been cancelled due to the polticial situation in the Ukraine, and Daugavpils has now taken over this meeting, but at later date which is May 17th.

Thank You, DutchGrassTrack, I am not alone and a reminder to f-s-p : the title of this particular thread here is "Gp's not on German tv"

Not sure what You want to tell me. In my country I can watch EUROSPORT free of charge all year long 24 hours a day, so that is what I call free tv.

EUROSPORT is free to watch on the European Continent, except maybe in Scandinavia and the UK, who may have seperate versions of Europsort in their countries. We also have EUROSPORT 2, which is not available free to view but only via cable and You have to pay to view it. In Germany we have the regular version of EUROSPORT, which is available in most Euroepan countries, except Scandinavia and the UK, who get their own special versions of Eurosport. It is likely that Poland is the stumbling block for EUROSPORT coverage of the SGP and SWC, because afaik they have the same (regular) version of EUROSPORT in their country as we have here in Germany, and in other countries such as France, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Russia, and all the other Southern and Eastern European nations.

Indeed, EUROSPORT is the key to success, as is proven by the OneSport SEC and SBP coverage on Eurosport, which has instantly reached fantastic viewing figures all over Europe. That is not because the SEC or Best Pairs are a more attractive product compared to the SGP and SWC, certainly not. It is simply because EUROSPORT is the perfect platform, as it is available to pretty much every ordinary person all over Continental Europe, who has a tv set at home. With Sport 1 + (pay-tv) for example it was never going to be a success when they showed the SGP and SWC in the past three years, because not many people in Germany can view this channel. I coud not, and I had to visit a friend everytime they showed a Grand Prix. Then they often showed it not live, but only delayed coverage, and sometimes after midnight or even on a monday morning a 7 o'clock. Hardly surprising that their viewing figures for speedway were so bad. Oh, and I forgot to add that their commentator was a nut. Sport 1 (free-tv) is a very unpleasant tv channel, but could possibly show the speedway. They won't, though. They will show all kind of rubbish programme as long as they can make money with it. The programme is full of poker, sports fishing and similarly idiotic "sports", and their call-in shows run for hours, and the late-night adult adverts are really showing this channel's true identity. BSI / IMG should do all they can to get the SGP and SWC on EUROSPORT, this would be the key to success, as is proven by the success that OneSport had with their inferior product of the SEC and SBP, which has by far better viewing rates than the much superior product that is the SGP and SWC. There are not many other German tv channels possible for speedway. I agree that SERVUS TV would be very good, but their close connection with Red Bull may be a problem, although they did show some of the World Ice Racing Championship a couple of years ago. Their free to view weekly live coverage of the German (DEL) and the Austrian (EBEL) ice hockey leagues is first class. Other than Sport 1 (and their pay-for-view programme Sport 1+) and Servus TV, there is of course the big pay-tv network of SKY Germany. They show sports, but as far as I know only the premium sports, such as football, formula one and golf. Not sure if they do show anything else, as I have never been a subscriber to pay-tv, and I really don't care about f1, football or golf. iris writes, that many speedway fans in Germany are using the live streams on the internet, which is probably true for the dedicated fans, such as him and myself, but with hacked live-streams (the official SGP live stream is still not available in Germany!!!) the sport will never reach a decent number of viewers and will never reach the general sports fan in this country. The media in Germany does not take notice of a sport that is not present on the screen. I was very disappointed that my local newspaper did not even mention Smolinski's GP win, or that there is such a thing called Speedway Grand Prix at all. There was simply nothing, nada, niete in the German press and I have not heard it mentioned in any of the sports programmes on tv. Smolinski's GP win in New Zealand was one of the great moments in German motorsports history, and hardly anybody in this country noticed it. What a shame and what a wasted opportunity.

Back on topic - the fact is that not a lot of people in Germany were able to watch the NZ Grand PRix and see Martin Smolinski's fantastic victory. There was no tv coverage at all in Germany, not even highlights were shown on German tv. And it was not even possible to watch the official SGP live stream on the internet because access from Germany to this stream was blocked out. What a shame ! Smolinski's win in New Zealand was one of the major sporting sensations in recent years, but the Geman public, currently taking a little bit of notice of Speedway, thanks to the free tv coverage of the SEC and the Speedway Best Pairs, have no chance to see Smolinski in the SGP or the SWC. Anyone here in Germany wanting to see it has to use illegal internet streams or watch it on foreign tv stations, if available. Not many want or have the chance to do this.

and could we ask if the live stream on the sgp site will be made available for Germany, now that no tv station in our country covers this event. We want to seee Smoli in NZ !

Hideaki Ota is Japan's one and only active speedway rider of the 2000s. He rode in California for a few years and was last seen riding in a speedway meeting at Ivan Mauger's short lived Malaysian venture a few years ago. Malaysia is of course another speedway outpost. Some thought it could become a future stop-over for the SGP series, but sadly it did not take off and was all over after just one season.

Well, it IS a great surprise after all the hazzle about Kylmäkorpi on a SVEMO License. There was every indication that Timo Lahti would get the Tampere wild card. Anyway I think Kylmäkorpi is the better choice and he deserves this Finnish GP wildcard.

The rider in question is Mariusz Fierlej, and the Polish team to ride against Wittstock comes from Opole.

Does nobody remember that the Poles have already tried something similar before and failed? About ten years ago they held the SGP in the then national stadion, the Slaski Stadium in Chorzow (Katowice) and could not fill it, even though the capacity of teh stadium has been much reduced since the times of the 1973 and 1979 world finals at this same place. Warsaw has proven to be difficult territory for speedway. There is a speedway stadium in town, but it is not in use anymore. They tried to establish a league team in Warsaw, but it did not get enough support.

They show today's ice Assen racing meeting right now on Eurosport (Continetal version). It is heat 5 now coming up. There have been several crashes in the first round of heats already, with Bauer injured in a spectacular crash in heat 2.

The real cause of this unholy "war" between IMG/BSI and OneSport is in the recent restructuring of the FIM and its respective continental sub-organisations such as the FIM Europe (formerly the UEM). Competencies wre not clearly defined before and the FIM could not accept that FIM Europe, at a lower level, could sell a quite similar product, the SEC, at a ridiculously low price to OneSport, while BSI/IMG had to pay the FIM a seven-figure sum each year for the exclusive rights on the SGP and SWC. FIM had to act to protect their paying customer and make sure of the exclusiveness of the product SGP/SWC. FIM are rather furious with what certain people at UEM / FIM Europe have done and have now made it clear what their competencies actually are. FIM Europe can not operate at the same level (world level) as the FIM. With a European centred sport like speedway this is a problem. This had not been made clear enough in the past and has unfortunately led to the current situation with BSI/IMG and OneSport both having bought the rights for what would in effect be a rather similar competiton, the FIM's World Championship SGP and the FIM Europe's European Championship SEC. This is of course a ridiculous situation and the FIm have now found a very sensible solution to this.

Or maybe they invite some guest riders to represent Poole Pirates - who cares - this is how it is done in British speedway anyway

Do You know which teams participate? Last year were the Helzold Stars from Belgium, the Veenoord Rams, Blijham Eagles and Groningen Lions. Any changes, or is it the same four ?

The Speedway World's gone mad this winter. It has all become a joke. Is this the beginning of the end?

The GPs are not really the problem for speedway in the UK. The problem is that British speedway clubs have become much too dependent on foreign riders. And that's not just top stars, but very average riders all through the teams 1 to 7. Too many foreigners, who need to ride in way too many of their own national and international competitions all over the Continent. The inflation of all those new competitons in recent years is of course a problem, and U can understadn that the BSPA is not keen to see teh FIM Europe events expanding ever more. If the British speedway clubs would employ in the main UK based riders, that's British and non-European Overseas riders, they would be able to do their own thing, without having to worry much about any Poles, Danes or Czechs missing for having to ride somewhere else.

EUROSPORT is absolutely free to view everywhere here in Continental Europe. And that is the one big advantage that One Sport and their SEC series hold over the SGPs, that are only available to view on a limited number of PayTV channels and just in very few countries. SGP/SWC will no longer be broadcast live in Germany, and I think in Sweden, too, this year.