MattK

To be fair, at least many of us have seen Jurica Pavlic in real life. More than I can say for Nelson Mandela.

I think they should let riders pick their own numbers which they use in the GP and national leagues. That way riders can be identified by their numbers like 46 Rossi or 93 Marquez.

Clubs can selling directly to the public: Tickets Merchandise Other content such as mobile apps, ringtones etc. Generate revenue through other activities such as: Advertising (Google AdSense) Affiliate marketing Other third parties activities, such as: Sky Sports subscriptions Promoting PPV of Polish speedway Selling GP tickets Insurance, credit cards etc.

Paddy Power advertise as they are trying to create awareness of their brand in a crowded marketplace. Speedway is a bit different as it needs to be marketed in order to make people aware they it exists and to encourage people to come and see the product, rather than choose one product over another. In that way, marketing should pay for itself. If it doesn't then you're doing it wrong. Web sites and social media in general shouldn't be seen as a cost to clubs, but an opportunity to not only gain new fans but also to directly generate revenue. There are at least half a dozen revenue streams open to clubs via their web sites, which none of them exploit.

The best way would be to have all the clubs sites under a single portal. That way, all the sites would have a consistent look and feel (unlike the sites now), but with each branded for the individual clubs. Administering them centrally would reduce costs and allow all clubs to have features such as email newsletters and e-commerce. There is massive potential if you integrate this with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, but it takes ambition on behalf of the promoters and obviously an initial outlay of money.

Ironically, a decent web site, which sells merchandise, tickets and other content, could easily pay for itself. The problem is, speedway web sites and the rest of their online presence are put together on a shoe string and that can be clearly seen in the results.

One person could easily manage the online presence of four or five clubs simultaneously. I spent two weeks doing the Newcastle United and Middlesbrough sites and basically spent most of my time watching Sky Sports News.

Nope, planning permission has not yet been applied for. As for funding, the council have agreed to fund the project up to planning permission, including the production of a master plan and detailed design. Presumably, after planning permission has been granted, the project will have to go before the council again to have the next stage of the funding approved?

The real problem is if fans only go to the NL meetings, then suddenly your EL team is losing thousands of pounds a week. This is what happened at Oxford. Their EL team was performing terribly and their NL team very well, so fans missed EL meetings in favour of attending NL matches. As others have said, running an NL team does not attract any new fans, unless you come up with a cleaver gimmick, like Dudley Heathens. You are therefore totally reliant on existing fans attending more meetings, which in the current climate is a big ask.

So the BSPA enforcer has had a word in Blackbird's shell-like and suddenly everyone is happy!

I think it's more a case of they don't know and they'll make it up at a later date.

The other thing people haven't mentioned is that there will be 20 riders in the National League riding Elite League standard machinery. Won't this massively increase the cost of riding in the NL as all riders will need better equipment in order to stay competitive?

Will riders treble-up? It makes no sense for them to ride NL and EL, but not PL. Although, just because it makes no sense...

You now get double points if you lap an NL reserve.

So you agree that any points limit below 42 is a decrease in the strength of a league on the the previous season?

He does know. Ever year for the past five seasons or more the points limit has been reduced and every season less fans turn up. Yes, occasionally one club may see a boost in fans due to on-track success or other factors, but on average attendances have reduced across the board for the last several seasons.

Does it though? If your boss quits his job and you are asked to take his position, you'd expect the same salary that he was on, wouldn't you? I wouldn't be surprised if Hans Andersen was paid more per point in 2013, than Leigh Adams was in 2010.

How would limiting the league to only British riders make it more competitive? There would be a massive disparity between the better riders like Woffinden, Harris and Nicholls and the National League juniors who you would need to make up the numbers. It would also put a huge financial strain on young riders, who can currently race in the National League using largely an amateur set-up, but they would need a costly professional set-up to race in the same league as the top British riders.

Have you got a link to that interview?

I wonder if Manchester City Council are "doing a Sky" and waiting to see what the Elite League will look like going forwards before borrow £4m to build a new stadium for Belle Vue speedway?

At the end of last season there were 138 individual riders in the EL and PL. That means there would be a "shortage" of 23 riders in a combined league. I'm not sure there are enough NL riders and foreigners to fill that gap. On the other hand, 23 teams of six riders each equals 138 riders!

That is actually a really interesting idea. Maybe reduce teams to six riders if there aren't enough to go around?

Funnily, I was thinking the other week if the SEC could effectively become a GP2 type event, with 16 riders outside of the GPs. One of the most interesting parts of the series has been that it contains riders you don't see every day. Personally, I think SEC could put together an excellent line-up of non-GP riders, such as the Laguta brothers, Kolodziej, Medzinski, Dudek, some of the young Latvians and even a couple of Brits (though not Harris and Nicholls).

Regardless of whether Marquez wins it or not, he is still the Rider of the Year by a long distance.

Speedway has historically done quite well at these awards. In 2010 Gollob won "Personality(!) of the year" and Ward won the Rookie of the year. Janowski won Rookie of the Year in 2011.