IainB

So are you not doing your shopping because of the restrictions?

Everybody knows that but you said even if they allowed crowds "with any restrictions" you wouldn't be attending

I fully expect the country to be in a position to allow at least limited crowds, with restrictions, into sporting events by next spring. I could be wrong of course but if it is the case I will be there and you won't

No... I'm going to attend a speedway meeting as soon as I'm allowed to following whatever restrictions are required

So you're going to fight for your right to be a free person by not going to Speedway and not going to any protests but by letting everybody know on a Speedway Forum that you won't be going to live Speedway? I think you may have been to your last Speedway for a while then

I get a lot of what you're saying but one thing is for sure not going to protests to try and get things changed and not going to Speedway is not going to save Speedway during these current times. Basically you're sitting back and punishing Speedway for the governments actions. It doesn't really matter whether I agree with you about whatever you think about Covid or not but if I understand you seem to think the way to get the government to change policy is to not go to Speedway? You say there is no point in Speedway without a crowd and I agree, I think that about any sport but you were saying that even if a crowd were allowed with "any restrictions" you still wouldn't attend because you didn't want to be on the naughty step... well you can't go to Speedway carrying a gun or wearing no clothes, or possessing drugs, they are all restrictions, for the good of society, I'm guessing you don't have any problems with these so why should you with a face mask or 2m distancing, for a short while until things are under control?

That's a good recovery then... the job ain't done yet though

Was Masarna vs Lejonen the final? Because the way Masarna were celebrating at the end of the match was completely over the top, the most over the top celebrations I've ever seen from a team winning a semi-final!

I'm not calling Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe non-cricketing nations... Sri Lanka were in the first world cup. I would call: Canada, Kenya, UAE, Kenya, Scotland, Namibia, Holland, Ireland, Bermuda & Afghanistan non-cricketing countries often made up of players on passports of convenience not good enough to make their own national team A similar thing has happened with Rugby Union

I think if Eurosport want to break into untapped markets they maybe should have gone for a longer deal, 20 years because as things currently stand it's highly unlikely they're going to successfully break into a market that requires a crowd to make it pay. Under a 20 year plan they could have been offering "Speedway Scholarships" to promising motorbike riders from countries like Spain, Japan, Brazil, Argentina etc. to fund a riders development to a certain level in the European leagues to get to a standard where they could be included and promoted in their local country.

They don't need to, the manager can "work from home". I know I always do the Team Managers job sat on my sofa at home when watching Speedway on TV... and I've never made a bad decision Cricket diluted their World Cup tournament with the inclusion of loads of "non-cricketing" nations and for the most part they're non-events and just fill up TV air time

As a matter of interest and obviously you don't have to answer but why haven't you been for 10 years and why did you stream the British Final I don't think you can compare streaming coverage of Speedway to what was on offer on Bet365 a few years back, from what I saw of it, it had no commentary and you couldn't watch it full screen and a lot of people don't want to sign up to a betting website to watch it. Obviously I don't know for sure but I think you'd probably find that the vast silent majority do subscribe to BT Sport or Premier Sports to watch their Speedway rather than watching some ropey stream with Polish of Swedish commentary, I certainly do. I don't think you can tar all Speedway fans with the I'll watch it for free brush. I don't think streaming will be the saviour of the sport but it's certainly an untapped revenue stream (pun)

You're obviously entitled to your opinion but I don't know why you'd cut your nose off to spite your face, I can't see how wearing a face mask and standing 2m away from somebody effects your ability to socialise and watch Speedway... do you like touching people? Rules on things change all the time and you obviously weigh up the pros and cons on whether to keep doing whatever it is that the new rules effect. I don't understand why you can't separate your enjoyment of Speedway and socialising and punish Speedway for it. If you felt that strongly about it you should be organising a revolution and not taking the easy way out of spitting your dummy out and complaining about it on a Speedway forum where nobody is going to see it and do anything about it

Yes it's a big risk, I understand they've repainted the TV Licence detector vans to catch people not obeying quarantine

You'd hope they've learnt their lesson from the TV contracts, the value of the Sky contracts balanced off playing in front of empty stadiums and by the time a lot of clubs cottoned on that the value of the TV contracts were going down along with the paying punter it was too late, Sky were gone and so were the paying punters. You could sit at home on a cold wet night and watch your team... and then watch any other world class sport for a month or lump out £15-£18 to watch a load of rubbish

For me, the streaming should be the icing on the cake, an attempt to "mop up" those punters that aren't going to watch an event live (in normal times). You'd have to price/market the stream so as not to effect the live attendance.

When I tuned in and saw the rain I thought here we go, we're in for a night of high farce and what is the stream rain off policy? In the end it turned out to be quite an entertaining meeting. I do hope the price point for the behind closed doors meetings is not going to reflect the pricing policy for when crowds are eventually allowed back. And you have to wonder why they've gone down the SportCentralTV route when their "broadcast partner" already have a streaming setup available on the market. Maybe it's because the Eurosport deal has been put on hold, I'm not sure as this seems to be a bit of a grey area. But Chris Louis did mention last night that Eurosport have many ideas for British Speedway, we'll see in the fullness of time no doubt. Eurosport charge around £5 a month for Eurosport player... which I'd happily pay to watch some British Speedway, in fact I'd happily pay £5 a week

Just heard on the radio this morning that Poland is to be added to the quarantine list at the weekend

I've been busy watching some grass grow during the summer and now autumn/winter is here I've got some paint that needs to be watched drying

I'd be very surprised if the FIM & BSI were that forward thinking.

No villageidiot, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit

come on racers and royals, don't be so rude not just you

He posted that he was on a wind up... after getting piled on though

I think the "Bfitish final" is hopefully a one off in these current circumstances, I think the wider topic under normal circumstances is an interesting one

One wonders if British Speedway actually knows who their demographic is, I know it likes to think of itself as a "family sport" but from what I see on the terraces it seems to be an old persons sport even though the competitors probably see it as an extreme sport, so who do you aim your stream and pricing at? I don't agree that "the stream needs to be aimed at those who dont attend Speedway regularly but know it exists and maybe used to follow it" or the neutral... I consider myself a fan of F1 but have never been to a race, having said that I do subscribe to the F1 channel, I also quite like to watch the odd Football match but would never pay to attend one or watch one on PPV TV... it's really quite complex when you start to think about it. Maybe they could/should be looking to team up with their "broadcast partner" to see how this can be made financially viable, maybe using the Eurosport Player