manchesterpaul

What happens with the football and ice hockey coverage when matches are staged in Vladivostok? do TV stations across Russia pretend it doesn't take place because it is on a far flung side of their nation?

Indeed nothing has changed, so, be it because they were 'hiding in the dark' ooooooh! or whatever the inane reason for the capes was - i can only say...... i've yet to see Manchester United or any top/professional sports team come on to the field in such a manner. Yes the wrestling pantomime in America will likely do it but i'm talking about actual competitive sport and not entertainment shows. Come back to me when you've got TV footage of Manchester United or Barcelona sneaking on to the pitch in the dark and then each player unveiling themselves from under a cape! Incidentally it doesn't make much difference AT ALL if the manner of unfurling the cape was done in the 'style' of emerging from hiding in the dark ooooooh! For sheer banality it was on a par with Jon Cook's pending announcement a few years ago that had fans waiting in excited anticipation as he had proclaimed....."The Lakeside Hammers Elite League Speedway Club will be making an important announcement tomorrow.... This announcement will not relate to team matters but is likely to result in a great deal of interest not only from the Hammers supporters but also from Speedway supporters in general." Turned out it was nothing other than a poor class individual meeting, i think a good majority of the field were second strings and Premier League riders....oh hey people!....so how is the resurrected London Riders Championship going since that initial great fanfare and claim of boosting and being wonderful for the whole sport??? has it gone from strength to strength? Have the attendances risen year on year? is it near the top of the best supported meeting of the year lists, well surely even if only at Lakeside? Has a world class field taken part every season? You know come to think of it i can't seem to recall who won the subsequent stagings? when were they staged? who won them? Surely it didn't go the way of the Knock-Out cup which underwent a fanfare due to a renewal with exciting changes? Those changes that had not only the fans but the riders not having a clue what gate, which RACE! or WHEN they were racing. Hmmm who was behind that farce? It certainly sounded the death knell for a competition that had lasted for years and through previous depressions in the sport. I did actually hope the LRC would be a success, but strongly doubted it but i struggled to think if i had ever been soooooooo annoyed and deflated at 'breaking' news in speedway. Like most i was on tenterhooks waiting with bated breath for this announcement that would have some sort of life changing effect on any speedway fan. What a total shocker....i genuinely laughed out loud when i saw what it was all about. I can picture 'litttle Jonnie Cook' when he was younger. "Mum! Mum! you must gather the whole family around tomorrow, i've got an amazing announcement to make it will affect everyone in the universe". "Yes mum i do know sis is an intensive care nurse but she'll just have to pull all the plugs out for one day only, she really needs to be here to listen to it in person" Cue next day....everyone gathered around excitedly....mum says "ok Jon please please tell us we can't wait any longer" and Jon replies full of pride with an announcement that is forever cemented in the annals of mankind.... 'you know when i woke up on monday morning....i yawned!'

Ooooh! be honest now, Jenny the Spudette won't let you out of the house lol. Got to admit i do think speedway does lend itself to gladiatorial music and displays etc, you can see that when video collages are set to music they look very impressive and appealing. Although the sport even messes that up as with the mortifying embarrassing Cardiff Grand Prix Dracula/Batman/Whatever cape thing. As i said at the time i've yet to see Manchester United or any top/professional sports team come on to the field in such a manner. Yes the wrestling pantomime in America will likely do it but i'm talking about actaul competitive sport and not entertainment shows.

I'm aware of that Philip but was totally ignorant that they don't have it screened in Russia, or are you saying they actually do have Russia listed?. There are some very 'strange' countries on one of the lists that i remember seeing and nations having no tradition or even knowledge of the sport. Of course though, broadcasting a programme in say 100 countries doesn't mean that it is even remotely being significantly viewed in those places. It's very likely stuck in an early Saturday morning or early hours filler slot as programmes such as Transworld Sport are. A great little programme but scant few get to watch it. At the end of the day there is potential appetite for the sport in Russia when one witnesses on the internet during the summer stadiums with hefty five-figure crowds for league matches and abounding enthusiasm and a great time being had by all. Shouldn't the SGP/BSI/FIM/WHOEVER be leaping to grab some of that? Interesting that the league is inferior to the Elite when it comes to competitiveness due to the mere five or four teams that make it up, yet you see fans with elaborate banners and bedecked in all sorts of team merchandise, they clearly aren't all casual first time attendees. Not disagreeing with your oft repeated mention of the bias/propaganda of One Sport's associates but clearly the same goes for the FIM's/BSI's cohorts and lackeys. Indeed, compare Russia to for instance the desolate terraces of Italian and Czech (Pardubice aside) when they stage domestic meetings. I remember earlier this year linking to photos taken from one of, or possibly 'the', opening league match of the Czech Season which resulted in a thrilling draw held in a very neat and clean stadium in a magnificent setting with world class riders. The stadium was deserted and from what i gather the various Italian team and individual championships suffer the same fate, hell! as do the GP's in Italy. Sadly speedway has a very narrow 'local' geographical base to it in more than a couple of countries. Don't know if they have it shown on TV, my observations was on the internet streamed meetings, some by the clubs themselves i think.

Was just coming on to post having seen a similar article in Sportwefakty but my main observation was the surprising mention that the SGP series is not shown in Russia! Don't BSI usually claim it's seen in something like 456,342 countries and 87% of all known galaxies in the universe lol. Strange they seem to be overlooking an attempt at marketing the series within that ever so miniscule population of 143,600,000* people *(according to Wikipedia). Incidentally, for those who don't want to visit the articles, Emil hasn't actually CHOSEN the SEC over SGP, but stated that he will if he HAS TO choose between the two. Reason being his sponsors get TV air time with the SEC. http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/400779/emil-sajfutdinow-znalazl-sponsorow-na-grand-prix-jest-jednak-jeden-warunek

I'm getting really confused now, not been keeping in touch with the sport much since the end of the season but a quick Googling gives conflicting line-ups from usually reliable sources. Incidentally, one Swedish report says that Sweden go direct into an event due to lack of teams registering to enter. I'm still not clear on who rides in the qualifier as Sportowefakty give the line-ups TODAY as; Nov. 25, 9:01 Recall that the white and red, as the host of the final in Bydgoszcz, in advance are guaranteed a place in it. In the semi-finals on the track at King's Lynn in addition to the British , the team will take part in Australia , the United States and winner of the qualifying round, which will be held at the track in Terenzano (in competition will drive the Italians, Russians, Slovenians and Hungarians). In the second semi-final will fight the Swedes , Danes , Czechs and Latvians . For the final promotion winners will receive semi-finals, and teams from the second and third places will go in the play-off. Will defend the gold medal Poles, who this year won him the track in Prague. World Team Cup Schedule : July 5 - Qualifying Round in Terenzano (Italy, Russia, Slovenia, Hungary) July 26 - Semifinal in King's Lynn (UK, Australia, USA, winner RK) July 29 - Semifinal in Västervik (Sweden , Denmark, Czech Republic, Latvia) July 31 - Play-off in Bydgoszcz Aug. 2 - Final in Bydgoszcz Germany suffered a shock knock-out last year have they thrown the towel in?

There is a 'Motorcycle Show, Birmingham' highlights programme on the Eurosport channels several times tonight. Likely to be repeated on other days too i presume. So who's volunteering to sit through it and let us know if Tai, the sport or his bike is featured or glimpsed! Actually having just visited the link from G the Bee, Tai is given prominence on the site and is scheduled to be on the stage etc so hopefully the chances of him being seen on the programme are quite reasonable.

How do Germany get back into the loop! Is there promotion relegation between the team that finishes 12th this coming season?

You've lost me totally on the 'with a full team' business. Anyway, the new points system, which HAS kept tons of meetings alive and does reward good performances, particularly away from home where previously teams would give up after going behind early or mid-meeting, is not complicated compared to several sports and competitions. Have you seen the points for a cricket match? Depending on what stage of the match it is there are a multitude of things to remember. Get your head around this... "The county championship works on a points system, the winner being the team with most points in the first division. The points are currently awarded as follows: Win: 16 points + bonus points. Tie: 8 points + bonus points. Draw: 3 points + bonus points. Loss: Bonus points. Bonus points are collected for batting and bowling. These points can only be obtained from the first 110 overs of each team's first innings.[8] The bonus points are retained regardless of the outcome of the match. Batting 200-249 runs: 1 point 250-299 runs: 2 points 300-349 runs: 3 points 350-399 runs: 4 points 400+ runs: 5 points Bowling 3-5 wickets taken: 1 point 6-8 wickets taken: 2 points 9-10 wickets taken: 3 points" I've been suggesting that for years and years and if we don't then maybe they should follow cricket's example and introduce a swathe of weighted bonus points to be earned on the first half dozen races and to counter the home track advantage more for the away team etc lol lol

From the clubs website; "Sheffield Eagles would like to thank all fans, old and new who have come out this season to support the Eagles in 2012. Ahead of our crucial play off clash with Batley this Sunday, the Eagles would like to announce that our average league attendances have risen to 1173 this year, a rise of 14% on 2011. This included our largest attendance at Don Valley Stadium since our time back in Super League over 12 years ago as 1,815 came to our winning opening league game against Swinton Lions and also experienced our excellent Carnival Day." And from Wikipedia which i quoted in a Sheffield thread a while ago; "Sheffield's record attendance at Owlerton was set at 3,636 for a third round Challenge Cup game against Oldham in 1989."

Regards the Riga staging of the Latvian GP there is currently no mention on the stadiums website at all. I think the track was installed in 1976, two years before that it possibly began as a moto-football pitch. I was going to post a link to a photo with fans in the 'stands', I had thought that with the addition of a temporary grandstand it would be barely passable, albeit far from representing the word 'grand' in Speedway Grand Prix. it was taken in 2007 so whether or not they've improved we'll have to wait and see. Our Finnish correspondent f-s-p might likely have links to recent pics? EDIT/UPDATE However, i've just had a quick shufty at Sportwefakty and OMG! truly shocking (absolutely no exaggeration) pictures of the place. I'm hoping Sporto have got it all wrong and surely this can not be the state of the place? Wow some speedy building and repairs need to be done. Check out the photos at the bottom of the article. http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/397649/gp-lotwy-w-rydze-bsi-zorganizuje-turniej-w-ruinach-czy-stanie-sie-cud A small excerpt from the article; "Do you know that in addition to the asphalt track racing and the nearby, now reconstructed Automobile Museum, the so proudly sounding name hides a dilapidated stadium with the outline of an oval speedway, without the necessary drainage, with a concrete slab off the inside track? This board is for competition rickety sport that is "motoboł" (most vividly - football on motorcycles). Rostrum with rotten benches, located on only one side of the stadium did not impress with his appearance." UPDATE #2 Apparently the rats and cockroaches are suing the stadium owners due to degrading and inhospitable living conditions lol. On the serious side if they do manage to do a good makeover job then plaudits and congrats indeed. UPDATE #3 Been having a quick trawl around Latvian Google! It seems that the two year cycle with Daugavpils is welcomed and the intention is to set up schools for young riders. It also looks like most of the infrastructure for the meeting will be temporary. They don't mention it below but i presume they may need temporary lighting too? Maybe Philip Rising is on the loop to provide us with more information? From the Latvian media; "The idea seemed interesting and exciting for our speedway drivers - why the Latvian GP -term changes could unfold in Daugavpils and Riga? Let us look further - arranging the race track, speedway track , to create children and young speedway school , as well as with the time command to Speedway capital not only every two years and that the involvement of young people . Who is intent on organizing the Latvian GP period is for two years and it is now a unique opportunity for the world's elite speedway bring to Riga. Until the first July is an opportunity to prepare mototreku so that it may already hold a contest . Nothing is not built from scratch , not reconstitute - carried out only elementary roadway reconstruction . Everything else - the participants shed , shower , toilet, including another tribune - can also be temporary , and offices for the race track, already . Road Race track owner shall ensure that before the first July mototreks will be fine and that it will be able to manage to play a first test or race with the best Latvian Speedway masters presence. Similar race (great influx of fans from abroad, Speedway GP time it would be up to 5000 - Race track could be here 10, 000 spectator"

Hmmmm....what's the weather like in Vojens in September! On second thoughts it's probably the same as it is whenever that track seems to stage a GP lol.

There would be the extra cost of hiring an interpreter if they decide to select Gary 'Mr Mumble' Havelock lol.

Late night news Tuesday from Sportowefakty has Emil Sayfutdinov considering withdrawing from the SGP series. Sabre rattling for more pay or is he serious? "Returning to health after a serious injury Emil Sayfutdinov considering to resign from competing in Grand Prix. - Riding in the elite does not come cheap, and there is no profit - explained the representative of Russia......On top of this came the policy still prohibits competing in GP and IME. I do not understand this. After all, these events can function side by side."

Late night news Tuesday from Sportowefakty has Emil Sayfutdinov considering withdrawing from the SGP series. Sabre rattling for more pay or is he serious? "Returning to health after a serious injury Emil Sayfutdinov considering to resign from competing in Grand Prix. - Riding in the elite does not come cheap, and there is no profit - explained the representative of Russia......On top of this came the policy still prohibits competing in GP and IME. I do not understand this. After all, these events can function side by side."

Thank you.

Apologies for simply losing track as to who is who and who does what regards the SGP but......what role - if they still do have one - do IMG have with the tournament? Only i notice that their sale has been scythed down to a mere five bidders and is being pushed to be completed by the end of the year. Would a change of management/company likely have any potential effect on speedway once current contracts run out? As i say haven't a clue right now what the contracts are concerning, possibly TV rights holders or just general promotion of the series?????

BSkyB have pointed out that European football represents only around 3% of viewing on its channels, compared with around 18% for the Premier League.

I haven't been following this thread due to presuming it would be mainly regarding the racing aspect of the '2014 European Championship' as historically other threads carrying the name of a competition have always done so. However, i see there have been some posts regarding the conflict between BSI-SGP-SEC-One Sport-FIM-FIM Europe. In view of that i'm copying a post i've just made in the thread that was created at the start of the uproar, as i feel it's important breaking information concerning the matter: An excerpt from a news story in Sportowefakty tonight and is now just starting to filter into the media elsewhere too. The content of the letter sent to the FIM Europe: We, as riders who have already received an invitation to take part in Speedway European Championships in 2014, we declare that we will insist that we were allowed to take part in the competition, despite the fact that we are also regular participants FIM Speedway Grand Prix. We consider a ban on anyone to participate in the continental championships, as a very bad decision, which reduces the popularity of our sport and wasted opportunity that was created to promote it, mainly because of television, reaching 71 countries. We believe that this decision is a limitation of our freedom. According to EU law, freedom of contract is one of the fundamental rights and not accept a situation where we are limited in such an artificial and unfair manner. As experienced speedway riders who put a lot of work to build the image of a world speedway, we expect more respect and comity on the part of managers of global and European speedway. We look forward to a fair solution to this situation and the immediate response from the board of the FIM-Europe. Signed: Tomasz Gollob Andreas Jonsson Nicki Pedersen Emil Sajfutdinow Incidentally the original thread on all of this (Sgp/Bsi And Sec/One Sport It Is War Now) is at http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=74441 Up to yourselves where you post the comments but is a little annoying to start to have to search numerous threads in different sections now on such a specific subject. No criticism intended as i often struggle as to which section to put threads at times due to crossover. Also, what's going to happen when the '2014 European Speedway Championships' actually start racing, i guess we continue to post in this thread on the actual racing, hopefully that is indeed the case. Also there were some very good points made by NIcki Pedersen in a large article in this weeks Speedway Star. Like most fans and riders he wants riders to be able to race in both competitions.

Some very good points made by NIcki Pedersen in a large article in this weeks Speedway Star. Like most fans and riders he wants riders to be able to race in both competitions. An excerpt from a news story in Sportowefakty tonight and is now just starting to filter into the media elsewhere too. The content of the letter sent to the FIM Europe: We, as riders who have already received an invitation to take part in Speedway European Championships in 2014, we declare that we will insist that we were allowed to take part in the competition, despite the fact that we are also regular participants FIM Speedway Grand Prix. We consider a ban on anyone to participate in the continental championships, as a very bad decision, which reduces the popularity of our sport and wasted opportunity that was created to promote it, mainly because of television, reaching 71 countries. We believe that this decision is a limitation of our freedom. According to EU law, freedom of contract is one of the fundamental rights and not accept a situation where we are limited in such an artificial and unfair manner. As experienced speedway riders who put a lot of work to build the image of a world speedway, we expect more respect and comity on the part of managers of global and European speedway. We look forward to a fair solution to this situation and the immediate response from the board of the FIM-Europe. Signed: Tomasz Gollob Andreas Jonsson Nicki Pedersen Emil Sajfutdinow

I was a little surprised a couple of months ago when R&R stated that he thought the Swedish league was stronger than Poland, and your 10% would have probably have been subjected to a twiddle with too lol. But then again i've not looked at the stats from very recent seasons and can only presume there has been an increase in power of the Swedish League? Reason being that - until a couple of seasons ago - i used to copy and paste the stats from Sportowefakty into a spreadsheet at the end of each season from the various leagues and also apply a weighting that on the whole proved highly accurate across a high percentage of the riders. Even aside from the weighting adjustment one used to see rider after rider whose averages went from their highest being in the UK Elite League and then decrease in the Swedish Elitserien to their lowest figures being in the Polish Ekstraliga due to increases in class of riders competing. I haven't got the time at the moment, or inclination lol, but it might be interesting to cobble together all the three leagues but not with 'rolling averages' for the UK, as surely all leagues need to be subjected to the same basic criteria. I personally would prefer bonus points to be included as i feel it reflects a truer sporting performance as to what happened on the track. Thankfully the Speedway Star and every other publication over the decades have always published averages including bonus points and rightly leave the 'team-building' averages to that purpose alone. Incidentally 'waihekeaces' do you judge your top 30 to a classification of the top 30 riders in the world or......the top 30 LEAGUE riders in the world? I used to wonder about that angle when i compiled my ratings. I would possibly lean towards it being a league (team) rider rating although obviously there would be a great crossover in it also being a fair reflection of world rankings. Maybe a rider has to be a little more selfish to win the world title? Does your 10% rule hold pretty much fairly well across the board of riders. I have an inkling that to use the same increment is not sheer coincidence or an exactly calculated percentage. Like i say i'd therefore probably twiddle with the sliding rating. What thread was your top 30 published in (if you did post it), lol don't worry not to find fault with i'd just like to see it. I'm presuming the top 30 aren't 30 you selected as such then rated them and instead are the top 30 from all rider ratings? Right now i haven't got the time and/or it's not that deep into the off-season for me to feel the need to be researching such things lol. I can think of riders like Ivan Mauger who would likely to have always topped the league averages when winning his titles but then again he didn't ride in three leagues or more per season. Also like a few others along the years he was an exceptional rider in his time and clearly conclusions would be better drawn from a large sample of riders over the season than just the top echelon.

I should point out that whilst the BSPA website says; "TAI will make be on BT Sport Live this Wednesday at 8pm." The Sky EPG, a weekly tv mag and an internet subscription tv guide all say it's 7pm' Not sure what dialect 'will make be on' comes from lol.

Cheers for the heads up on that.

All cool and a needed specific thread for 2014. As for others, if they have, posting about the SGP/BSI/SEC/One Sport conflict in that well it's often hard to decide where to place a thread or comments on a subject. Personally i would have preferred the SEC to be added to the SGP/SWC section but not particularly fussed.

Yeah i heard that too at the start of the last podcast. Hope he or his assistants do their research a bit better as we certainly don't want to hear what the old Granada Reports TV channel did when Peter Collins won his world title and they referred to him as the speedway DRIVER! Just came on here to let people know if they don't already that the shows, or more accurately, the interviews are available as podcasts. I certainly won't be sat next to the radio for three hours between the scheduled broadcast time of 10am-1pm. I've only glanced at the timing of the most recent podcast and it's 37 minutes long, so i'm presuming it's the interview bits and nothing else?