mickthemuppet

So how big is the audience at live Snooker,,Badminton,Squash, Ice Hockey or Darts.. So of these are in their hundreds .Cricket is not exactly full for league matches either nor are the Division One and Two Football matches

Was it not about 4 year ago that a Russian League was going to be the biggest thing in Speedway but due to the size of the country it never really happened. There was also big problems with, if you got injured and the health facilities there

Not borne out by viewing figures though is it. The same could be said for attendences at the track either. They have been going done regularly as well.

Now that it is certain that there will be no GP's live on SKY Sports this year will they survive. With what few sponsers that the GP's have will they continue them with no live meetings. Will the riders still be interested in racing GP's with no TV as this will also affect their sponsors. They surely will not carry on the pittance they get paid. . Will Monster drinks still be interested. Most probably no. Will IMG chuck the whole thing in.and we get back to a proper individual world championship.? Will there be a reshuffle of nights raced in this country. Will teams like Belle Vue and Coventry revert back to Saturday night meetings.

Are any of them live though?

I have just got the bill for my mobile phone call to Sky to cancel my subscription which they nearly halved for six months. The cost for 38 minutes was £9.84.. Sky don't miss a trick do they

Very ,very sad news indeed . Freddie was my all time Speedway hero. Used to watch him when I first went to Wembley. I will never forget his car business in Wembley High Road which said on the billboards above it " FREDDIE WILLIAMS WORLD SPEEDWAY CHAMPION 1950-1953 A truly great rider and a gentleman may you rest in peace

The stadium is only about 500 metres from the town centre and the trams stop right outside the Ullevi stadium. 2008 and 2009 the weather was glorious ,in the region of 28C(82F) They normally have a special lunch at a restuarant in the main square for Speedway fans on the day of the GP. The name escapes me but it is the largest one in the square (It used to be a theatre) A three course meat is about £16.00 including wine, beer or sort drink It lasts about 2 hours and we had talks from Olle Nygren ,Bengt Jannson and a Swedish Ice Racer. An excellent afternoon full of speedway people No problem booking tickets as it will only be about one quarter full. Viewing is good from all parts of the stadium. Go to lunch at the Ullevi on Friday then watch the practice afterwards

Not really utter nonsense is it. When ever a Sky live match is shown on a Monday night there is nobody there. If the matches were not on TV they would all have bigger gates Fact. .That would probably apply to every match shown in the last decade. except the Arena Essex that was free I have never been to a British Grand Prix but have been to many world finals(those were the days) and Grand Prixs abroad. If the British GP is not on TV I will go. In fact if the British GP is not shown live the gate will be bigger and will stop the decline of this last few years. If it is shown live the attendance will dip even further

THE MAIN PROBLEM speedway has are. 1. STADIUMS - Most stadiums that Speedway operate in are not very good. The toilets in most are awful . The catering facilities leave a lot to be desired. I would think most people never eat anything in a stadium but to be fair mosty are not operated by the speedway promoters so it is out of their hands. 2. GUEST RIDERS Try explain to outsiders that we have a guest rider or riders from other clubs. This makes speedway only one step up from professional wrestling. How many teams did Kevin Doohan or Leigh Lanham ride for last season. Both rode for and against Ipswich. How can you take a sport seriously when this happens. No wonder there are never any reports in national newspapers about matches. 3. WORLD FINALS The British Speedway Promoters were responsible for the world finals held at Wembley after the war in 1949..All profits made there went for the benefit of British speedway. They should never let Johnny Foreigner share the World finals as it was their baby. How could a world final go from Wembley to Malmo. and then have a gate of 75% less than Wembley. Promoters what were you doing..After all the world snooker and darts final are still held in this country every year. . Then the worst thing of all was no more Wembley finals which was one of the biggest knockbacks for the sport ever 4..BIKES As much has been said on here already changing from 2 valve to 4 valve was a great mistake. How much further cost did this add to riders expenses and for what benefit. 5.RACE PROGRAMES A completely new set of the heats of a speedway match. What is the point of heat 4 when you have a top riders out against reserves. That does not make for competive racing. The old system of the reserves meeting twice is a much better idea than we have today. . Both teams should not be allowed to use rider replacement. Both should promote their number 8 Perhaps the last three heats should be 5th and 6th highest scorers then the penultimate heat the 3rd and 4th highest scorer ,then the final heat the 1st and 2nd highest scores of each team. If a team becomes six or more points behind that team should be given choice of gates. 6. MEDIA Newspapers now carries virtually no reports of Speedway results or reports. If it were not for local papers you would think that speedway had ceased. Going back through the years nearly all national newspapers sponsored Speedway .On a thursday night in London the Evening News used to have a full broadsheet write up on that night's speedway meeting at Wembley with visiting riders photos and form statistics league tables and heat details. Then the next morning there would be a write up of the meeting and heat details and points.in most national papers. All now gone 7. EUROPEAN LEAGUES The emergence of the Swedish and Polish Leagues. This has no doubt hurt Speedway in GB., without these leagues all the top riders would still be riding in Britain. The advantage these leagues have or might not have is they are nearly all supported by local authorities. The original Swedish promoters all went broke. and the local authorities took over. the tracks.and they leased them out If Europes financial problems continue how long will they keep subsidising these clubs.

No more World Finals at Wembley and Bruce Pennell retiring

I am sure the Dutch rider Henry Kroeze scored a 24 point maximun in a league match.

Strangely enough greyhound racing in Ireland is booming with 17 tracks there of which many have had a lot of money spent on them over the last few years

Rather a poor story put out by the BBC It says,I quote : With the closure of Milton Keynes,Portsmouth,Oxford there are no greyhound tracks left in Central Southern England. What about Harlow,Romford,Sittingbourne,Swindon,Peterborough,Mildenhall,Crayford. and Brighton. There might even be more. The trouble with greyhound racing is now you can only treat it as a fun night out. When greyhound racing (like Speedway) was at the height of it's popularity after WW2 the Tote on tracks only took out 4% commission. Now it is around 30%. The bookmakers work on far higher percentage profits at greyhound meeting than they do at horse racetracks

Sorry to tell you that Foxhall Stadium was or is owned by a company called Ipswich Speedway Limited. back in 1950. Among it's directors then were Arthur Franklin,Douglas Bostock and M R W Fison who was president of the Ipswich Motor Cycle and Motor Club

Foxhall Stadium has just been sold. It was previously owned by Ipswich speedway Ltd. Are Speedworth the new owners or is it somebody else. Is this good or bad news for the Witches. I see new seating is going in but why on the straight near the third bend

Will the World Team Cup still be on Sky this year. If so how long does their contract have to go?

The main part of the conversation was me trying to tell her what speedway was as every time I said speedway GP she looked up what was on their schedule it reverted back t oFormula One GP's. I asked if she would throw HD in for the same money but they wanted another £10.85 per month for this. She eventually said I could have it for £5.00. I said how about £2.00 but no deal even though they offered me it for that price three months ago. My son is now on his 6th price reduction so it can be done. A little tip here, . I registered to receive Sky through the internet so I can watch it anywhere on my Laptop. My son who does not have Sky Sports logs into mine on the internet and puts it up on his TV for free.

I have just come off the phone(40 mins) from Sky and said I wish to cancel all my subscriptions due to there not being any GP's on this year. They offered me a reduction from £58.60 to £35.00 for 6 months which I accepted . I take all channels except Film. She also told me that Sky would be doing live league Speedway from England on Monday night's, .live speedway from Sweden on tuesday night's and live Speedway from Denmark on Wednesday night's. I made her go through it twice to confirm that this is correct. So there might be more Speedway on Sky sports next season than this year.

Cannot believe you could pick a Wimbledon team which would not include the late and great Tommy Jansson.who topped the Wimbledon averages over 10.00 points twice during his short career

Now the Grand Prix organisers are trying to make the GP's a lottery with the gate positions for the semi final a draw and not a picked on points. So now we can have the spectacle of a rider getting the worse gate in the semi final even though he has won his 5 previous heats. Looks like the best rider might not now win the GP. or even make the final.

Even though this years GP did not include Darcy Ward, Neils Christian Iversen or Krzysztof Kasprzak but included Chris Harris, Peter Ljung and Bjarne Bedersen?

Not true. Freddie Lindgen scored 20 points at the 2008 Gothenberg GP but Rene Holta won it but only scored 14. Even Nikki Pedersen who finished third (15) scored more points than Rene Holta.

Indeed the top five pooles in their league averages were their riders selected for the final. Why were they allowed nearly a third of the field is a complete mystery. There were only two English riders (Ray Wilson and Peter Collins) so not much has changed. The 1973 final was certainly a one off. The Poles practised on the track.the day before.When the visiting riders saw it it was awful and still was for the final. with ruts all over the place. The refereeing was completely inconsistant excluding Anders Michanek for a tape offence yet two races later the tapes were broken four times but nobody was excluded.The four Poles in heat 16 contrived to let Zenon Plech win so helping him to secure 3rd place . The refereeing was having a nightmare. . Peter Collins was hit by Plech in heat 19 on the first lap.but the race was not stopped then although it was on the 4th lap when Chlynovski bought down Plech. Then the race was awarded to Peter Collins who was out of the race at the time. .So the order of finish was decided on the positions the riders were in before the end of the first lap. Very odd meeting for a world final.

On EBay there is a 1967 World Final Programme for sale . It is dated the !st of September at Malmo signed by Gote Nordin. The only problem is the 1967 final took place at Wembley. Surely this must be a European or Nordic Final although it does not say so,