The Grand Prix replaced the traditional one off World Final in 1995 and so now would be a good time to judge who have been the major winners and losers.

LOSERS

The Riders

The major losers since the GP began have been the riders and for many of them the aim each year appears to be to keep their loses to a minimum.
How much each rider earns per GP is based on their finishing position and varies from $11,000 for the winner to $3,400 for the 16th placed rider and the full list is detailed in the FIM GP rulebook, which is available on their web page (www.fim.ch).
These less than impressive figures look even worse when one members that the riders receive no travelling or hotel expenses for themselves or their support team and the cost of maintaining a number of bikes to GP standard must also be deducted. Compare the rider's earnings with those of the first post war World Champion Tommy Price who in 1949 won £500 in prize money and £92.10s in points and start money, which according to the web site www.eh.net/3/hmit was the equivalent of £11697. 26p in 2002 and that was just for 5 races.
Whilst in the early days of the GP riders were told to give the GP a chance and in a short while they would start to earn better money as the sponsors rush to be involved in the GP but as Mark Loram said in the Speedway Star 22nd March 2002  "Grand Prix have been exciting, but I don't think it's going forward as much as they think it is.... Back in 1995 we were told sponsors would be coming through for the riders, but every single sponsor involved is either to do with Polish speedway, or with the riders, present or past sponsors, there are no new names involved". BSI makes much on its web site, www.benfieldsports.com and in the speedway press, of the new sponsors and TV deals that the GP series is attracting yet from 2001 to 2004 the prize money did not increase so one is bound to ask where did the money from the sponsors and TV deal go if not to the riders?
In 2005 the total money available is the same as in 2004 although there are less riders in the GP (16 2 meeting reserves) which would on the surface suggest that the riders have received the first wage rise since 2001 but the lowest place rider now receives $3,400 compared to $1,600 in 2004 but now of course does 5 races rather than 2 whilst the winner receives $11,000 compared to $10,250 but of course now he does a minimum of 7 rides compared to 4 in 2004 and of course the falling valve of the dollar in recent years against most major currencies also has to be borne in mind.
Some riders have seen the light and decided that losing money at the GP is not for them, Joe Screen and Billy Hamill are two examples, and in the Speedway Star dated 22nd March 2002 Mark Loram's manager Norrie Allen said  "I never once asked Mark to pull out of the Grand Prix. All I did was look at the bottom line and said it was financially better to ride in the British League than it is the Grand Prix"

British Speedway

British speedway has suffered following the introduction of the Grand Prix series in a number of ways for example

* The fixture list, which has blank dates or meaningless fixtures to cater for GP weekends.

* Riders who are too ill to ride in Britain, and have doctors note to prove it, but are suddenly ok to ride in the GP. In one case the booking form for the guest was dated before the sick note for the missing GP rider but of course it was easier for the missing rider to travel from his Swedish league match direct to Slovenia rather than break his journey in Ipswich!

* How many times have you seen riders appearing to just go through the motions when riding in Britain the week before a GP or will gladly ride a GP track with holes and bumps but anything less than a snooker table smooth surface in Britain results in a track inspection

* GP riders must try to recover some of the costs they incur taking part in the GP, figures of £7000 per GP are talked about, and of course one method is to ask for more money from your British promoter and we all know who pays for that in the end.

If you would like to see how much the riders earn :

click here for the 2005 series

click here for the 2006 series

click here for the 2007 series

click here for the 2008 series

click here for the 2009 series

click here for the 2010 series

FIM

When the FIM sold the rights to the Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) to BSI in 1999 it was reputably for $25 million spread over 5 years yet according to BSI annual report for 2003 this figure is now nearer to $1.1million per year and to make matters worse reading the GP rulebook it would appear that the FIM are responsible for paying the prize fund of $84,500 per GP or some $0.75 million per year. Suddenly the deal doesn't look so attractive.

THE WINNERS

British Speedway

Some people argue that the increased media interest that speedway receives via the TV coverage of the GP can only do the sport good.  The question to be asked this do the benefits of the GP to British speedway outweigh the disadvantages. How many non-speedway fans know the name of the current world champion, which rider is leading the championship and where the next round will be held? Ask most non speedway fans to name a speedway rider and I bet Ivan Mauger will be named more times than Tony Rickardsson
BSI
Reading the BSI web page, www.benfieldsports.com it is clear that the big winner of the new GP system has been BSI.  BSI was established in 1997 as a sports consultancy, right representation and event management company and according to the web page " BSI have delivered strong organic financial growth. Its turnover has increased to over $8 million (it was $2.5 in 1998) and has delivered strong profit growth since its acquisition of the FIM World Speedway rights at the end of 1998"
So it appears that the GP and the Speedway World Cup (SWC) are the main source of this growth, a fact borne out when you do a search on google for Benfield Sports International and it comes up with over 1000 links to web sites and all but about 30 are speedway related. The non-speedway sites are mainly links to BSI's own web sites or professional companies who deal with BSI i.e. lawyers etc.
So having paid out the annual rights fee to the FIM what other expenses do BSI incur in connection with the SGP. Well it appears other than the cost of laying the track at non-speedway stadiums and transporting and erecting the air fence very little.
The local promoter at each venue pays BSI a staging fee, said to be in the region of $50,000, and it also appears the promoter is responsible for the hire of the stadium and associated staff, expenses of FIM officials and TV crews and they hope to at least recover their costs from the gate money, programme sales and concessions and the advertising revenue from the four advertising boards they are allowed, two on the infield and the two on the air fence.
The financial risks carried by the local promoter might also explain why the dearest seat at the British GP in 2004 was £60 compared with £45 in 2001 an increase of 33% and in the same period the cheapest has increased by 31% from £19 to £25 whilst the cost of the programme increased by 20% between 2002 and 2003. In 2005 the adult admittance prices of £27-£65 included a "free" £7 programme so it appears that the prices have only risen slightly or have been reduced but what about the fans who didn't want a programme and of course the promoters can deduct the cost of the "free" programme from the figure they pay VAT on a tax scheme not available to league promoters
Having paid both the FIM and also paid for the laying of the track at certain venues BSI earns income from a number of sources.

* The staging fee paid by local promoter.

* The SGP logo registered by BSI allows them to generate income each time it is used. According to the official details held at the Patent Office as well as the usual books badges etc it also covers it used on such speedway items as baby boots, romper suits, babygrows and underpants. It would be interesting to know if the riders receive any percentage from the sale of official rider based merchandise introduced in 2003?

* The two main sources of income however are from television rights and sponsorship. The TV income varies according to the number of GP's held each year but according to their annual report for 2002 they received a total of £1,106,069 in 2002. The importance of TV to the future of the GP is that according to the annual report if the TV coverage is grossly insufficient then the agreement between BSI and the FIM can be terminated.  According to the web site there are 18 major sponsors associated with the GP and whilst it is not clear how much income is generated by sponsorship the approx amount can be guessed by the fact that in the annual report BSI report that they have commenced legal proceedings against a company for unpaid sponsorship which has resulted in a decrease in profit by £91,090

Other sources of income include fees from the text message service provided by BSI and the affinity fee from the BSI credit card.
Reading the BSI web page in early July 2005 one thing did appear strange considering the nature of their business the page dealing with the SWC throughout it referred to the SWC to be held in England in 2004 rather than talking about the 2005 event to be staged in England, Sweden and Poland. This hardly matches other statements on their web site " we will advise and assist our clients in the co-ordination, promotion, management and hosting of all sporting events and marketing campaigns." And " BSI is a highly successful sports marketing consultancy that focuses on maximising value for its clients, sponsors and rights holders"

THE FUTURE

When the GP first started there was much talk of expanding the GP into non-speedway counties in the near future but in recent years this idea has been quietly dropped and indeed apart from the Sydney GP in 2002 the series has remained European based. Indeed the Sydney GP only took place because the FIM rules were broken and the staging promoter paid travelling expenses otherwise the organisers were afraid that the riders who knew they were out of the following years series would have produced sick notes that prevented them travelling to Australia. As well as not expanding into non-speedway counties some of major city venues have been dropped in favour of out of town stadia a fact that Ivan Mauger, probably the greatest speedway rider of all time said in the July/August issue of Backtrack "they set high standards and they are falling. Just a few years ago, the GP's were held in big stadiums and there were 24 riders competing in each event. But now with 16 riders they are going to.  ...Lonigo - nice place but I don't see it as world individual venue? Especially when in 1983, the entire world thought Norden was a stadium out in the paddocks. If they could get a GP at Norden now it would be a tremendous thing. If you're looking at Krsko, Malilla and Eskistuna well then Norden becomes Wembley!"
Ivan Mauger has other doubts about the Grand Prix judging by his other comments in the same magazine article  "Now there is a Benfield Sports Grand Prix series that is by invitation only. It still has some of the best riders in the world and is a great TV spectacle but there have not been any World Championship qualifying rounds since last year, so now can it be a World Championship? It is purely a closed shop invitational series now."
Does the fact that the Channel 4 highlights are now shown on a Thursday or Wednesday at 4.00am suggest that interest in the series is falling or is it a marketing ploy to get people to sign up to Sky?
When the FIM publish the attendance figures for the 2005 series in their magazine in January 2006 it will be interesting to see if the changes in the race format in 2005 has reversed the fall in attendances in recent years.
The bottom line is that one of the reasons the GP continues is that the best riders in the world ride in it but one is bound to ask for how much longer. Which rider will be the first to see economic sense and join the ranks of Billy Hamill and Joe Screen and decide that the glory of the GP doesn't pay the grocery bills especially if say the British speedway authorities said that GP riders could not ride in their leagues. On the other hand the distribution of the income generated by the GP could be more evenly spread with an increasing proportion going to the riders rather than according to the BSI annual report to paying their 9 staff a total of £785,715 in wages and salaries plus directors remunerations totalling £369,553.

Attendance for the GP's built up to a peak in 2002 but the following two years saw a decline. So much so that in 2005 some smaller venues with permanent tracks were chosen. What were the attendances like - well they have increased on average by about 1,100 per GP. Certain venues showed some improvement, the best probably being Cardiff. Bydgoszcz also saw a significant incease.The new Swedish venues seemed to attract about the same size crowd in total but presumably with a vast reduction in overheads !

One other thing to note is the figures themselves appear to have been rounded up or down - who really knows - the only one that seems completly real is Prague, where every last fan appears to have been counted !! 

In the meantime if you would like to see what the attendances have been like over the years click here.

VENUES

Over the years a number of venues have been used, as you can see from the attendance records. There was an effort to try and move the event to large cities and bigger venues - however this seems to have backfired particularly since the Gothenburg debacle. As we visit the venues we hope to give you some insight on what to expect.

Cardiff

Parken,Copenhagen

Malilla,Sweden

Daugavpils,Latvia