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Warsaw Gp Saturday 18th April

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So you are saying that the GPs have had nothing to do with the decline of British Speedway.

 

All I can say to that is that you are entitled to your view. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

 

The decline started in earnest in the early 80s. The GPs and Sky coverage/funding has slowed that decline.

 

British Speedway, free of charge, was being showcased in tens of thousands of living rooms every other Saturday. Advertising like that was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. British Speedway simply had to adapt to a changing climate, as do all business' and adopt a set race day or two days actually, Monday and Thursday would have been good.

 

To be a successful business you really need to be proactive, not reactive, you dont wait for the issues to bite you on the arse, you pre empt them and adopt.

 

A 10 or 12 team Elite League with half racing on a Monday and half on a Thursday racing each other twice over a season could have allowed for weekly speedway. Riders should have been centrally contracted on a set pay scale carved in stone. A 42.5 limit imposed would keep equality, no riders would be forced out of work because they could all be accommodated somewhere, new blood would replace the natural retirements and the league could grow and prosper.

 

It is easier though just to keep upping admission and blame everything on the GPs

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Quite correct Phil. A point I brought up 3 weeks ago. Any ticket refunds will be from the PZM but they won't be happy about giving them out and in turn will seek recompense from BSI. I would imagine the reality is no one will bother pursuing a refund so it won't be an issue.

 

Do organizers not have insurance against "force majeure" in any case. Not sure 16 stroppy prima donna riders with other agendas class as force majeure in any case

and i'll say it again .... BSI need to hold their end of the bargain up................ they are responsible for deciding who holds what rounds & they are responsible for the promotional work......... they have a deal with the fans... & rather than trying to pass the buck via their legal team they should be ensuring that the fans are not left holding the bill

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So you are saying that the GPs have had nothing to do with the decline of British Speedway.

Yes, the GPS run on only 12 of the 30+ weekends in the british season.

 

Niamh

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The decline started in earnest in the early 80s. The GPs and Sky coverage/funding has slowed that decline.

 

British Speedway, free of charge, was being showcased in tens of thousands of living rooms every other Saturday. Advertising like that was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. British Speedway simply had to adapt to a changing climate, as do all business' and adopt a set race day or two days actually, Monday and Thursday would have been good.

 

To be a successful business you really need to be proactive, not reactive, you dont wait for the issues to bite you on the arse, you pre empt them and adopt.

 

A 10 or 12 team Elite League with half racing on a Monday and half on a Thursday racing each other twice over a season could have allowed for weekly speedway. Riders should have been centrally contracted on a set pay scale carved in stone. A 42.5 limit imposed would keep equality, no riders would be forced out of work because they could all be accommodated somewhere, new blood would replace the natural retirements and the league could grow and prosper.

 

It is easier though just to keep upping admission and blame everything on the GPs

I will give you that SKY Television didn't help with overall attendances, but, to my mind BSI and The Grand Prix Series have done infinitely more damage.

 

Yes, the GPS run on only 12 of the 30+ weekends in the british season.

 

Niamh

That is too simplistic a view. Mind you that is still approximately 40% of the Season - that is a fair old chunk of it.

 

It's not just Race Days that are the problem - it is the way that the GP Riders have, in the main deserted British Speedway.

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I will give you that SKY Television didn't help with overall attendances, but, to my mind BSI and The Grand Prix Series have done infinitely more damage.

 

ay.

I think you misunderstood what i meant

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I think you misunderstood what i meant

Quite possibly Oldace. I am in my dotage you know. :sad: :sad: :sad:

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Forgive me Humphrey can you or anyone explain to me exactly what BSI stands for and what company are they.

Would be helpful if you could get back to me.

 

BENFIELD Sports International, founded by John Postlethwaite, formerly of Pepsi and the Benneton F1 team, was originally a subsidiary of Benfield Greig, one of the world's largest re-insurance companies. JP later took BSI away from the Benfield Greig umbrella and subsequently sold BSI Speedway to IMG.

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I will give you that SKY Television didn't help with overall attendances, but, to my mind BSI and The Grand Prix Series have done infinitely more damage.

 

That is too simplistic a view. Mind you that is still approximately 40% of the Season - that is a fair old chunk of it.

 

It's not just Race Days that are the problem - it is the way that the GP Riders have, in the main deserted British Speedway.

Oldace stated his view (which I agree with) that both sky and GPS had SLOWED the decline of British speedway.

Why have go riders deserted British speedway? Its hardly due to GPS, where the earnings aren't great. Its because they can earn a lot more money in the Swedish and polish leagues. The UK's scattergun approach to scheduling doesn't help, but if the wages matched those in Poland riders would find a way to make it work

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So did Broomco (1279) Limited start the ball rolling with rights to which it then changed hands to Benfield Sports International Limited on the 1st of July 1997 and then on the 10th May 2007 the afore mention Benfield Sports International Limited was acquired by IMG still branded as BSI.

Broomco was possibly an off-the-shelf company, which used to be a popular way of creating the illusion of a trading record.

 

BSI or Benfield Sports International has gone through various renamings and legal restructures down the years, but BSI Speedway is currently the legal entity holding the SGP rights. It is in turn owned by a dormant holding company (something like BSI Holdings) that I think was originally the umbrella for all John Postlethwaite's speedway ventures like BSI Reading, but is now directly owned by IMG(UK) which is in turn owned by its US parent IMG. IMG is ultimately owned by another US corporation - possibly some sort of venture capitalist.

 

BSI Speedway was probably kept around as a company after the transfer of ownership to IMG(UK) as the long term agreement for the SGP rights was between it and the FIM. IMG(UK) provide all the staff and administrative support to the SGP, and other companies in the IMG group do other things like television production, each of course charging costs to BSI. So in fact IMG make substantially more from the SGP than the audited profits might show.

 

Although it's oft-claimed that John Postlethwaite's was the owner of BSI, it appears that Benfield Re-Insurance (of Chelsea Matthew Harding fame) put up most of the capital, and in fact there were several other minor owners from memory as well. At some point though, Benfield agreed to waive their rights in BSI, seemingly without getting any money back, so there's presumably some story behind that.

 

IMG(UK) has something of a troubled recent history. It lost millions on failed ventures into a Wembley tie-up, the Ricoh Arena at Coventry, and golf courses.

 

Edit - Just checked, and the parent IMG company used to be owned by Forstmann Little which was a venture capitalist company specialising in leveraged buyouts. It suffered a series of losses and was successfully sued for mismanagement by the State of Connecticut which ultimately resulted in its demise, which I assume is why IMG was sold to William Morris Endeavour Entertainment in 2013. WME is apparently a large LA-based talent agency.

 

IMG itself was of course founded by Mark McCormack who started out by managing professional golfers and tennis players. The company was sold upon his death in 2003.

Edited by Humphrey Appleby
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Also found a job entitled Event Manager - BSI Speedway IMG.

Haha - well they certainly need one, or maybe they've finally fired someone.

 

I wonder if my application would be taken seriously... ;)

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Yes, the GPS run on only 12 of the 30+ weekends in the british season.

 

Yes, but on 12 of the prime race days on the prime weekends of the season.

The FIM appear quite a useful foil for the BSI in terms of limiting the distribution of profits and blame apportionment and as such the current arrangement is very much to their advantage.

It's of course the strategy of spreading responsibility as widely as possible and then blaming the other parties for it. If the riders all went on strike then it would be resolved very quickly as the FIM/BSI get the competitors very cheap in comparison to other sports, but one would guess they can only be happy with their returns.

BENFIELD Sports International, founded by John Postlethwaite, formerly of Pepsi and the Benneton F1 team, was originally a subsidiary of Benfield Greig, one of the world's largest re-insurance companies. JP later took BSI away from the Benfield Greig umbrella and subsequently sold BSI Speedway to IMG.

It was an odd thing for a re-insurance company to invest in, as sports event organisation is a risky and often unprofitable business. One wonders whether John Postlethwaite was owed a favour or a payoff, especially as Benfield seem to have subsequently written off their investment.

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