A ORLOV 8,628 Posted December 1, 2017 Is BT serious? It makes you wonder if anyone doing the negotiations on their side has a clue about Speedway. So would they, for example, be happy with 7 GP riders plus 49 NL/development level riders making up the teams? Its sounding like the Brexit negotiations. If both sides can drop their silly games, and that means the BSPA stop persecuting GP riders, they could have a chance. Somebody has said it's a team sport. Well, it's now up to the BSPA to go out and win a main sponsor to bring in the finance. BT would be providing the advertising space. But it doesn't help their cause by pratting about with rules like the 1 over 8 and now this business about assessed averages. The only trouble is the bspa have been trying to get a main sponsor for years. Ok it had Sky for a while who were only there because they had the tv rights but no others have been found. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mickthemuppet 976 Posted December 1, 2017 Sadly the deal in it's present form should be turned down. What an offer when they are paying £4million for a football match Not only holding a live meeting would lose the club more money than the £3000 it would be paid. As I would expect this would be a Monday night and three other matches would be taking place on that night it will affect their attendances as well. Getting the GP riders is impossible . When was the last time 7 GP riders rode in the league. Ever since Speedway has been regulary televised the attendances have gone down .and now they are getting less live TV each season Tell BT to come up with a better offer or they can get stuffed. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
semion 2,192 Posted December 1, 2017 (edited) I wonder whether Clubs In Speedway really ever exploit the advertising opportunities that live TV Coverage offers ? I agree 3k is a joke. I am sure as Philip Rising alludes to there can be no one better at getting the Sport more money than Terry Russell. In fact Im surprised he doesn't use him to negotiate his advertising revenue with the likes of the Grand Prix tour company who take over his magazine for a week. Maybe he could get a deal closer to rate card costs. Edited December 1, 2017 by semion 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Woz01 3,589 Posted December 1, 2017 (edited) Greyhounds would not exist but for gambling. Its not really a sport. No one goes along to support a dog. Netball is no more than a jolly school sportfor girls and again rowing nothing more than an elite sport which only has passing interest when the olympics take place. Speedway for all its sins has a proper league structure snd a fanbase. It has clubs which are connected to towns. The bspa are right to ask for more than 3k. The 18k it costs to broadcast is irrelevant. Bt need live sports and a repeat of the 1993 cricket Gillette cup semi final will hardly have good viewing figures. 3k is seriously a joke of an offer and an insult. I spend that on my business almost daily. Netball is one sport that speedway could do well to look at how to make a tv deal work for you. The sport is growing mainly because of the coverage Sky gives it and Sky don't pay for it either. Wasps Netball get 2000 fans regularly for games, similar at other Netball clubs. It's a much more professional sport now. The sponsorship it generates (it even pays for the tv deal) shows it can work with a bit of common sense. Edited December 1, 2017 by woz01 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skidder1 7,634 Posted December 1, 2017 (edited) For each of the minimum of 10 TV meetings, couldn't each of the 8 SGBP teams get one of the GP stars to guest for that meeting.?? The £3k from BT could go straight to the GP rider, with extra fans attracted to that meeting (and possibly others) on the strength of seeing a couple of top riders they wouldn't normally see?? Silly idea maybe but thought I'd try thinking 'out of the box' before the sport ends up in one!! Edited December 1, 2017 by Skidder1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
flagrag 704 Posted December 1, 2017 Personally I think the offer that BT have made is ok in today's economic market and the position that British Speedway is in. I dare say if another broadcaster was to show an interest in showing Speedway then BT would likely come back with a highly increased offer but unless that happens that offer will not happen. The GP mIn quota to me is no real problem as Cook,Holder,Doyle,Lindgren rode in UK and in all honesty Leicester and Somerset needed to sign top riders as do Kings Lynn 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grachan 7,361 Posted December 1, 2017 When was the last time 7 GP riders rode in the league. Last year. Zagar, Harris, Iversen, Jonsson, Holder, Lindback (sort of), Doyle, Lindgren, Woffinden. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steve Shovlar 10,439 Posted December 1, 2017 BT probably pay the catering company 3K to turn up and provide food for the crew. Its a miniscule offer really not worthy of consideration. UK speedway will do better getting an in-house production team to do live ppv streaming. Sabmartv in Poland show what can be done. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MattK 3,447 Posted December 1, 2017 BT probably pay the catering company 3K to turn up and provide food for the crew. Its a miniscule offer really not worthy of consideration. UK speedway will do better getting an in-house production team to do live ppv streaming. Sabmartv in Poland show what can be done. Hopefully this is a one year contract. The low-ball nature of this offer might prompt some serious consideration of other options, if for no other reason than to give some leverage to future negotiations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PHILIPRISING 7,298 Posted December 1, 2017 BT probably pay the catering company 3K to turn up and provide food for the crew. Its a miniscule offer really not worthy of consideration. UK speedway will do better getting an in-house production team to do live ppv streaming. Sabmartv in Poland show what can be done. THERE was no catering this year. Cannot compare the potential ppv market in Poland to Britain. Cannot see it being viable here. BSPA should get a deal done with BT and build on it. It is not as though the TV companies are falling over themselves to cover British speedway especially when they come up with a rule that could see the current World Champion not competing here. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CookieIpswich 249 Posted December 1, 2017 Not sure if anyone has said but I keep seeing people say £3k is offered to the HOSTING club and everyone is saying they'll lose out with the £10 ticket As said before clubs will be lucky to get 1 or 2 home televised meetings during the regular season so from BT it's a maximum of £6000 revenue But BT want GP riders so the biggest problem and for once I agree with the BSPA Is that if you're paying a GP rider even £1000 per meeting over 20 meetings that's £20,000 and BT are looking to pay you £3/6k so where do clubs make up the deficit to ensure GP riders and £1k is generous wasn't one top rider on a guaranteed £3k per meeting which makes the numbers even worse Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gunner85 603 Posted December 1, 2017 Whatever the deal , a poor deal is better than no deal. No one else is coming in. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CookieIpswich 249 Posted December 1, 2017 A poor deal? So pay a GP riders £3k a meeting over 20 meetings that's £60k and get in £3k/£6k and struggle to pay the remaining amount Or Agree the £3k match fee with BT based on no official amount of GP riders If the bspa wanted GP riders the one rider over 8 wouldn't be there, simple as that Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Theboss 727 Posted December 1, 2017 The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is if the clubs accept the BT offer how will those clubs the bridge the financial gap between the £120k plus they received from sky last season to the £6k they will potentially receive this season.... Plus on top of that two meetings where they will potentially bring in less income as they are being forced to lower their admission to £10? In my opinion this is what is stopping the clubs signing and I can not say I blame them. So what happens if they do not accept the TV deal? Well I would hope they have a back up plan for PPV broadcasting, and if they don't then I can see teams starting 4 or 5 points lower than the 42.5 point limit as they look to cut costs, possibly putting two national league riders at reserve. Shame all of this wasn't thought through prior to AGM. Hindsight was not required, just some business acumen. 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OldRacer 84 Posted December 1, 2017 The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is if the clubs accept the BT offer how will those clubs the bridge the financial gap between the £120k plus they received from sky last season to the £6k they will potentially receive this season.... Plus on top of that two meetings where they will potentially bring in less income as they are being forced to lower their admission to £10? Could you give a ballpark guess as to what percentage of a clubs income the sky money represented? Are they looking at a reduction of 10%, 30% or 50%? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites