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Speedway Related Co Finances

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1 hour ago, woofers said:

Who knows? You will note that all of the accounts are unaudited. That’s not to say there is anything wrong in that or anything underhand is taking place but I’m pretty sure that there is different accounting treatment from club to club. The Micro Entity accounts show the bare minimum whilst the Abridged accounts at least show some detail of the assets. In some cases rider registrations are referred to and are being written off over a number of years.

I'm not a financial expert by any means, but I followed everything from the initial post.

That was the thing, you have access to "records", but without a detailed breakdown, it is very difficult to gauge each individual situation. Even without doing anything fraudulent - or even devious - it is usually possible to make the books read they way you want, based on a particular time-frame.

With regard to Ray Stadia's comment about football, I am sure that many of the clubs (even smaller clubs) deal in much larger amounts than speedway when it comes to cash flow. They may be in the red right now, but they have 200 grand due in next week! Look at my own team, AFC Wimbledon. I was reading how, if we can just beat Millwall in the FA Cup at the weekend, that will earn us close to a million!

Of course, that involves a number of factors, but for a small and poor League One team like us, one win against a team like Millwall can make us that sort of money? We know that speedway clubs can't be dealing in anywhere near those amounts...

Steve

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4 hours ago, woofers said:

The table is only a snapshot of accounts at a certain point in time.

Workington had assets of £323,575 at 31.12.14 with reductions of £37k, £37k and £32k in the following 3 years, and who knows what last year looked like, you can't keep incurring loses like that each year, the funds will soon dry up, I guess they said enough is enough.

The position at Glasgow is interesting (less clear) as they have transactions with another company under common control as well as their parent company. The company under common control was very generous in providing sponsorship to the tune of £350,000 as well as writing off loans of £424,439.

In the case of Workington I think the company quoted will be Laura's own business account with Worky being only one of them included. 

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5 hours ago, Ray Stadia said:

I reckon many football clubs would show a similar situation, but for some reason, debts hit speedway harder than football. :unsure:

In football, there's almost always another sucker/gloryhunter who'll come along and pay off the debts of the previous sucker/gloryhunter.

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Also no Sheffield or Leicester though we do have a Damian Bates, and Neil Machin that are part of the British Speedway Promotions.. along with Colin Pratt, Buster, and Rob Godfrey of Scunthorpe fame.. the only Team that appear to be missing totally are Eastbourne, however im sure they will be added sooner rather than later.

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12 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

In football, there's almost always another sucker/gloryhunter who'll come along and pay off the debts of the previous sucker/gloryhunter.

True, you don't hear of many football clubs ceasing......and that is probably where the analogy with speedway ends.

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2 hours ago, woofers said:

True, you don't hear of many football clubs ceasing......and that is probably where the analogy with speedway ends.

And when they do get in trouble esp with the tax people courts give them more time to sort out .

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On 2/13/2019 at 11:59 AM, woofers said:

The subscribers to the new company, British Speedway Promoters Ltd, are listed below with details from their latest available financial statements on Companies House.

These financials are basically the value of the company at the end of the 2017 season, the accounts for 2018 will not be filed until much later this year.

          Net worth
Company Club Accounting date Audited Form 2017
           
Belle Vue Speedway 2017 Belle Vue 31.12.17 No Micro Entity (270,730)
Berwick Speedway Promotions Berwick  New Co      
Birmingham Speedway Company Birmingham New Co      
Edinburgh Speedway 1986  Edinburgh 31.12.17 No Micro Entity (164,226)
Glasgow Tigers Speedway Glasgow 30.11.17 No Abridged 598,136
Wight Warriors Speedway IOW 31.12.17 No Abridged (54,841)
Cearnsport Kent 30.6.17 No Abridged 143,509
Newspeed 2003 Newcastle 30.11.17 No Micro Entity 22,302
South West Power Promotions Plymouth 31.12.17 No Micro Entity (73,946)
Poole Speedway Poole 28.2.18 No Micro Entity 76,881
Redcar Borough Bears Redcar 28.2.18 No Abridged (202,501)
Somerset Speedway 2011 Somerset 28.2.18 No Micro Entity (21,831)
Crewsline Stoke 30.4.18 No Micro Entity (580)
Swindon Speedway 2013 Swindon 30.11.17 No Micro Entity (103,033)
Slade Tipton Wolves 28.2.17 No Abridged 20,600
LJM Asset Manangement Workington 31.12.17 No Micro Entity 217,598
Scunthorpe Raceway Scunthorpe 31.12.17 No Abridged 8,110
Heathens Speedway Club Cradley 30.11.17 No Full (33,791)
MFT Team Mildenhall New Co      

Blimey, I thought the sport was in a bad state BUT this financial information is stunning...and NOT in a good way. Time to call in the  liquidators...!!

 

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11 hours ago, woofers said:

True, you don't hear of many football clubs ceasing......and that is probably where the analogy with speedway ends.

It happens a fair bit at non-league level, where some glory-hunter throws money at a club to climb the pyramid, despite the fact it's never going to be sustainable once they stop subsidising the club. Almost unheard of at Football League level though because generally there's more history and sustainable interest behind the clubs there, plus there's arguably more due diligence checks. 

But even the top level of British speedway is probably equivalent to only the 6th tier (Vanarama League North or South) of English football these days. 

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34 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

It happens a fair bit at non-league level, where some glory-hunter throws money at a club to climb the pyramid, despite the fact it's never going to be sustainable once they stop subsidising the club. Almost unheard of at Football League level though because generally there's more history and sustainable interest behind the clubs there, plus there's arguably more due diligence checks. 

But even the top level of British speedway is probably equivalent to only the 6th tier (Vanarama League North or South) of English football these days. 

Looking at these figures NO one in their right mind would want to own or invest in a Speedway club. It is clear the BSPA has brought this disastrous situation on themselves and I don’t see them finding a solution, it’s a shambles and plain madness. The mind boggles, even the clubs not showing substantial losses are only making peanuts. 

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52 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

It happens a fair bit at non-league level, where some glory-hunter throws money at a club to climb the pyramid, despite the fact it's never going to be sustainable once they stop subsidising the club. Almost unheard of at Football League level though because generally there's more history and sustainable interest behind the clubs there, plus there's arguably more due diligence checks. 

But even the top level of British speedway is probably equivalent to only the 6th tier (Vanarama League North or South) of English football these days. 

How very dare you...:)

Stockport County have had over 4000 in their place this season, and rarely drop below 3000..

And got over 7000 I think for the play offs last year...

Imagine any UK Speedway team getting those crowds...?

 

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26 minutes ago, Speedtiger said:

Looking at these figures NO one in their right mind would want to own or invest in a Speedway club. It is clear the BSPA has brought this disastrous situation on themselves and I don’t see them finding a solution, it’s a shambles and plain madness. The mind boggles, even the clubs not showing substantial losses are only making peanuts. 

It's not entirely their fault as some things have been beyond their control, and the sport lacks influential patronage as leverage. And speedway has suffered from changing lifestyles and interests along with many other businesses.

But promoters can be blamed for collectively failing to control rider wages which are probably the biggest cost and are something they absolutely can influence. 

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30 minutes ago, mikebv said:

How very dare you...:)

Stockport County have had over 4000 in their place this season, and rarely drop below 3000..

And got over 7000 I think for the play offs last year...

Imagine any UK Speedway team getting those crowds...?

 

There obviously are teams (normally ex-Football League) that can command decent attendances at that level, but it's really only a small handful. Look at the average attendances of other clubs in that league and they're far more akin to speedway ones. 

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In the case of Workington the numbers include Laura's other business interests such as her property management and construction businesses, it is not purely the speedway business.

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I am almost certain that these figures contain a lot of inaccuracies, so much so that conclusions really can't be drawn.  Most tax returns I've seen, including business ones, never show the real amounts of money flowing, the value taken out or offset against costs that are lower in reality than stated.  This is even more true of cash businesses where income can be difficult to audit.

Accountants are paid a lot of money for a reason!

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Not one set of accounts has been audited, and only one set described as "full". 

Hardly the stuff to engender trust and confidence is it?

And of course Terry Russell's company is  running at a loss again. (shock) 

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