Jump to content
British Speedway Forum
Sign in to follow this  
ruckerroo

Speedways governors have failed us

Recommended Posts

29 minutes ago, George Dodds said:

True owning the stadia would open up all sorts of other income but also adds to the outgoings. Your Lancashire League cricket club will not take £250,000 from clubhouse hire this year so that will leave them in a mess because - unless things have changed since I used to watch it - most clubs struggle to attract three figure crowds through the turnstiles. Commercial sponsorship and corporate hospitality must all be under real threat as businesses either fold or cut back on outgoings after lockdown. 

But a club used to taking £250,000 a year from clubhouse hire starts, post-COVID, from a much stronger position than, say, a speedway club relying on a few hundred spectators for 90 per cent of its revenue. They've got 'rainy day' money in the bank.

Incidentally, club cricket in Lancashire and Yorkshire is the best supported in England. Lancashire League clubs charge £4 admission. The bigger ones attract crowds of about 250-300. Club cricket cup finals in Lancashire and Yorkshire often pull crowds of 1,000+. When did Berwick Bandits last see a crowd that size? Not on any of my visits, either to Berrington or Shielfield.

As HGould remarked, speedway's big (insurmountable?) problem has always been most clubs are mere tenants, at the whim of the landlord, who in addition to banking rent, creams off takings from the bar etc.

Even more concerning, as dog racing goes down the pan, speedway may well find a number of its clubs having to call it a day by default.

Edited by Piotr Pyszny

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
22 minutes ago, Ben91 said:

Speedway is a strange beast. We are a motorsport but race as teams with home and away fixtures, I can’t think of any other motorsport that does the same. But those teams, while under the same umbrella don’t seem to read from the same songbook. The sport really needs an overarching authority with no ties to any club. It has done for a number of years now. 

It's a key point. Speedway is a collection of small businesses, all of which prioritise their own, individual interests rather than the common good.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

But a club used to taking £250,000 a year from clubhouse hire starts, post-COVID, from a much stronger position than, say, a speedway club relying on a few hundred spectators for 90 per cent of its revenue. They've got 'rainy day' money in the bank.

Incidentally, club cricket in Lancashire and Yorkshire is the best supported in England. Lancashire League clubs charge £4 admission. The bigger ones attract crowds of about 250-300. Club cricket cup finals in Lancashire and Yorkshire often pull crowds of 1,000+. When did Berwick Bandits last see a crowd that size? Not on any of my visits, either to Berrington or Shielfield.

As HGould remarked, speedway's big (insurmountable?) problem has always been most clubs are mere tenants, at the whim of the landlord, who in addition to banking rent, creams off takings from the bar etc.

Even more concerning, as dog racing goes down the pan, speedway may well find a number of its clubs having to call it a day by default.

I'm not really arguing against you - speedway's biggest problem has been its decision to be tenants and not owners but, and Berrington Lough is an example, owning your own stadium is not the simple answer to untold riches.

I'm well aware of the strength of league cricket in Yorkshire and Lancashire - albeit it is much weaker now than when I watched the CLL, Lancashire and Bradford leagues regularly between the late eighties and mid-noughties, but let's be honest the point of a league cricket club is not to make money through attendances but to subsidise running, often a large number, of cricket teams through non-cricket activities.

They also don't - legally at least - pay all bar one of the players at the club so while a lot of the points you make have are valid on the it's not really a like-for-like comparison  - although Somerset do seem to have followed the blueprint by subsidising speedway through its hospitality facilities.  The regular 1000 plus crowds seem fanciful  as I doubt that any non-county cricket ground can currently hold anything approaching that number although in the days when Richards, Sobers, Worrall, Garner and Cronje played league cricket in Lancashire may very well have.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 hours ago, HGould said:

The biggest problem with UK Speedway though is that so few Clubs own their own stadium.

They pay rent to Stadium Owners and have therefore no or very little income from hospitality, bar and food outlets. 

Brummies is a classic example. 

Most Club Shops are pretty poor compared to non league Soccer.

If a Club has an average of 600 paying fans at £15, that's around £180,000 through the Gate for 20 meetings.

I would guess based on numerous away trips in past season that most Clubs average is close to 600-700.

If any Club these days gets in 10%-15% of that in Sponsorship they are doing pretty well. (18-24k in sponsorship)

That's the limit of the income for the majority that Rent

It's a vicious circle, riders paying too much for over priced equipment, being paid too much by promoters to pay for that over priced equipment.

Reduce machine costs and understand it's a part time job to be a rider (semi professional) and we might start getting somewhere. 

 

thats the answer but who has the authority, imagination, cojones, whatever, to do it? We can do it unilaterally - the riders who ride gp or foreign leagues prob have dedicated machines for that. Needs someone with more tech knowledge than me to suggest exactly what to do but F2 maybe??

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 hours ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

It's a key point. Speedway is a collection of small businesses, all of which prioritise their own, individual interests rather than the common good.

Spot on.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think most Promotions don’t get crowd levels to cover riders demands for the season and rely on Sponsorship and fans initiatives to raise funds to keep afloat.Have a feeling things will have too change a bit in future.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
22 hours ago, George Dodds said:

On the contrary I would say it was pretty much every british sport with the exception of top division English football, rugby union and cricket. They are the only ones subsidised by huge TV contracts the rest have to make their own money.  

What about Basketball?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, George Dodds said:

The regular 1000 plus crowds seem fanciful  as I doubt that any non-county cricket ground can currently hold anything approaching that number although in the days when Richards, Sobers, Worrall, Garner and Cronje played league cricket in Lancashire may very well have.

For clarification: nowadays, it's only the finals of the annual knockout cup competitions - run by Lancashire and Yorkshire cricket leagues - that attract attendances into four figures.

As for Berrington Lough, I guess it suffered from being very much in the middle of nowhere (ironically, today's model for new speedway tracks).

Edited by Piotr Pyszny
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
55 minutes ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

For clarification: nowadays, it's only the finals of the annual knockout cup competitions - run by Lancashire and Yorkshire cricket leagues - that attract attendances into four figures.

As for Berrington Lough, I guess it suffered from being very much in the middle of nowhere (ironically, today's model for new speedway tracks).

I remember going to a football match at Shielfield park and catching the special bus from the car park to Berrington Lough. Strange times.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
57 minutes ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

For clarification: nowadays, it's only the finals of the annual knockout cup competitions - run by Lancashire and Yorkshire cricket leagues - that attract attendances into four figures.

As for Berrington Lough, I guess it suffered from being very much in the middle of nowhere (ironically, today's model for new speedway tracks).

It is a huge problem. Speedway tracks with locations similar to cricket clubs - heart of the community, surrounded by houses - are few and far between ... and subject to severe planning restrictions to operations. Nothing to stop them building good facilities though. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, cityrebel said:

I remember going to a football match at Shielfield park and catching the special bus from the car park to Berrington Lough. Strange times.

Did the same myself once. A great day of sport! After that year (1990), mind, I always drove to Berrington.

Edited by Piotr Pyszny

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Skodaman said:

What about Basketball?

TV's interest in the British Basketball League has been very patchy, according to Wiki. Seems the present deal is with a company called Perform Content.

https://media.sportbusiness.com/news/british-basketball-league-signs-new-deal-perform-content/

Super (rugby) League's 2020 deal with Sky Sports was worth £40m (it's since been reduced owing to COVID-19 disruption). Rugby league also has a less lucrative deal with the BBC, for Challenge Cup live coverage and Super League highlights (ditto). The BBC is to show every game - 61 - during the 2021 Rugby League World Cup (includes the men's, women's and wheelchair competitions).

British ice hockey's Elite League has a TV deal with Free Sports. It covers the live screening of league and cup games. Can't imagine it brings in that much money.

What did speedway get out of Sky Sports from its final deal?

Edited by Piotr Pyszny

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
52 minutes ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

 

What did speedway get out of Sky Sports from its final deal?

Nigel Pearson, I guess :angry:

  • Haha 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 hours ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

It's a key point. Speedway is a collection of small businesses, all of which prioritise their own, individual interests rather than the common good.

Many of whom seem to spend lots of time, focus and money in putting one over their rivals to win competitions rendered pretty much worthless in terms of both kudos and great financial reward by the very actions that they take....

A very strange business plan indeed..

Maybe one day they will all truly work together and put the sport first.

Whilst it's still there..

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
8 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Many of whom seem to spend lots of time, focus and money in putting one over their rivals to win competitions rendered pretty much worthless in terms of both kudos and great financial reward by the very actions that they take....

A very strange business plan indeed..

Maybe one day they will all truly work together and put the sport first.

Whilst it's still there..

 

Not until you get rid of the ‘ top table ‘ of individuals who run clubs of their own , it needs an independent , non biased chair ( which it hasn’t had for years ) .

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy