Speedways governors have failed us

[George Dodds 310]

1 hour ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

There can't be many professional sports nowadays where 90 per cent of revenue is through the turnstiles. And that on crowds as small as 800.

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.  

[ruckerroo 792]

I just cant have the differential that stock cars are ok at ipswitch but speedway isnt.

The yarmouth situation just muddys waters really but why is it safe there and not safe at say hove dogs etc etc.

To my eyes its made up as they go along

[wealdstone 3,454]

Speedway has always been in the grips of narrow self interest  of the promoters 

[mikebv 10,240]

1 hour ago, cityrebel said:

800 is a pretty decent turn out nowadays. As a sport, its attendances put it on a par with non league football.

Stockport County get 3500 a week...

[cityrebel 2,960]

10 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Stockport County get 3500 a week...

Ex league clubs do get good gates.

[ch958 2,393]

1 hour ago, cityrebel said:

800 is a pretty decent turn out nowadays. As a sport, its attendances put it on a par with non league football.

with considerably more expense that your average NL football team and theres the rub

[cityrebel 2,960]

18 minutes ago, ch958 said:

with considerably more expense that your average NL football team and theres the rub

Absolutely. Speedway is far too costly for everyone involved in the sport. The crowd figures don't justify the outlay.

[old bob at herne bay 828]

 

With 90% of revenue throught  the turnstiles and 80% of the clubs total income spent on riders wages,  UK speedway was in a complete financial mess  before COVID19. Like so many high street businesses this pandemic has just highlighted the problems. 

Ian Jordon hit the nail on the head when he said that 30 -40% of his crowd were uncertain that they would turn up this season.  Not running  league speedway must have been a cut your losses strategy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Piotr Pyszny 206]

8 hours ago, cityrebel said:

800 is a pretty decent turn out nowadays. As a sport, its attendances put it on a par with non league football.

Many non-league football clubs attract far more than 800 spectators. And many speedway teams attract far fewer.

Look at the list of non-league football average attendances (2019-20), and you need to come down as far as 52nd (Guiseley, 793) to get below 800!

https://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/global/attendances/

Edited July 29, 2020 by Piotr Pyszny

[Piotr Pyszny 206]

7 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.  

Think we can add top division rugby league to that list.

I'd say 90 per cent of revenue through the turnstiles is a very high proportion of overall income.

Clubs in other sports seem to do very much better than speedway with things like commercial sponsorship, corporate hospitality, replica/souvenir sales, bar takings and clubhouse hire (all over and above the number of paying spectators).

I know of one Lancashire League cricket club - amateurs - that pulls in £250,000 a year from clubhouse hire alone.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Piotr Pyszny

[Spl77 337]

The BSPA are probably dining out on being given elite status by the government. It's probably the first time for 30 plus years that anyone other than the BSPA have seen speedway as an elite sport! 

[HGould 2,213]

7 hours ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

Think we can add top division rugby league to that list.

I'd say 90 per cent of revenue through the turnstiles is a very high proportion of overall income.

Clubs in other sports seem to do very much better than speedway with things like commercial sponsorship, corporate hospitality, replica/souvenir sales, bar takings and clubhouse hire (all over and above the number of paying spectators).

I know of one Lancashire League cricket club - amateurs - that pulls in £250,000 a year from clubhouse hire alone.

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. 

 

[iainb 4,962]

2 hours ago, Spl77 said:

The BSPA are probably dining out on being given elite status by the government. It's probably the first time for 30 plus years that anyone other than the BSPA have seen speedway as an elite sport! 

Maybe time to rename the League to "Elite League"... oh hang on a minute, they already tried that 

[George Dodds 310]

9 hours ago, Piotr Pyszny said:

Think we can add top division rugby league to that list.

I'd say 90 per cent of revenue through the turnstiles is a very high proportion of overall income.

Clubs in other sports seem to do very much better than speedway with things like commercial sponsorship, corporate hospitality, replica/souvenir sales, bar takings and clubhouse hire (all over and above the number of paying spectators).

I know of one Lancashire League cricket club - amateurs - that pulls in £250,000 a year from clubhouse hire alone.

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. 

[Ben91 1,743]

Ultimately, the powers that be have had since March to work out a plan, albeit with uncertainty over how things will develop granted. 

With regard to cancelling the league season I believe they have made the right decision, however the communication with fans was not good. I seem to remember only two updates from the BSPA since March and one of those was to say that the season was being cancelled. The party line until that point was that some league racing was hopefully going to happen, yet it doesn’t seem there was a plan of how to achieve that. If there was then the most important people, the fans, weren’t informed. 

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.