Justgotmecpc 1,056 Posted September 21, 2021 5 hours ago, Diamonds85 said: Yes... Rent may be the same, but as I mentioned above, it's reductions elsewhere we need to look at while we go through our initial difficult financial season... Rider wages is the most obvious place to start? Also, is it cheaper to enter a team in the NL (licence wise etc) compared to the PL or CL? I don't know... Yes... We do need a figure head to take charge and run the show so to speak... Look after the funds, go to meetings with the BSPA etc... If we could find someone and hundreds of us back them financially, that could be the way forward? That figurehead doesn't even need to be that wealthy themselves if we've all got their back... I am sure the current crop of volunteers, some of which I know or have known in the past personally, would be ecstatic and more than happy to come down and help again if their team they've been volunteering at for years came back? Although yes, there would need to be certain positions refilled again... Their wages would need to be taken into account also I'm guessing not... If only he could be that figurehead I talked about earlier... He wouldn't need to worry about the money side as much, just the planning side, which afterall, IS his business ain't it? Entertainment... Us fans could provide as much financial backing as possible... And considering he actually made a profit this year (granted he lost a lot on his other businesses during covid) the possibilities are endless... I just wish that things like the waffle truck and extra food and drink options had been there all year, as they were heaving and must have been making a fortune for him... Although I only visited the bar personally Wages for volunteering duties ?? It was done out of love for the club & would gladly do it again if we do come to the tapes in 2022 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruffdiamond 6,115 Posted September 21, 2021 45 minutes ago, Trackerman48 said: Also since the sad passing of dave tattum Newcastle would need a second promoter to work alongside Rob. If he did stay on and that will not be easy. 22 minutes ago, Justgotmecpc said: Yeah that's very true Maybe just someone to help with the heavy lifting. Am sure Rob has to put a lot if time into both or other businesses. Maybe some help with other stuff could work, allowing him to free up some time. Can't be easy juggling 2 things at the same time and, gadgy's can't do multi-tasking. A suppose in times like this, every stone needs to be turned over? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Piotr Pyszny 206 Posted September 21, 2021 19 hours ago, TotallyHonestJohn said: Gary I know you are passionate about your team however it is difficult just to pluck a figure out of the air but I will give it a go to try and get peoples minds focused at what you will be looking at to run a successful venture for the first season. If you read the BSPL rule book start up costs of £30k for your bond with the BSPL and £15k against your rider asset's will need placing with the BSPL; now if you don't screw up this is returnable and just sits with the BSPL for however long you want to run until the next person comes along and takes over those costs. You have the good will of the current promotion so buying what few assets he has (very few) riders; the tractors; water bowser; grading tools; sound system; amplifiers; starting gate fencing and air fence; so lets say for arguments sake £25k for those; then you have your annual seasonal fees to the BSPL that have to be paid for licences; insurance; management and administration costs and other essential items (which again you may get back at the end of the season from the shared events however that's not guaranteed) and you have your start up costs at the start of the season to get the track ready set up the team and you need funds in the bank to run your first couple of meetings and especially if you start with a few away meeting as these will need to be paid for before you generate any cash through the turnstiles and at a conservative estimate you need about another £40k in the bank to cover these costs So as a start up and as a very rough guestimate you will need around £110;000 to set the thing up and running. Then the next thing is addressing the crowd numbers and what type of team you can procure that will give you a chance of being competitive and this has two main factors crowd numbers to rider costs and a hard core of 350 dedicated home fans only gives you £7k at 20 quid a head for rough figures and to put a meeting on at Brough costs around £2500 leaving you £4.5k for points money so over 2 meetings that's a rough average of 45 quid a point and when you see the rising star riders on 40 quid a point guarantees it means really that the rest of the team need to be around the 45 to 50 quid a point mark and that is really stretching it as top riders are looking for 65 to 95 quid a point at this level which will mean if you over extend this budget you will need to find the short fall from somewhere which could be as much as 4k over the two meetings that you need to find which is either 200 on the gate or other revenue streams to cover an average team cost on say an average of 80 quid a point across the full team... ARC may be open to offering a two year lease if whoever comes in can show a sustainable business plan and meets all their rules on how they want their facility used and to run the following year my estimate would be another 50k to run that second season (as all bods would be in place)… Now this is where the fun starts as it would give you 2 year to get the next stage sorted which would be to get into your own venue (note I have not said stadium) and again there needs to be some hard talking on this one but my angle would be "lets stop blowing our collective brains out trying to make a profitable business out of this club; many have tried over the years and it is just not achievable so thinking outside the box (hopefully) lets look at running a not for profit organisation that will potentially open up funding streams not normally available to normal businesses" here are a couple of links for light reading which will give an idea... What we need to know about CIC and CIO organisations... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_interest_company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charitable_incorporated_organisation Now I do not want to build up any false hope here its only an idea and it may not even be allowed but to my mind it needs explored further and the funding will need to be in place to run for a couple of seasons until we get to a position where we can jump ship to a new venue but it will be a very long hard slog and potentially a very expensive one. Unless there is an entrepreneur out there who likes a gamble and a risk; because if we could get 3/4ers or even 2/3rds of the crowd who came to last nights wake against Birmingham then "jobs a good un" as the saying goes and the thing is viable for someone to have a go at for sure and I was very surprised at the turn out figure last night of 1232 and many thanks to everyone who turned out (blew my guess of 750 to 850 right out of the water) I am off on a break now for the next 5 days and wont have a signal (or a very limited one that's for sure) to answer all those who pull my figures apart however they are only educated guesstimates for a rough guide to give people an idea of how big the task is... By the way I am just the facilitator and the ideas man... I'm too fat and too old for a job... Honest... Regards John With the attendances you quote, I don’t see how speedway at Newcastle’s level can be viable or sustainable as a professional sport. What other professional sport is played out to such a small audience? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cityrebel 2,960 Posted September 21, 2021 9 minutes ago, Piotr Pyszny said: With the attendances you quote, I don’t see how speedway at Newcastle’s level can be viable or sustainable as a professional sport. What other professional sport is played out to such a small audience? Speedway in this country lives far beyond its means. On Friday i attended a non league football match in the Essex senior league that pulled in more than 350. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fromafar 10,338 Posted September 21, 2021 9 hours ago, ruffdiamond said: Could he be persuaded tho? Doubt it,but if supporters come up with a decent sum of Money up front,you never know.Personally think he will be glad to get out of the sport it’s just not worth the hassle nowadays.IMO. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Piotr Pyszny 206 Posted September 21, 2021 (edited) 27 minutes ago, cityrebel said: Speedway in this country lives far beyond its means. On Friday i attended a non league football match in the Essex senior league that pulled in more than 350. Exactly. If Newcastle's crowds have dropped as low as 350, closure is inevitable. In the North East, there are football clubs in the semi-pro Northern League attracting bigger audiences! Edited September 21, 2021 by Piotr Pyszny Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gaz 214 Posted September 21, 2021 22 minutes ago, Piotr Pyszny said: Exactly. If Newcastle's crowds have dropped as low as 350, closure is inevitable. In the North East, there are football clubs in the semi-pro Northern League attracting bigger audiences! The average attendance has probably been about 500 over the course of the season and on speedway terms Granty has actually made profit. I think with a main promoter / co promoter with fans contributing also we can keep Newcastle Speedway alive and continuing for years hopefully at a new track in the future. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SSL84 541 Posted September 21, 2021 1 minute ago, Gaz said: The average attendance has probably been about 500 over the course of the season and on speedway terms Granty has actually made profit. I think with a main promoter / co promoter with fans contributing also we can keep Newcastle Speedway alive and continuing for years hopefully at a new track in the future. Think you're way wrong FACTS are Rob as lost money not made money as you say over the season 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gordon Pairman 457 Posted September 21, 2021 Can someone explain why there is an urgent need, or is it just a desire, to move away from the current stadium? A figure of £150k for a very basis new track has been quoted but, if that sort of money could be found, would it not be better spent promoting and supporting the sport at its existing venue? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cityrebel 2,960 Posted September 21, 2021 21 minutes ago, Gordon Pairman said: Can someone explain why there is an urgent need, or is it just a desire, to move away from the current stadium? A figure of £150k for a very basis new track has been quoted but, if that sort of money could be found, would it not be better spent promoting and supporting the sport at its existing venue? Isn't Brough Park earmarked for housing? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruffdiamond 6,115 Posted September 21, 2021 27 minutes ago, Gordon Pairman said: Can someone explain why there is an urgent need, or is it just a desire, to move away from the current stadium? A figure of £150k for a very basis new track has been quoted but, if that sort of money could be found, would it not be better spent promoting and supporting the sport at its existing venue? A think with limited availability, access to track and hoops to jump through, a new venue might get rid of those issues. A new venue could include other enterprises and not just speedway. Quad bikes, BMX, market stalls etc. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scampispeedway 67 Posted September 21, 2021 (edited) I watched Look North last night and Geoff Brown started the sports parts of the programme around 6.50pm with the possible ending of 90 years of Speedway before mentioning the other sports, it showed a lot that went on after the meeting and Rob Grant explained how he has lost a lot of money through out the season. I'm pretty certain that the ground where Brough Park is situated must only be used for sport as it has covenant stating this fact but this could be over turned if the Greyhound owners ever pulled out. Edited September 21, 2021 by scampispeedway missing word near start of post 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Parsy29 127 Posted September 21, 2021 56 minutes ago, ruffdiamond said: A think with limited availability, access to track and hoops to jump through, a new venue might get rid of those issues. A new venue could include other enterprises and not just speedway. Quad bikes, BMX, market stalls etc. Major hurdle that all the previous ventures have faced in the last 10 years around the country is the noise sadly. Our wonderful sport that we love the smell and sound from is no longer 2021 compliant with the amount of new housing estates being built on every bit of land possible. With every new estate on the outskirts means none to very little chance of getting Speedway within 10 miles of them. This is where electric could well spell the future of our sport. Yes I know we love the noise but apart from Speedway fans ive not heard one person who loves to sit in their garden on a Friday or Sunday night listening to the soothing tones of the local Speedway. 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ruffdiamond 6,115 Posted September 21, 2021 29 minutes ago, Parsy29 said: Major hurdle that all the previous ventures have faced in the last 10 years around the country is the noise sadly. Our wonderful sport that we love the smell and sound from is no longer 2021 compliant with the amount of new housing estates being built on every bit of land possible. With every new estate on the outskirts means none to very little chance of getting Speedway within 10 miles of them. This is where electric could well spell the future of our sport. Yes I know we love the noise but apart from Speedway fans ive not heard one person who loves to sit in their garden on a Friday or Sunday night listening to the soothing tones of the local Speedway. Aye, a get what you say, but was thinking that the Seaton Burn site is just about directly under the flight path for the airport, so its noisy anyway, plus the A1 and A19 noise? Surely it's not time to get the white flag oot yet. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Diamonds85 698 Posted September 21, 2021 4 hours ago, Justgotmecpc said: Wages for volunteering duties ?? It was done out of love for the club & would gladly do it again if we do come to the tapes in 2022 I am aware that a lot of you guys volunteered your duties, which is amazing... But I also assume that some in other roles were paid? I can't say for sure as I am not really involved in any background type stuff... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
