Elite Riders Championship - 25/09/2014

[jeff 60]

It may take some time for the investigation to detail the facts, particularly to work through the details of the lines of responsibility for track curation and whether these were discharged properly. A neutrals view might be that some blame can be attached to all parties (BSPA for not monitoring that the contractual responsibilities were unclear or being adhered to, Mick Horton for not responding promptly to the messages from Coventry Stadium and the stadium for leaving it late for the new track team to start remedial work on the track. 'Lessons learned' will be interesting reading if we ever get to see them.

 

However far more worrying is the breakdown in the relationship between Mick Horton and Coventry Stadium. Mick Horton's statement (below) did suggest that a resolution to the disagreement was possible

 

“There is no way that I will allow a Coventry team on that track until it is correct, and until that time, until it is in a suitable condition to race on, we will decline any further shared events or TV meetings"

 

However the Coventry Stadium statement points the finger at Mick Horton and escalates the rift ("the chronology is important.....so that disappointed fans can draw the correct conclusions" "In the past Colin Pratt as the promoter of the Bees would have been on site making sure the track could be made ready" "we fulfilled our obligation to inform Mick Horton about our doubts which he chose to ignore" "We are sorry that Mick Horton has decided not to race at Coventry").

 

The only way to resolve this is an ACAS type process between Mick Horton and Coventry Stadium. I can't see how speedway can continue at Brandon unless either (a) a mutually agreed way forward is brokered or ( a very quick change of promoter happens - this assumes someone is willing to come forward and that Mick agrees to the switch.

 

I think the best hope lies in all parties swallowing a bit of pride and recognising that they could have handled things better or maybe just improved how they communicated. Taking sides/entrenched positions now or waiting for a BSPA investigation to clobber one of the parties isn't going to lead to an outcome of benefit to anyone other than lawyers or someone's ego.

 

Someone needs to convince both parties that it is in everyone's interest to find a solution. Could an 'honest broker' be found whom both parties would trust and if so who? I'll head off some obvious replies by getting in first: 'no-one with a Dorset postcode'?

[Starman2006 2,354]

With all the accusations and counter accusations I can sense lawyers getting involved. Be interesting to see who sues who. Lawyers could be rubbing their hands on this. No win, no fee ( or the new alternative).

Ger Granville, fer fetch the till...

[semion 2,192]

Cloth

[orion 7,615]

Looking from the outside it looks like it was just Horton's fault and he should take most the blame rather than blame others .

 

Be amazed if Cov carries on to be honest .

[YerRopes 3,009]

Your not missing much.......no horton,didnt want to appear...no representative from Coventry Stadium wanted to appear.....No rep from BSPA wanted to appear...says it all.......Rory Schlein in the studio

Sadly, they're all too busy 'burying their heads in the sand' (hoping it will all go away)..

 

Everyone refuses to take any responsibility themselves, instead they all try to apportion blame elsewhere rather than together attempting to resolve these issues asap..

 

After the various Press Releases over the last couple of days blaming each other, the future fixtures of Coventry Speedway remain 'clouded in mystery' to your average supporter and that really is just not good enough...

 

Grow up please and get it sorted..

[WembleyLion 413]

In the time log the comment from the Stadium at 2.49pm is really odd given what they say immediately before and after. Looks like it was slotted in at the wrong place as an after thought.

[semion 2,192]

Good spot Poirot.

[Crump99 4,476]

Are you going to pay them?

 

Excellent! You've got an idea, how you going to pay for it.

[greytiger 54]

I'm still trying to understand why the accountant was the representative for Coventry Stadium? WTF!!

 

 

 

Thing's just don't add up.............

At least he had the presence of mind to call Horton the track curator hadn't. I still can;t understand why after the farce the night before not one of the promotion team.......Horton,Watson,Rodgers,Scroggin.......couldn't make the effort to check out the track the the following day. Do they all live hundreds of miles away.

Why ever the promoter was allowed to run a Nation League meeting 2 days before say's a lot for the BSPA.

It use to be a good feeling to walk into the Stadium but over the last couple of seasons a good clean profression......seem's to have died. Very tattie looking bunch even before the dust start's to fly.

Thank goodness the likes of Buster Chapman,Len Silver,They know how to work on their track's themselves.

[Halifaxtiger 5,318]

 

Of course I'm not going to pay them. Perhaps they would do it for a nominal fee if it is for the good of the sport in which they all hold a stake? I'm talking about one person per meeting being on hand to oversee things and make sure there is no cock up, not large salaries for half a dozen people. How much do you think catastrophes like last night cost speedway? Thousands I would say, would cost far less to make sure track cock ups don't happen.

 

Seems daft to have so much expertise at hand and not use it.

 

Quite, Better to stump up a big fee for a track curator than allow this to happen again.

 

I have to say I think most of the blame lies with Mick Horton. While it seems quite clear that he very much has a case about the inability of the stadium management to prepare a track that is largely irrelevant in the creation of the situation that followed.

 

Apparently, it was clear that the track would be in no condition for speedway as early as Saturday morning. Horton then doesn't turn up for a meeting, he then doesn't call it off on Sunday morning- despite being told that the meeting should not go ahead - and he then allows people to pay to go in. You have to ask why he chose to take (or not take) these actions.

 

Had he called it off on Saturday and let everyone know that the reason for that he would have been utterly blameless.

Edited March 25, 2014 by Halifaxtiger

[speedybee 295]

I still can;t understand why after the farce the night before not one of the promotion team.......Horton,Watson,Rodgers,Scroggin.......couldn't make the effort to check out the track the the following day. Do they all live hundreds of miles away.

Maybe something to do with their third team, Peterborough, riding at Leicester on Saturday. Hang on, that's just down the road...

[Big Al 708]

So whoever makes the next 'official' statement is the one we are all expected to believe?!

 

Mick Horton makes a statement and many (not all) have sympathy with him. Sandhu's man then issues a Stadium statement and 'everybody' suddenly sides with that overview of events!!

 

This is just the expected 'sabre-rattling' over a situation where there is clearly some blame on all sides!! The main question for me is with 3 weeks of the new track man already passed and with no apparent improvements to the speedway track, how much longer is the expert track man going to need to get a raceable track before MH will allow his teams to ride again??

When they've all finished spitting out their dummies!

[g13webb 4,254]

In regards to track preparation, am I right in thinking, Kings Lynn is the only club setup to do it right in all situations

We have Track that drains the water away from the corners,

We have a concrete infield, enabling wet shale to be spread out too dry,

We have loads of shale ready to be used and/or reused on site

We have all the machinery necessary to lay / or relay a track,

But more importantly we have BUSTER, who knows everything about preparing a track, and he makes it look so easy.

 

We read so much about the failings at Brandon and of the meeting held on the previous Friday, as if it was a big issue. Last weekend at Lynn, we had the P&P day on Friday, Stock-car meeting on a wet Saturday night followed by Mads Testimonial on the Sunday. everything wet off without a hitch. thanks to Buster's hard work and expertise.

 

Why cant other clubs do the same....

[E I Addio 15,845]

In regards to track preparation, am I right in thinking, Kings Lynn is the only club setup to do it right in all situations

We have Track that drains the water away from the corners,

We have a concrete infield, enabling wet shale to be spread out too dry,

We have loads of shale ready to be used and/or reused on site

We have all the machinery necessary to lay / or relay a track,

But more importantly we have BUSTER, who knows everything about preparing a track, and he makes it look so easy.

 

 

 

 

Yep, good ol' Buster, who had to postpone a meeting last year because he reckoned he couldn't get a fuse changed in three days.

 

Even Horton could manage that.

Edited March 25, 2014 by E I Addio

[arthur cross 492]

In regards to track preparation, am I right in thinking, Kings Lynn is the only club setup to do it right in all situations

 

Why cant other clubs do the same....

Don't forget that at King's Lynn you have the huge advantage of the speedway promotion being able to work on the track without needing to liaise with the stadium owners because the promotion and ownership are all rolled up in the family business.

 

Around the rest of the Elite League only Eastbourne and newcomers Leicester have a similar luxury ... Belle Vue, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Poole and Swindon all have to fit in with greyhound landlords ... Lakeside need to fit in with Arena Essex stock cars ... and then there's what's clearly disintegrated as a working relationship between the Coventry Bees and Coventry Stadium.

 

In the Premier League only Plymouth, Somerset, Rye House, Scunthorpe and Redcar have speedway freedom ... Edinburgh, Newcastle and Sheffield all have greyhound landlords ... Glasgow, Workington and Berwick race around football or rugby pitches ... Ipswich have stock car landlords ... and then there's the unique case of Peterborough having loads of access to their track but dependent instead on fitting their home dates for the crowd's car-parking around the other events staged within the various chunks of the East of England Showground.

 

In plenty of cases there's a really good relationship between another sport as landlord and the speedway tenants because the speedway clearly enhances the landlord's profits (Wolverhampton certainly springs to mind) while Berwick's Dennis McCleary is both the football secretary and a speedway co-promoter so the Bandits are probably the nearest thing to a tenant having speedway freedom.

 

But elsewhere there are a few speedway officials who don't respect the landlord/tenant relationship enough, maybe because they think their club's long history should be enough to give them the freedom to do what they want.

 

It's also easy for fans of a speedway tenant to misjudge where their club fits into their stadium's overall business plan if those fans only attend the speedway there ... for example, at any of the greyhound tracks featured at least 3 times a week in betting shops (Wolves, Swindon, Newcastle and Sheffield), I doubt the annual speedway rent even reaches just a few weeks' worth of the greyhound rights-fees paid by the bookies even allowing for Wolves and Cradley (ex-Dudley) both renting Monmore (and, remember, the greyhounds are shown by the bookies all 12 months of the year).