Warsaw Gp Saturday 18th April

[fullbore 129]

 

 

Yes, but on 12 of the prime race days on the prime weekends of the season.

Whay makes you think May 16th is prime and May 23rd not so?

 

Besides if they're so prime the venues will be running dogs or stock cars. And that's a bigger problem for the tennant clubs,

 

Niamh

[PHILIPRISING 7,298]

Broomco was possibly an off-the-shelf company, which used to be a popular way of creating the illusion of a trading record.

 

BSI or Benfield Sports International has gone through various renamings and legal restructures down the years, but BSI Speedway is currently the legal entity holding the SGP rights. It is in turn owned by a dormant holding company (something like BSI Holdings) that I think was originally the umbrella for all John Postlethwaite's speedway ventures like BSI Reading, but is now directly owned by IMG(UK) which is in turn owned by its US parent IMG. IMG is ultimately owned by another US corporation - possibly some sort of venture capitalist.

 

BSI Speedway was probably kept around as a company after the transfer of ownership to IMG(UK) as the long term agreement for the SGP rights was between it and the FIM. IMG(UK) provide all the staff and administrative support to the SGP, and other companies in the IMG group do other things like television production, each of course charging costs to BSI. So in fact IMG make substantially more from the SGP than the audited profits might show.

 

Although it's oft-claimed that John Postlethwaite's was the owner of BSI, it appears that Benfield Re-Insurance (of Chelsea Matthew Harding fame) put up most of the capital, and in fact there were several other minor owners from memory as well. At some point though, Benfield agreed to waive their rights in BSI, seemingly without getting any money back, so there's presumably some story behind that.

 

IMG(UK) has something of a troubled recent history. It lost millions on failed ventures into a Wembley tie-up, the Ricoh Arena at Coventry, and golf courses.

 

Edit - Just checked, and the parent IMG company used to be owned by Forstmann Little which was a venture capitalist company specialising in leveraged buyouts. It suffered a series of losses and was successfully sued for mismanagement by the State of Connecticut which ultimately resulted in its demise, which I assume is why IMG was sold to William Morris Endeavour Entertainment in 2013. WME is apparently a large LA-based talent agency.

 

IMG itself was of course founded by Mark McCormack who started out by managing professional golfers and tennis players. The company was sold upon his death in 2003.

DEMISE is harsh Humphrey... Forstmann died and IMG was bought for several billion dollars by William Morris.

Haha - well they certainly need one, or maybe they've finally fired someone.

 

I wonder if my application would be taken seriously...

FOR the record, the Event Manager who is superb and handles all the background administrative work that goes unseen and unheralded is going on maternity leave.

[Humphrey Appleby 13,958]

Whay makes you think May 16th is prime and May 23rd not so?

Besides if they're so prime the venues will be running dogs or stock cars. And that's a bigger problem for the tennant clubs,

 

We're not talking about one specific week over the next. The period from about mid-May to the end of August though, is when the weather tends to be better, the nights are lighter, and people take their holidays. I'm sure most promoters will tell you this is the optimal period to be running as many meetings as possible, but instead teams are forced into the less optimal months of April, September and god forbid March and October.

 

And regardless of whether there may be 18 spare weekends (in fact I make it 20 as the British season is about 33 weeks long and you also have to deduct a week for the SWC), having frequent off-weeks during the summer is far from ideal for continuity. Even if teams only run home or away on a weekly basis, they could go more than a month without having a home meeting.

 

And if speedway is playing second fiddle to stocks and dogs nowadays, then perhaps this is reason.

[Ozrik 23]

Watched it on delay. Not much speedway on TV here in Australia, but that meeting was a poor indictment on international speedway.

Given the circumstances the riders did a great job. However for the organisers to allow something as incidental as the starting tape mechanism to interfere with the whole meeting, is really not good enough. On the bright side it certainly appears to have generated a lot of interest and publicity.

[fullbore 129]

And if speedway is playing second fiddle to stocks and dogs nowadays, then perhaps this is reason.

Sure I can see the Greyhound Racing Association letting a speedway club use the venue at a weekend rather that staging their own events!

 

Niamh

Edited May 13, 2015 by Niamh

[racers and royals 8,730]

Whay makes you think May 16th is prime and May 23rd not so?

 

Besides if they're so prime the venues will be running dogs or stock cars. And that's a bigger problem for the tennant clubs,

 

Niamh

We have a GP this season on May16th and the 23rd So your point is ??

[fullbore 129]

We have a GP this season on May16th and the 23rd So your point is ??

So why are they more prime than May 30th?

 

Niamh

[racers and royals 8,730]

So why are they more prime than May 30th?

 

Niamh

They couldn`t have one on that day because FIM Europe asked big brother FIM worldwide if they could have that date for the SEC challenge final in Lendava Slovenia-and big brother said yes.

[fullbore 129]

They couldn`t have one on that day because FIM Europe asked big brother FIM worldwide if they could have that date for the SEC challenge final in Lendava Slovenia-and big brother said yes.

So the SEC's to blame for the state of the Elete League

 

Niamh

[racers and royals 8,730]

So the SEC's to blame for the state of the Elete League

 

Niamh

No-it`s the BSPA-you have your initial`s mixed up

[Woz01 3,589]

It's the bspa fault no one else's. How long have they had to adapt?

[baldinhio 16]

 

 

 

 

It's of course the strategy of spreading responsibility as widely as possible and then blaming the other parties for it. If the riders all went on strike then it would be resolved very quickly as the FIM/BSI get the competitors very cheap in comparison to other sports, but one would guess they can only be happy with their returns.

 

 

From my own conversations with GP riders the financial returns from GP's are poor (Maybe the top three or four are better looked after?). The riders desire to be involved outweighs the the lack of financial reward. However, for any strike to be effective it needs all the participants to act together and generally speaking speedway riders are not team players. That said they stood together in Warsaw. Time will tell if they or an agent have the inclination to collectively challenge the BSI.

NO!!!

 

Whilst not being amongst the 'in' people, it appears to me that BSI has, generally, been bad for Speedway. I have believed this for years.

 

Yes they give us the Grand Prix - but at what cost to British Speedway, which seems to have gone down hill with the inception of the GPs.

 

BSI are a business and are in the GP Series for BSI - certainly not British Speedway. All Profits seem to go to BSI with a bit for the Riders and that seems to be it. There is nothing, as far as I can see, for the Training of young Riders or anything else for our (British) Speedway. BSI should remember that as soon as a Rider is proficient enough to enter the GP System he is another Rider who keeps the 'Circus' on the road. But again, BSI contribute nothing for the Track who developed the Rider, and nothing toward improving Speedway in this Country from it's roots to the top. My contention is that as BSI benefit from having our Riders in their GP System - they should, at the very least, be putting money in at the bottom end of Speedway so that even more Riders can be developed for their GP Series.

 

Surely that is to their benefit and also to the benefit of British Speedway.

 

That is the way I see it anyhow.

 

 

 

It would be good to hear a response from Philip Rising as his comment on the BSI being beyond reproach instigated my post.

 

Your idea of some of the profit finding it's way into development is credible but as with rugby and football the people at the top have somewhat short sighted views.

 

[PHILIPRISING 7,298]

ASK yourself what the FIM do with the money that BSI pay for the commercial rights. Not their responsibility to develop riders.

[The White Knight 9,039]

ASK yourself what the FIM do with the money that BSI pay for the commercial rights. Not their responsibility to develop riders.

I'm sorry Philip I think BSI do have a responsibility.

 

Remember, once Riders are developed they eventually, if all goes well, and they are successful, go on to be GP Riders. Is it not incumbent on BSI to at least contribute to their own life's blood?

[f-s-p 832]

ASK yourself what the FIM do with the money that BSI pay for the commercial rights. Not their responsibility to develop riders.

There's a fund of somesort from where the FIM will for example pay money to the teams/FMN's that will travel to the U21 Team final at Mildura. The compensation for each team is quoted to be of a size, which makes the trip "worth doing". They distribute some money (please note I did not write THE money) to causes that they see putting the sport forward... Like more exposure and new/developing speedway countries. And I'm not saying all money goes there, but some.