27 years on

[1 valve 558]

On 2/5/2024 at 7:18 AM, one of clubs said:

At the moment a former BV Colts rider is on BBC's the apprentice and the only thing we hear is that his company supplies pies to MCFC. Yet another example of poor promotion, the powers that be should be right on that by way of taking advantage of free publicity. Shocking really. Terry Russell and his violin case brigade have alot to answer for with the Sky sports money.They did very well out of it thankyou and most of his associated tracks are no more.

There is very little kudos (if any) to be gained by the BSPA making effort to promote the scenario you refer.

The BBC correctly understand what is newsworthy i.e that they have a contestant whos runs a business that provides pies to Manchester City FC (currently the most successful club in world football) this is significant in a competition aimed at finding a business entrepreneur.  

Conversely they would see little relevance in saying one of their contestants use to ride for a speedway clubs junior team. 

 

[1 valve 558]

On 2/5/2024 at 7:18 AM, one of clubs said:

At the moment a former BV Colts rider is on BBC's the apprentice and the only thing we hear is that his company supplies pies to MCFC. Yet another example of poor promotion, the powers that be should be right on that by way of taking advantage of free publicity. Shocking really. Terry Russell and his violin case brigade have alot to answer for with the Sky sports money.They did very well out of it thankyou and most of his associated tracks are no more.

There is very little kudos (if any) to be gained by the BSPA making effort to promote the scenario you refer.

The BBC correctly understand what is newsworthy i.e that they have a contestant whos runs a business that provides pies to Manchester City FC (currently the most successful club in world football) this is significant in a competition aimed at finding a business entrepreneur.  

Conversely they would see little relevance in saying one of their contestants use to ride for a speedway clubs junior team. 

[uk_martin 1,606]

On 2/3/2024 at 8:17 PM, mikebv said:

The Sky millions being the huge opportunity missed...

Not forgetting that only 60% of the Sky money ever reached the sport. The other 40% was Terry Russel's, er,  "commission"  

Nice pay day in the era when Sky Sports had cash to splash and were glad to have every sport in the country harboured under their umbrella. 40% for pushing against an open door. And the rest of the sport were mugs enough to just accept that.

[mikebv 10,282]

4 hours ago, uk_martin said:

Not forgetting that only 60% of the Sky money ever reached the sport. The other 40% was Terry Russel's, er,  "commission"  

Nice pay day in the era when Sky Sports had cash to splash and were glad to have every sport in the country harboured under their umbrella. 40% for pushing against an open door. And the rest of the sport were mugs enough to just accept that.

Wasn't it 20% "finder's fee"?

To be fair to him, no one else "pushed against that open door", and all got well over a six figure guarantee each season for many years...

What they actually did with that money sadly is the legacy....

[Matt Davis 156]

Does anyone know how much the Sky deal was for? What kind of numbers are we talking here?

[tellboy 3,662]

54 minutes ago, Matt Davis said:

Does anyone know how much the Sky deal was for? What kind of numbers are we talking here?

A lot of rumours to how much it was worth.Some plucking figures from the sky too no doubt.Does anyone  really know or just guessing.

[mikebv 10,282]

On 2/10/2024 at 8:20 AM, Matt Davis said:

Does anyone know how much the Sky deal was for? What kind of numbers are we talking here?

I seem to remember £110k per club (10 teams), and £5k (maybe £10k?) a match that got televised, to cover any drop in crowd/reduction in admission fee to attract a crowd in..

One promoter, post Sky money, said the up front cash basically paid for the No1 riders..

Who all effed off when the money dried up...

[iainb 5,017]

21 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I seem to remember £110k per club (10 teams), and £5k (maybe £10k?) a match that got televised, to cover any drop in crowd/reduction in admission fee to attract a crowd in..

One promoter, post Sky money, said the up front cash basically paid for the No1 riders..

Who all effed off when the money dried up...

I think that's the current deal isn't it? The early Sky deals were much larger we were led to believe

[Hawk127 1,359]

58 minutes ago, mikebv said:

I seem to remember £110k per club (10 teams), and £5k (maybe £10k?) a match that got televised, to cover any drop in crowd/reduction in admission fee to attract a crowd in..

One promoter, post Sky money, said the up front cash basically paid for the No1 riders..

Who all effed off when the money dried up...

Without being privy to the contracts it is reasonable to assume that a few made a lot and those on the periphery suffered and hence a few clubs fell by the wayside. The sport is where it is because those in control at the time made hay while the sun shined and no one had the balls to say no to those who bled the sport dry namely the riders who screwed everyone. Sharing the spoils was beyond the comprehension of the governing body. It really does not matter now because speedway is on its knees and those in charge are delusional if they think what is on offer today is a viable proposition. Tinkering with the rules at league level and also having the GP’s think that by introducing some farcical race format for extra points brings added value really have not reached out to the supporters for an opinion. The promoters have contrived to bring a simple formula into something it was never meant to be and the fact that nothing other than league racing in this country is what the current followers want is a self inflicted failure. Give the public top talent racing competitively and you have a decent formula with the chance of decent sponsors. If it does not work at domestic level and those in charge thinks it is not viable then explain why the GPs work.

[iainb 5,017]

3 hours ago, mikebv said:

I seem to remember £110k per club (10 teams), and £5k (maybe £10k?) a match that got televised, to cover any drop in crowd/reduction in admission fee to attract a crowd in..

One promoter, post Sky money, said the up front cash basically paid for the No1 riders..

Who all effed off when the money dried up...

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/6620381.speedway-sky-splashing/

... and that's when £5m was worth something! £9m in today's money. Don't know whether that's before or after TR's cut

Edited February 11 by iainb

[GeneralMelchett 482]

On 2/11/2024 at 9:44 PM, iainb said:

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/6620381.speedway-sky-splashing/

... and that's when £5m was worth something! £9m in today's money. Don't know whether that's before or after TR's cut

In itself tho that is slightly ambiguous - was it 5m over 5 years or 5m per year - it could be read either way? I read it as 5m over 5 years so 1m per season? Spread out over 10 teams that isnt so much.

I seem to recall that one ex promoter hated sky matches as the fee per match didnt cover the lost revenue (as the gate always dipped) and disruption to the smooth running of the meeting. Thats early 2000's from my recollection.

what is also good to read is this - giving you the viewing figures

https://www.methanolpress.com/sky-sports-british-speedway-viewing-figures-2002-2009/

 

[iainb 5,017]

1 hour ago, GeneralMelchett said:

In itself tho that is slightly ambiguous - was it 5m over 5 years or 5m per year - it could be read either way? I read it as 5m over 5 years so 1m per season? Spread out over 10 teams that isnt so much.

Yes, I was thinking that myself. Even if you adjust for inflation it doesn't seem rust much more than what is reportedly being paid today

[mikebv 10,282]

1 hour ago, iainb said:

Yes, I was thinking that myself. Even if you adjust for inflation it doesn't seem rust much more than what is reportedly being paid today

It was a "paid for" 3hr (when it first launched), advert...

What an opportunity given the size of the business (very small in real terms)..

Hardly anyone knows who you are even in the area where you trade, and you go out on TV for 9 hours (with the two repeats), at all times of the day..

And you get paid for this advert!!

You can advertise nationally, as well a locally, your product..

Instead, we had promoters moaning that the crowds dropped..

Rather than fixing the many self inflicted reasons why they did..

And making these nights "unmissable" on, and off, the track..

[RoundTheBoards 271]

11 hours ago, GeneralMelchett said:

In itself tho that is slightly ambiguous - was it 5m over 5 years or 5m per year - it could be read either way? I read it as 5m over 5 years so 1m per season? Spread out over 10 teams that isnt so much.

 

The original Sky deal was £5M over 5 years.    

Terry Russell took 20% finders fee.   So a cool £1M over the 5 years.

The remaining £4M (£800k per season) was split with each team getting £55k-ish each  (which basically they used to pay for their No.1 rider) and then a couple of grand for staging each match.  Some went to BSPA running costs.

 

The current TV deal is worth very little to the clubs.

[GeneralMelchett 482]

10 hours ago, RoundTheBoards said:

The original Sky deal was £5M over 5 years.    

Terry Russell took 20% finders fee.   So a cool £1M over the 5 years.

The remaining £4M (£800k per season) was split with each team getting £55k-ish each  (which basically they used to pay for their No.1 rider) and then a couple of grand for staging each match.  Some went to BSPA running costs.

 

The current TV deal is worth very little to the clubs.

TY for that - I had heard it was 2k per tv meeting but wasn't sure if it was 100% correct - seems it was!