Arlington stadium

[HGould]

25 minutes ago, norbold said:

Excuse me!!!!

My apologies.

I did not realise it was a combined effort!

[M.D]

26 minutes ago, norbold said:

Excuse me!!!!

Thought you wrote that?

[norbold]

37 minutes ago, M.D said:

Thought you wrote that?

I did actually write the book. Ken is shown as co-author because a) it was his idea to write the book b) he provided a number of the illustrations, c) he had the contacts with former riders, promoters etc. who he put me in touch with and d) he gave me some first hand information on the later years . But I actually wrote the book.

[tonyd]

12 hours ago, noaksey said:

Depends if the lease he has signed allows him to sublet

If Deane / spedeworth have taken on the full lease of the stadium under a normal repair and maintain lease and ready to spend and carry out the repairs / conditions required to open it up to the public and racing again then I am sure he would have made sure he can sub-let within that lease. To purchase the stadium lease, carry out the required repairs and then allowing for other costs involved I bet he will not have much change from around a million to get the racing going again and the public back in supporting it

[tonyd]

28 minutes ago, norbold said:

I did actually write the book. Ken is shown as co-author because a) it was his idea to write the book b) he provided a number of the illustrations, c) he had the contacts with former riders, promoters etc. who he put me in touch with and d) he gave me some first hand information on the later years . But I actually wrote the book.

And very please we all are that you did write the book Norbold 👍🙂

[YeOldPitGate]

5 hours ago, tonyd said:

If Deane / spedeworth have taken on the full lease of the stadium under a normal repair and maintain lease and ready to spend and carry out the repairs / conditions required to open it up to the public and racing again then I am sure he would have made sure he can sub-let within that lease. To purchase the stadium lease, carry out the required repairs and then allowing for other costs involved I bet he will not have much change from around a million to get the racing going again and the public back in supporting it

Christ if those numbers are anywhere near accurate you can see why many aren't keen in getting involved in speedway and in this case thats without even owning the stadium. It does sound hopeful though lets hope they want speedway back maybe championship level if a team can survive on 800 - 1,000 punters per week ? 

[Fortythirtyeight]

10 hours ago, HGould said:

Having read an excellent "History of" book written about 20 years ago by Ken Burnett and with facts and figures from then and since it would seem that when run by the Dugards - Bob would write-off around £30-50k a year on the family hobby.

 

The Book also details 3 or 4 outside promoters prior to the early 2000's that suffered losses of up to £100k a year and similar ultimate outcome to the most recent one that closed in 2021 , none outside the family control and Company business to bale it out each season lasted more than 3 seasons. One of the issues for leasors of the stadium always seems to have been absolutely no income from food and drink etc which keeps some tracks safe from closure

Spedeworth are great benefactors of motor sport but I'd be pretty sure that some sort of deal has been done to ensure Spedeworth get the benefits or some benefits of the Bars and Catering, especially if they are paying to fix them. So Speedway would presumably continue not to benefit from that income stream?

The average CL attendences seemed to be at best around 1000, NDL about 500-600 and it's always been a track where PL in the week struggled in the main to attract big crowds, because of the quite large area Crowds are drawn from.

You'd think Spedeworth would want to run Cars as many weekends as possible, they seem to run Wednesdays too in the summer, so may be an increase in Stocks and Bangers.

PL might be the best option if they can attract the Crowds back. 

Would Spedeworth consider "Shaleing" the whole place ?, that might actually help Speedway to reduce maintenance and fence erection using the sort of foam based fence at KL which also services Northampton. 

Is 2027 viable with the huge upgrades needed or is 2028 a more realistic option.

At the very least the fact it's back in the game - 4 wheels and hopefully 2 - is very positive news. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article in the S/Star suggests it will take 5 to 10 years and half a million pounds to get the stadium up and running again 🫨 Wow!

[YeOldPitGate]

1 hour ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Article in the S/Star suggests it will take 5 to 10 years and half a million pounds to get the stadium up and running again 🫨 Wow!

If its that much money and time frame you would have to question why would they bother hopefully they must think they can have things back running much sooner.

[secsy1]

10 hours ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

Article in the S/Star suggests it will take 5 to 10 years and half a million pounds to get the stadium up and running again 🫨 Wow!

Considering how quickly Mildenhall track and fence modifications took and after the fire the rebuild, it will probably be up and running for next year.

Hope speedway is in the plans so a stock car fence can easily accommodate a switch for a speedway barrier, unlike the problems and time involved the change over at Mildenhall.  

It is great news and Good luck and fortune to all involved, they deserve it.

[tonyd]

20 hours ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Christ if those numbers are anywhere near accurate you can see why many aren't keen in getting involved in speedway and in this case thats without even owning the stadium. It does sound hopeful though lets hope they want speedway back maybe championship level if a team can survive on 800 - 1,000 punters per week ? 

If necessary / urgent repairs quoted are around £500,000, add to that general stadium repairs and maintenance, legal fees, insurance, the cost of buying the lease, general stadium running costs then the total adds up. Spedeworth are obviously looking at a long term future there so are willing to invest but I would not be surprised if they run close to the figure I quoted in the first year, I can also see the steel rope safety fence being removed and  being replaced with a concrete and steel one like Mildenhall and Aldershot while the repairs are going on. 

Obviously I do not know if any of this is factual but seeing how they rebuilt Mildenhall after the fire they show that they are not afraid to do things right and do things once to maintain a long term future.

 

[BangerBoy]

21 minutes ago, tonyd said:

If necessary / urgent repairs quoted are around £500,000, add to that general stadium repairs and maintenance, legal fees, insurance, the cost of buying the lease, general stadium running costs then the total adds up. Spedeworth are obviously looking at a long term future there so are willing to invest but I would not be surprised if they run close to the figure I quoted in the first year, I can also see the steel rope safety fence being removed and  being replaced with a concrete and steel one like Mildenhall and Aldershot while the repairs are going on. 

Obviously I do not know if any of this is factual but seeing how they rebuilt Mildenhall after the fire they show that they are not afraid to do things right and do things once to maintain a long term future.

 

Eastbourne already concrete with armco but think this needs to be replaced because has had issues sometime ago

[YeOldPitGate]

18 hours ago, tonyd said:

If necessary / urgent repairs quoted are around £500,000, add to that general stadium repairs and maintenance, legal fees, insurance, the cost of buying the lease, general stadium running costs then the total adds up. Spedeworth are obviously looking at a long term future there so are willing to invest but I would not be surprised if they run close to the figure I quoted in the first year, I can also see the steel rope safety fence being removed and  being replaced with a concrete and steel one like Mildenhall and Aldershot while the repairs are going on. 

Obviously I do not know if any of this is factual but seeing how they rebuilt Mildenhall after the fire they show that they are not afraid to do things right and do things once to maintain a long term future.

 

One would think with the figures quoted the stadium would need to be running as much as possible during the week unless there's massive money to be made in promoting stocks/bangers ?

[Marky_Mark]

11 hours ago, YeOldPitGate said:

One would think with the figures quoted the stadium would need to be running as much as possible during the week unless there's massive money to be made in promoting stocks/bangers ?

The big difference with bangers is that the drivers PAY to race so you get income from the paying public but don’t pay out the salaries that you do for speedway riders. 

Edited 20 hours ago by Marky_Mark

[Neila]

48 minutes ago, Marky_Mark said:

The big difference with bangers is that the drivers PAY to race so you get income from the paying public but don’t pay out the salaries that you do for speedway riders. 

Looking at an upcoming stocks event at scunny, it's £15 admission, have heard 2000 to 3000 people turn up, so that's £30-45000 plus food and drink profits, drivers pay to enter, the event I looked at seemed to have a maximum of 150 drivers over several classes, guessing at £50 to enter, so that's  another £7500 . Not bad probably £40-50k taken in one evening, say 10 events over the year, possibly more, so looking at half a million £s taken in. So lots of possible profit to be made over several years

[Chris116]

Drivers in many types of Banger, Stock Car and Hot Rod racing pay to race, normally £20 or £25. However, the BriSCA Formula One Stock Cars are paid to race with start and prize money. Now the amounts paid will not keep a car in full working order it does help the driver make ends meet and can also remove a fair amount of the profit from a meeting. Many other classes also get paid prize money which helps the successful drivers but comes nowhere near paying for their racing.

[YeOldPitGate]

18 minutes ago, Neila said:

Looking at an upcoming stocks event at scunny, it's £15 admission, have heard 2000 to 3000 people turn up, so that's £30-45000 plus food and drink profits, drivers pay to enter, the event I looked at seemed to have a maximum of 150 drivers over several classes, guessing at £50 to enter, so that's  another £7500 . Not bad probably £40-50k taken in one evening, say 10 events over the year, possibly more, so looking at half a million £s taken in. So lots of possible profit to be made over several years

when you put it that way its a far better business model than UK speedway sadly.

[DaveWayne]

10 minutes ago, Neila said:

Looking at an upcoming stocks event at scunny, it's £15 admission, have heard 2000 to 3000 people turn up, so that's £30-45000 plus food and drink profits, drivers pay to enter, the event I looked at seemed to have a maximum of 150 drivers over several classes, guessing at £50 to enter, so that's  another £7500 . Not bad probably £40-50k taken in one evening, say 10 events over the year, possibly more, so looking at half a million £s taken in. So lots of possible profit to be made over several years

Unfortunately, it really isn't that profitable.

The meeting that you are looking at for £15 admission is a 'domestic' meeting which will probably get a crowd of 500-100, so £7,500-15,000 admissions.

Drivers will total 20-30 per class so about 90-100 for a 3 or 4 formula meeting, usually around £25 per car to enter, so about £2,500.

A long way off your £40-50k estimate, and then you need to deduct the costs of putting on the meeting.

The 2-3,000 crowds that you have heard about are for the big championship meetings or maybe 1-2,000 when F1s are on. The difference with F1s is that they don't pay to race, they actually receive start money and prize money, and also get 3 free admissions per driver for their mechanics, so the crowd figures will include up to 200 non-payers. The payout to drivers for an ordinary 40-50 car meeting is in the region of £6-7,000.

I'm not saying there isn't profit to be made, but it is nowhere near the figures you are suggesting.

As an example, most of the meetings at Buxton (High Edge) are for the 'domestic' formulas rather than the national ones. The promoter has openly stated that he has to run long meetings with 6 or 7 formulas just to break even, as the drivers paying to race plus their pit crews and families paying admission will just cover his costs of putting the meeting on. Any paying spectators (often less than 200) is profit, plus profit on food and drink, but many people take their own rather than buying it.

[tonyd]

15 hours ago, YeOldPitGate said:

when you put it that way its a far better business model than UK speedway sadly.

selling boxes of matches on a street corner is possibly a better business model than UK speedway at present 🤣

[YeOldPitGate]

1 hour ago, tonyd said:

selling boxes of matches on a street corner is possibly a better business model than UK speedway at present 🤣

To be fair that statement could apply 1985 onwards apart from the fact you have needed to sell ever less matches to end up being still more profitable over the last 41 years

Edited 1 hour ago by YeOldPitGate