Byker Biker

Fantastic thread Rob Godfrey must be pizzing himself!

Could all the qualified accountants on this forum please put their hands up? That way the unqualified accountants will know what to believe.

Until the sport is one business there will never be a common business plan, each club has differing levels of investment/expense/needs so the model for say Belle Vue will not fit Stoke and vice versa. A former Promoter who was losing a 6 figure some each season told me he wouldn't miss it yet by the same token a club that lost £40k over 3 seasons at the same time couldn't continue and chose to race in the NL. Such a huge disparity in financial resource will never bring the agendas together and there is always somebody who will run off to their legal counsel and threaten the members with "this is a cartel of businesses making rules and agreements to threaten my trade" which if proven has unlimited fines in law. (Coventry and Peterborough anyone). The point I am making is that it is clear from all the comments on all the threads that all the members of this forum and all the members of the BSPA are in the same situation, they haven't a solution not withstanding the BSPA are beaten at every turn. I agree wholeheartedly with the nature of many of the criticisms and i don't agree with Rob's bull headed approach to most matters but his answers to the questions that were published clearly demonstrates an understanding of the mess even if he is trying to shut the door after the horse has bolted. What he has done in response to many of the critics is acknowledge the situation in stark contrast to the "everything in the garden is rosy" statements from the past that the BSPA has been vilified for by many or the same who are criticising now, but I respect your comments and response, thank you.

I love this thread, 6 pages of comments, criticism and downright slagging so far. I'd rather have read 6 pages of solutions to the crisis. Posters are confirming that they have no more idea than the BSPA who at least have tried, if the BSPA had the benefit of hindsight like the rest of us they would have undoubtedly made a better fist of it.

What Laura has described is no different to any other club in the top 2 leagues it is the scale of it that brings Promoters to their knees. All of the northern clubs have over the years struggled to get Midlands and southern based riders to join them. Pre Facennas Glasgow was wholly reliant on "sponsorship" to get a decent rider there (Like Danny Bird), Edinburgh likewise and Berwick even bought/rented a house for the Czech contingent. Ironically it was Peterborough then in the top league and Newport in the PL that were to my knowledge the first teams to provide 7 riders with 7 vans all cutely signwritten. Fuel, tyres, insurance, mechanics and living allowances are not unusual at all but it is the Promoters who are armholes when they don't want to meet those demands and even worse when they close a club because of it!

It's more likely to be rigged for the team managers to crack on as usual and the number of nominations reflect that! They'll be using that laptop that Middlo had at Swindon the other season, you know the one that works the scores out by working backwards from the desired averages. Somebody will mention the words "independent adjudicator" next - never in Speedway.

Not withstanding you can't run on the same night as Scunthorpe so you really need to know how many meetings they are gonna reschedule first!

And stop all the infighting!

Of course Steve but had he not offered to help, the Comets would have gone on ice in November. Oops have I let a cat out? Sorry

Don't believe Robin Brundle ffs!

Put your fireworks away everyone, you're about to get pizzed on.

You'll never know what fate has escaped you

Forgiven then, apologies

There you go, if your name was Burbidge I'd bury you

Who dug him up?

I can't believe you've put this in the wider public domain

Except Kyle doesn't ignore the fans, quite the opposite he is polite, courteous and considerate towards them but when a journalist asks you how much you spent on equipment last year you answer honestly. When the same asks how much you have spent for the forthcoming season you answer honestly, when you are asked if you are pizzed off you answer honestly. It's not hard to work out surely even you can see that article wasn't written and published by Kyle Bickley!

The rules and constitution have been ignored by the BSPA on so many occasions now that Laura can be forgiven for this late decision. Workington were allowed to attend the AGM and subsequently put a team together which inevitably gave some comfort. Despite this support from the BSPA the pay up or else call wasn't finalised until last week. Laura had to call it off or face an annulment and consequently a seizure, at least she still has some influence over the future of the Comets (for the time being). Allowing Laura to make the call does save the awkward announcement that the triple champions are being forcibly closed, it's a very difficult situation for all parties and let's be honest the BSPA could have pulled the plug long before now. The disagreeing views on this thread (including mine) confirm only one thing, there are no winners whatsoever !

You've mentioned the one word that is the at root of most of the evil in Speedway EGO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tbh the BSPA have been patient over the couple of seasons that the cash flow hasn't worked, my beef is purely the interference and lack of fixture cooperation that has made this situation far worse than it would have been. The persistent refusal by some clubs to accept dates and the removal of dates already agreed not withstanding the Management Committee's inability to enforce some of those clubs to commit has contributed. I don't believe that this has been malicious, they just never think about the medium to long term consequences of their actions (or lack of) and it just doesn't seem to matter that clubs generally throw 5 and some 6 figure sums down the toilet every year.

Yes, that's the daft part about it outstanding debts and allowed at the AGM but not at a fixture meeting??? i suppose if they'd stuck to the constitution there wouldn't have been an AGM. I don't know if they voted.

Yes that's correct and the loan fees will go into the pot but this is a cash flow situation that will be resolved but not in time to start the season. The members who refused fixtures last season, withdrew Friday fixtures and allowed the finals all to be run in just over a week need to take a long hard look at themselves. Plenty of clubs owe money but this isn't the first hiccup at Workington that has taken a while to sort, if the BSPA want to try and retain a shred of respect they will allow them to put the licence on ice until the cash flow situation is resolved. It didn't help matters that the rest of the league met last week to agree fixtures and Workington was excluded from that meeting so even if they did come to the tapes in 2019 they'd get the rse end of the fixtures. In my opinion the responsibility for the decision not to run lies with the sport as a whole and not just Laura, "There by the grace of God go I" should have been on every Promoter's lips this morning just like "chuck her under a bus" was last week! (allegedly of course)

Only if they're annulled

It's a vicious circle which is why Promoters like Rob Godfrey ensure that their practice and training facilities are fully licensed and insured

In a word ... no