uk_martin

Birmingham have made a club record signing! - http://www.birminghambrummies.co/news.php?extend.2553

That's nuts.

Interesting article in the Birmingham Mail (printed edition only) that the Brummies are only likely to announce one more signing before the NL AGM and that the date of the NL AGM has yet to be set... ...like how long does it take to set a date for an AGM? They've had a year to think about it since the last one. Organised or what?

An interesting challenge for the new promotion to react to.

http://www.speedwaygb.co/premiershipstatistics17 Then add those who weren't on this years team rostas who are on the 2016 & 2015 averages that would be carried forwards...

Speedway promoters in the top league have never cared about away fans so they won't worry about that at all. Yes the days of a "Southern Tour" are over for the top league but thankfully the Championship will still cater for teams going on "Northern Tours"...hopefully...

Absolutely...So out of the following list of riders, only 8 can have a job...based on their official averages. That's how you improve your product... Kenneth Bjerre Craig Cook Max Fricke Brady Kurtz Krzysztof Kasprzak Jason Doyle Nick Morris Fredrik Lindgren Jacob Thorsell Rory Schlein Sam Masters Chris Holder Andreas Johnsson Neils Kristian Iversen Maciej Janowski Which leaves anyone with bags of money and the gift of the gab to go headlong towards signing that budding British talent - Tai Woffinden - who is only on a 7.04 CMA and therefore the hottest property on the scene, Kind of says it all about the state of the nation that in that list of over-8-pointers, only two are British, whereas 7 are Australian. Yeah, let's hammer the Aussies. That's how we'll regain control of our borders and keep those damned foreigners out.

David Davies and Donald Tusk will be brokering the best possible deal to allow British Speedway to exit it's troubled past and regain control of the country's sport...not to mention pumping £3.56 per week into the NHS just as was promised on the side of the Kings Lynn caravan (that Darcy Ward used to live in)

So...Sunday afternoons then? A 70-80 mile round to a crap track, and going head to head with taking the dog for a walk in the park. Well, best of luck with that then. We all know how it works...Planning meetings are open to the public. Brandon Estates just need to trawl the streets and recruit a load of homeless people to fill the public galleries and the chances of gaining planning permission for a housing project are boosted enormously.

Just a press release? Why no press conference, so that any questions that Speedway Star, Sportowefakty or any other journalist may have could have been answered?

Well last year, the Coventry NL team were supposed to have merged with Belle Vue, and that didn't work out well...so who knows what will happen this time around.

Ultimately, he who pays the piper calls the tune. What would you think should be the salary to match the responsibility of this role? Presumably that salary would be shared out equally around all the clubs? So Stoke Potters will pay the same as Poole Pirates for this guys services? And if he's no good, who sacks him? Remember that if he's sackable, he's not really independent is he?

Wow. Not even an "independent body" any more, just a Don King type of character who can make all the decisions whilst the local promoters pay the price. Yeah, that'll work. Does anyone here advocating such an approach like the idea of working 60 hours a week, and then handing your salary and the running of your household over to an independent person/body (no jokes about the wife please) who has the power to spend your money the way they feel fit, whilst under the guise of looking after YOUR best interests? You do all the work whilst someone else runs your life for you? Because that's exactly what you seem to think is the model of the relationship you want speedway promoters to have with such a "CEO" figure.

Who decides these choices? IMG or "Monster Joe"? Monster sponsored Chris Holder and Old Man Hancock are chosen but Red Bull sponsored Jarek Hampel is not...so there's a surprise eh?

If he was accepted as injured, then presumably Cradley would have been in receipt of a doctors note? If there was a doctors note, then just like with Craig Cook, shouldn't there have been a 7-day mandatory period of inactivity (to allow for recovery / recouperation / convalescence) ? Alternatively, maybe there was no doctors note...maybe this is a smokescreen to hide a more embarassing truth?

There's no point though...look at Sheffield. No NL team there but they can sign JPB from under Birmingham's noses, just as Lakeside, in their "EL" days signed Zach W. in similar circumstances. Running your own NL team is just extra cost and faff when you can just go round picking up riders from elsewhere.

Can't wait for the BSPA to charge one of their own for bringing the sport into disrepute for putting on a bad show. Who'd blow the whistle? the Ref?

First point is - can someone please remind Stoke about the first half of this statement? Second point is - I thought NL teams weren't allowed to have assets any more.

I do! He was in "The Professionals" with that Bodie geezer and the bloke from Upstairs Downstairs.

Where's that Speedway Shambles thread? I put forward the argument once that sometimes, "some" speedway is not better than nothing. On the basis that if you saw speedway for your first time at this meeting, would you ever be tempted to see it again, say if you are on holiday in the vicinity of Poole, Somerset or Eastbourne? Or would you be tempted if your job took you to Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh, etc etc??? First impressions count, and anyone getting their first impression at Stoke are a lost cause to the sport, by the sounds of it.

Thanks for the useful info. So using this hypothetical set of figures then, does this mean then that the hypothetical the value of the SkySports TV deal that other threads have been debating the value of could be about £500,000? Assuming that this is, then that the top line is the cheque handed over by Sky to GoSpeed. Out of that, roughly £80,000 could be the value of the VAT, and then about £270,000 is handed over to the BSPA, the difference of £150,000 amounts to the "commission" (or Gross Profit?) that the company is run on then? Is that how it works?

If there is someone with some understanding of accounts, please help. With reference to this document... As you can see this is in the public domain, in respect of GoSpeed International Ltd. GoSpeed International Ltd, as most will know, is the company entrusted by the sport's authorities to handle the media rights, get major headline sponsors and advertisers and basically make the sport a richer place. Mind you, that's not quite what Companys House or HMRC think. According to them, the nature of the business is as "Television programme production activities" Well let's leave that aside for a moment. Now anyone without any accounting knowledge (e.g. me!) , could be mistaken into thinking that this company lives on the back of debts payable and debts owed...pretty much like a bank. it looks like money owed in exceeds money owed out by £2705. Is that right? So is that what the company's net worth is? Presumably, people would be forgiven for thinkiing that the directors will know all the wizard wheezes on how to live off the back of the company, won't they? Like how to loan themselves £17K in an unsecured loan. And how to pay themselves a dividend, some THIRTY TIMES the value of the company. Unless that's a total misreading of the situation. I don't know. Can someone who knows accounts please explain? Can someone also please explain the link between the figures on the Profit & Loss Account page, which to the untrained eye looks like more is being taken in dividends than is being made in what I assume to be trading profits? Is that usual, and is it sustainable? Bear in mind the statement on Page 5 of this document that investigated why the previous GoSpeed Ltd went bust. How on earth is a VAT bill of £87,390 rattled up? That must be the 20% stake of a turnover (incl. VAT) of somewhere near £524,340 - where's that in the accounts? And where did that money come from and where did it go? Where's the corresponding VAT claim back on goods or services obtained? I assume that the other taxes and social security relate to the wages paid to the secretarial services person on the £16K wages? How can a company that's only worth £2,705 rattle up a Corporation Tax bill of £43,123? What's missing here? Finally, do these accounts show how much money has been given over to British Speedway from all the activities undertaken? There must be a load of fans thinking "what's my team got out of all this?" GoSpeed put the blockers on social media etc, that have stopped fans from enjoying the sport to the full, so what's the payback for it? I'm sure that there are perfectly good explanations for all these figures, but they need to be spelt out in plain English so that people can tell what's going on. Mr Russell may indeed be worth every penny of his £62,500 dividend that he got from the company on his £1 share. I'm not denying that. He may also be paying an equitable interest rate back to the company on the £17K loan that he was given. But until the ordinary fan can see by how much speedway has benefited from this operation, and what these accounts mean, there will be those (myself included) who wonder what's going on and if the sport is being taken for a ride.

Good point. Apologies for the digression.

Money goes where money prospers...so what makes Polish speedway the place for money to prosper? What was it that at some time since liberation from communism, caused the money men to think..."ah-ha...speedway, that's a good place to invest"? And bear in mind at the outset of the post communist era, there wasn't that much money around. It had to be earned and it had to grow in value over the years. It's all very well people saying today that there is more money in Polish speedway, but they had to start from an almost empty bank account when the Berlin Wall fell, Lech Walesa became president and all that...