uk_martin

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...

Nobody is born with an attitude. An attitude is acquired. So what would be really interesting is to see why the attitude of the state and society towards speedway is so positive when the exact opposite is true here. Maybe in this analysis, there are lessons to be learned and applied.

More info about the missed meeting...cue the jokes about not having the stomach for the job etc Interesting too that the Birmingham Mail web site doesn't seem to cover speedway any more. Maybe they know something about what people are or are not interested in any more?

Interesting news here https://youtu.be/mZYB9YUwjLI Hancock back to Disneyland?

What he did was bad enough. What was worse was that he was caught. What was disasterous was that he was caught by someone who's a member of BSF :rofl:

As I said, cut out the room to roll (see my previous post) and none of this can happen.

So you have 4 bars, or chocks, placed behind each rear wheel, each on a chord that allows them to be cleared off the track quickly and simply...it's not rocket science. And there's usually enough "helpers" at the start gate that could be engaged to help the start marshal with this task. You could even get brolly dolly's to choreograph something into their routines...who knows?

All done in the best interests of British speedway...obviously! More likely that knowing that this meeting was happening, there was an increased "customer service" presence on the trains running into and out of Rugby, and the prospect of them having to pay their fares scared the members of the BSPA Management Committee away.

Didn't Cook have sick leave straight after his embarrassing performance at Cardiff? Did he self-certify? Did he have a doctors note? Was he given a mandatory period of inactivity by the SCB back then?

Surely the simple way to avoid tape jumping is to have all the riders line up with their front wheels actually touching the tapes. All the problems now stem from the bikes being a foot or two behind the tapes giving "rolling room". Eliminate the "rolling room" and the possibilities of cheating are eliminated too. You could even back this up with a portable bar behind the back wheel that acts as a chock removes the possibility of rolling back forcing the riders to be absolutely stationary at the start.

No mention of who was unavailable to see who...but not the best of starts is it?

A new Tony Mole? Excellent!

So is this a damning verdict on the conduct, professionalism and discipline of the top British riders? No wonder they never do any good outside of their own back yards.

Poor taste.

Interesting talk about an Iversen for Holder swap between Stal Gorzow and Torun http://www.przegladsportowy.pl/zuzel/pge-ekstraliga,zuzel-chris-holder-w-stali-gorzow-bedzie-kolejny-hit-stali,artykul,821752,1,984.html Przemek Pawlicki could be heading into Grudziadz https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/716723/co-zrobi-pawlicki-zostanie-gwiazda-gkm-u-czy-wybierze-inna-droge Gossip before the end of the season was that Freddie Lindgren could be heading in Stal Gorzow's direction, but that seems to have died down. Nicki Pedersen to that Mickey Mouse team remains a possibility. How much more hated can a team become?

Is a period of enforced inactivity the same as a ban? Whatever. Either way, young Mr. Cook was in hot water again, for being ill on the day of the SCB/BSPA's prized event. http://www.speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.33493 What odds are the bookies are offering on Cook attending all the rounds of the SGP series without throwing a sickie when faced with his Polish demons, or pulling out if the travel costs are too high for him, like he did when he was supposed to ride for GB against Australia in Ipswich, a few years ago?

How come this has turned into a Kent & Lakeside thread?

Not sure how I feel either. Look forward to hearing his plans on how to make speedway in Birmingham succeed, when the past few years it's just been treading water. Will judge when there is something to judge on.