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The cut down situation is this .the club lost around £20,000 and apart from the money raised for the airfence there is no money left in the pot .the shareholders money has kept the sport going till now but unless someone comes in and has money to burn it cant carry on . The chairman has put nearly £100,000 in over a number of years ,its not that he dosent want to run speedway he just dosent want to put any more of his own money in.

Some interesting figures there TDS - where did you get them from may I ask? The reason I ask is that so far as I'm aware, shareholders (myself included) have only been supplied with "UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 28 FEBRUARY 2013." Now there's no way I've ever been 'into' company accounts as I never fancied becoming an accountant (perhaps that was a mistake on my part as I've never met a broke one!) but I find this baffling to say the least as NO AUDITED figures have been provided for that year let alone any audited / unaudited ones for the period since! Any accountants out there who might be able to offer some sort of explanation why that should be please? Confused of Erith!

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The cut down situation is this .the club lost around £20,000 and apart from the money raised for the airfence there is no money left in the pot .the shareholders money has kept the sport going till now but unless someone comes in and has money to burn it cant carry on . The chairman has put nearly £100,000 in over a number of years ,its not that he dosent want to run speedway he just dosent want to put any more of his own money in. The 100-120 crowd levels are out of summer season and crowds are better in july-august. The IOW had an expensive team last season and the with a cheaper team yes the losses will be less but it still will be loss unless someone can turn crowd numbers round but that someone has got to be prepared to lose money. There is no miss management or any other issues stopping speedway ,its just the fact that as it is at the moment is not finacially viable . Nobody including the chairman or any of the share holders want the IOW to close but unless money is found to carry on it looks inevitable. If i had the money i would do it myself but i dont and nobody seems to coming forward with offers

Deanno, you say the shareholders money has kept the Speedway going until now, but you also say The Chairman has put 100k of his own money in over the Years, so its either The shareholders money thats run out, some time ago, and the Chairman has kept it afloat, or the Chairman put his 100k in some time ago, then the Shareholders money was used up in 2013, and he doesnt want to go back to putting more money in, could you clarify which it is.

 

Is there other income streams for the Club, ie, Bar takings, Catering, hire of the Stadium etc,etc?. Im just trying too get my head round the situation as it is, without the airfence issue. Also this mysterious person who indicated he may wish to put some finance in, then rather hurriedly withdrew within a matter of days WHY? such a hasty withdrawal almost as soon as it was made. Lots of things here which seem more to it, than meets the eye, it ALL needs to brought into the open, before IOW Speedway is NO more.

One of the first things that needs to be done, again outside of the airfence issue, is there needs to be another raising of Funds by issuing more shares in IOW Speedway, to get some money in the Kitty, and give it a working fund, ready for the re introduction of Speedway in 2015, without going cap in hand to the Chairman.

Edited by greyhoundp
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Deanno, you say the shareholders money has kept the Speedway going until now, but you also say The Chairman has put 100k of his own money in over the Years, so its either The shareholders money thats run out, some time ago, and the Chairman has kept it afloat, or the Chairman put his 100k in some time ago, then the Shareholders money was used up in 2013, and he doesnt want to go back to putting more money in, could you clarify which it is.

 

the chairman is one of many share holders ,he has just brought more shares than most although other share holders have put in substantial amounts too. If anybody seriously wants to invest in the IOW then contact them .

Some interesting figures there TDS - where did you get them from may I ask? The reason I ask is that so far as I'm aware, shareholders (myself included) have only been supplied with "UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 28 FEBRUARY 2013." Now there's no way I've ever been 'into' company accounts as I never fancied becoming an accountant (perhaps that was a mistake on my part as I've never met a broke one!) but I find this baffling to say the least as NO AUDITED figures have been provided for that year let alone any audited / unaudited ones for the period since! Any accountants out there who might be able to offer some sort of explanation why that should be please? Confused of Erith!

sent you a pm bryn
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Some interesting figures there TDS - where did you get them from may I ask? The reason I ask is that so far as I'm aware, shareholders (myself included) have only been supplied with "UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING 28 FEBRUARY 2013." Now there's no way I've ever been 'into' company accounts as I never fancied becoming an accountant (perhaps that was a mistake on my part as I've never met a broke one!) but I find this baffling to say the least as NO AUDITED figures have been provided for that year let alone any audited / unaudited ones for the period since! Any accountants out there who might be able to offer some sort of explanation why that should be please? Confused of Erith!

As i understand it prior to an AGM an audited balance sheet has to be submitted and approved, now unless things have changed this is generally how things used to be done, for instance how can you propose and vote in a Treasurer, unless the previous years financial accounts have been approved ?.

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You can of course have accounts that have yet to be audited and published. Most businesses have internal management accounts prepared monthly that are then adapted to meet the requirements of the Companies Acts, audited and published.

 

The management accounts are usually far more revealing but obviously not for the public to see.

 

(A broke accountant).

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What a mess, no wonder nobody wants to invest, not sure if the 'Club' loosing £20k is just the Speedway or the whole complex lost that amount, would be interested to know how the figures for the whole business look for the past couple of years.

 

I think that is a very important question. I stand to be corrected but to my knowledge (and unlike most clubs) the actual speedway is just part of the overall operation.

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IF someone could provide 10k for the airfence would the club run? I ask because potentially I may know of company in a position to do some sponsorship. I dont know at what level but I'm not mentioning it unless I know the club will run. feel free to PM if preferred.

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Doesn't seem that long ago that the Scooter Rally alone would have more than covered the 20k loss, but that now seems to be part of a different pot.

In the PL days you couldn't even get in the Bar after a Meeting, hate to think how much money the Food and Drink generated, but again that appears to be going in a different pot.

Poor old speedway seems to be left without a pot to p*** in.

Having witnessed the glory days on the IOW, with the likes of Holder, Shields, Watt, Bunyan, Boyce, Bird and a thriving Club, there must have been some seriously bad decisions made over recent years.

Edited by Lord Skid
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You can of course have accounts that have yet to be audited and published. Most businesses have internal management accounts prepared monthly that are then adapted to meet the requirements of the Companies Acts, audited and published.

 

The management accounts are usually far more revealing but obviously not for the public to see.

 

(A broke accountant).

 

I agree with every bit of that except the last line - there is no such thing as a broke accountant! (we are all fixed - oops, wronmg word to use? lol)

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What a terrible situation. I bought a tiny share a few years ago but tbh national league speedway on that massive track does nothing for me.

 

At the end of the day the clubs been on a shoestring for a few years and unfortunately you can't run speedway on a couple of hundred customers some nights and keep afloat.

 

As for who owns what faction of the club I haven't a clue but it seems a very tricky situation if things other than speedway aren't entailed in financial matters.

 

God help em

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What a terrible situation. I bought a tiny share a few years ago but tbh national league speedway on that massive track does nothing for me.

 

At the end of the day the clubs been on a shoestring for a few years and unfortunately you can't run speedway on a couple of hundred customers some nights and keep afloat.

 

As for who owns what faction of the club I haven't a clue but it seems a very tricky situation if things other than speedway aren't entailed in financial matters.

 

God help em

 

I stand to be corrected but as far as I'm aware the speedway company i.e. Island Speedway (IOW) Ltd are the overall leaseholders of the site (believe there's still around 44 years remaining on that) and receive income from all other activities that take place there although I'm not certain whether that includes the Table Tennis (would have to check on that). Those activities that generate income in addition to speedway include rent from the mini-cab firm now based there, catering, bar sales, rent from soccer / cricket clubs etc. etc., gym facilities, income from private functions and no doubt there may be other sources.

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From what I recall of the business world - briefly as a 16 year old after I left school (in the days of Eric Langton, Jack and Norman Parker, Ron Johnson aside as my speedway interests) some businesses have several income interests. They usually rely on them all to make profits - if one of them loses money year on year it's termed a loss leader. Efforts are usually made to turn this round into a profit-maker but if it fails to do so after several years it's usually ditched and an alternative is found to replace it.

I AM NOT saying that's about to happen at IoW in regard to speedway, but...well let's wait and see and hope they decide to carry on with speedway at their meeting later this month.

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I stand to be corrected but as far as I'm aware the speedway company i.e. Island Speedway (IOW) Ltd are the overall leaseholders of the site (believe there's still around 44 years remaining on that) and receive income from all other activities that take place there although I'm not certain whether that includes the Table Tennis (would have to check on that). Those activities that generate income in addition to speedway include rent from the mini-cab firm now based there, catering, bar sales, rent from soccer / cricket clubs etc. etc., gym facilities, income from private functions and no doubt there may be other sources.

Thank you Bryn, at last there is some clarification of what Income streams there are outside of the Speedway, and The Speedway itself is part and parcel of Island Speedway (IOW) Ltd. Yes maybe the crowds are low on occasion, but The Company is in a position of having income other than just the Speedway income, which is what lots of Clubs dont have. This gives hope for the future of Speedway on the Island.

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I stand to be corrected but as far as I'm aware the speedway company i.e. Island Speedway (IOW) Ltd are the overall leaseholders of the site (believe there's still around 44 years remaining on that) and receive income from all other activities that take place there although I'm not certain whether that includes the Table Tennis (would have to check on that). Those activities that generate income in addition to speedway include rent from the mini-cab firm now based there, catering, bar sales, rent from soccer / cricket clubs etc. etc., gym facilities, income from private functions and no doubt there may be other sources.

 

I must admit I am a little confused, then (because that's my understanding of the situation).

 

Dean has said that the losses incurred are the speedway only, and the chairman has poured thousands of pounds in to keep it going.

 

But if the company own the lease to the stadium, what's happened to the income from that ?

 

It seems to me that while on a balance sheet you can divide the income from the speedway and the income from the stadium as far as the company goes and its overall financial position is concerned that cannot be the case. Surely, then, it is a question of whether the company is viable, not just the speedway ?

 

Given that the reason for the creation of the company was to run speedway it seems bizarre to me that the chairman (apparently) doesn't want to do that any more but presumably wants to retain the income from the stadium.

Edited by Halifaxtiger
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From what I recall of the business world - briefly as a 16 year old after I left school (in the days of Eric Langton, Jack and Norman Parker, Ron Johnson aside as my speedway interests) some businesses have several income interests. They usually rely on them all to make profits - if one of them loses money year on year it's termed a loss leader. Efforts are usually made to turn this round into a profit-maker but if it fails to do so after several years it's usually ditched and an alternative is found to replace it.

I AM NOT saying that's about to happen at IoW in regard to speedway, but...well let's wait and see and hope they decide to carry on with speedway at their meeting later this month.

 

 

 

I must admit I am a little confused, then (because that's my understanding of the situation).

 

Dean has said that the losses incurred are the speedway only, and the chairman has poured thousands of pounds in to keep it going.

 

But if the company own the lease to the stadium, what's happened to the income from that ?

 

It seems to me that while on a balance sheet you can divide the income from the speedway and the income from the stadium as far as the company goes and its overall financial position is concerned that cannot be the case. Surely, then, it is a question of whether the company is viable, not just the speedway ?

 

Given that the reason for the creation of the company was to run speedway it seems bizarre to me that the chairman (apparently) doesn't want to do that any more but presumably wants to retain the income from the stadium.

 

I think my previous Post may give a slight insight into company procedure in regard to 'loss leaders.' Is there an indication that the company is only established for speedway - or is it an incorporate part of the company as a whole? If so, its viability has to be calculated alongside the seemingly more profitable parts of the company - are they 'established' merely to finance the speedway?

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I think my previous Post may give a slight insight into company procedure in regard to 'loss leaders.' Is there an indication that the company is only established for speedway - or is it an incorporate part of the company as a whole? If so, its viability has to be calculated alongside the seemingly more profitable parts of the company - are they 'established' merely to finance the speedway?

 

 

I'm afraid you do not understand the term "loss leader"

 

a loss leader would be, say, a shop selling milk at 10p a pint just to get them there with the hope that they would buy other things when there

 

its not generally used these days - buyers are a little too savvy

 

its not a relevant term for this situation and does not in any way describe it accurately. I teach business administration.

Edited by ch958
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I'm afraid you do not understand the term "loss leader"

 

a loss leader would be, say, a shop selling milk at 10p a pint just to get them there with the hope that they would buy other things when there

 

its not generally used these days - buyers are a little too savvy

 

its not a relevant term for this situation and does not in any way describe it accurately. I teach business administration.

 

I very much appreciate you comment. I did mention in message 235 that my business knowledge stemmed from when I had just left school and was 16 years old - a clue to how far back was that I named Eric Langton, Jack Parker and Ron Johnson as at that time my favourite riders.

However,I see no justification business wise why the successful arms of a company should continually support the one that makes continuing losses (although I would love to see an exception made to keep IoW speedway active). In harsh business terms it's "pouring good money after bad" so to speak.

A business parallel is that companies close down those stores in their group that fail to make a profit - they don't hive the profits from the successful ones to keep the deadwood afloat.

Edited by Guest
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