Bt Sport Coverage

[A ORLOV]

Is BT serious? It makes you wonder if anyone doing the negotiations on their side has a clue about Speedway.

So would they, for example, be happy with 7 GP riders plus 49 NL/development level riders making up the teams?

Its sounding like the Brexit negotiations. If both sides can drop their silly games, and that means the BSPA stop persecuting GP riders, they could have a chance.

Somebody has said it's a team sport. Well, it's now up to the BSPA to go out and win a main sponsor to bring in the finance. BT would be providing the advertising space. But it doesn't help their cause by pratting about with rules like the 1 over 8 and now this business about assessed averages.

The only trouble is the bspa have been trying to get a main sponsor for years.

Ok it had Sky for a while who were only there because they had the tv rights but no others have been found.

[mickthemuppet]

Sadly the deal in it's present form should be turned down. What an offer when they are paying £4million for a football match Not only holding a live meeting would lose the club more money than the £3000 it would be paid.

As I would expect this would be a Monday night and three other matches would be taking place on that night it will affect their attendances as well.

Getting the GP riders is impossible . When was the last time 7 GP riders rode in the league. Ever since Speedway has been regulary televised the attendances have gone down .and now they are getting less live TV each season

Tell BT to come up with a better offer or they can get stuffed.

[semion]

I wonder whether Clubs In Speedway really ever exploit the advertising opportunities that live TV Coverage offers ? I agree 3k is a joke. I am sure as Philip Rising alludes to there can be no one better at getting the Sport more money than Terry Russell. In fact Im surprised he doesn't use him to negotiate his advertising revenue with the likes of the Grand Prix tour company who take over his magazine for a week. Maybe he could get a deal closer to rate card costs.

Edited December 1, 2017 by semion

[Woz01]

Greyhounds would not exist but for gambling. Its not really a sport. No one goes along to support a dog.

 

Netball is no more than a jolly school sportfor girls and again rowing nothing more than an elite sport which only has passing interest when the olympics take place.

 

Speedway for all its sins has a proper league structure snd a fanbase. It has clubs which are connected to towns.

 

The bspa are right to ask for more than 3k. The 18k it costs to broadcast is irrelevant. Bt need live sports and a repeat of the 1993 cricket Gillette cup semi final will hardly have good viewing figures.

 

3k is seriously a joke of an offer and an insult. I spend that on my business almost daily.

Netball is one sport that speedway could do well to look at how to make a tv deal work for you. The sport is growing mainly because of the coverage Sky gives it and Sky don't pay for it either. Wasps Netball get 2000 fans regularly for games, similar at other Netball clubs. It's a much more professional sport now. The sponsorship it generates (it even pays for the tv deal) shows it can work with a bit of common sense. Edited December 1, 2017 by woz01

[SteveLyric2]

For each of the minimum of 10 TV meetings, couldn't each of the 8 SGBP teams get one of the GP stars to guest for that meeting.?? The £3k from BT could go straight to the GP rider, with extra fans attracted to that meeting (and possibly others) on the strength of seeing a couple of top riders they wouldn't normally see??

 

Silly idea maybe but thought I'd try thinking 'out of the box' before the sport ends up in one!!

Edited December 1, 2017 by Skidder1

[flagrag]

Personally I think the offer that BT have made is ok in today's economic market and the position that British Speedway is in.

 

I dare say if another broadcaster was to show an interest in showing Speedway then BT would likely come back with a highly increased offer but unless that happens that offer will not happen.

 

The GP mIn quota to me is no real problem as Cook,Holder,Doyle,Lindgren rode in UK and in all honesty Leicester and Somerset needed to sign top riders as do Kings Lynn

[Grachan]

When was the last time 7 GP riders rode in the league.

 

Last year. Zagar, Harris, Iversen, Jonsson, Holder, Lindback (sort of), Doyle, Lindgren, Woffinden.

[Steve Shovlar]

BT probably pay the catering company 3K to turn up and provide food for the crew. Its a miniscule offer really not worthy of consideration.

 

UK speedway will do better getting an in-house production team to do live ppv streaming. Sabmartv in Poland show what can be done.

[MattK]

BT probably pay the catering company 3K to turn up and provide food for the crew. Its a miniscule offer really not worthy of consideration.

 

UK speedway will do better getting an in-house production team to do live ppv streaming. Sabmartv in Poland show what can be done.

 

Hopefully this is a one year contract.

 

The low-ball nature of this offer might prompt some serious consideration of other options, if for no other reason than to give some leverage to future negotiations.

[PHILIPRISING]

BT probably pay the catering company 3K to turn up and provide food for the crew. Its a miniscule offer really not worthy of consideration.

 

UK speedway will do better getting an in-house production team to do live ppv streaming. Sabmartv in Poland show what can be done.

THERE was no catering this year.

 

Cannot compare the potential ppv market in Poland to Britain. Cannot see it being viable here. BSPA should get a deal done with BT and build on it. It is not as though the TV companies are falling over themselves to cover British speedway especially when they come up with a rule that could see the current World Champion not competing here.

[CookieIpswich]

Not sure if anyone has said but I keep seeing people say £3k is offered to the HOSTING club and everyone is saying they'll lose out with the £10 ticket

 

As said before clubs will be lucky to get 1 or 2 home televised meetings during the regular season so from BT it's a maximum of £6000 revenue

 

But BT want GP riders so the biggest problem and for once I agree with the BSPA

 

Is that if you're paying a GP rider even £1000 per meeting over 20 meetings that's £20,000 and BT are looking to pay you £3/6k so where do clubs make up the deficit to ensure GP riders and £1k is generous wasn't one top rider on a guaranteed £3k per meeting which makes the numbers even worse

[Gunner85]

Whatever the deal , a poor deal is better than no deal.

 

No one else is coming in.

[CookieIpswich]

A poor deal?

 

So pay a GP riders £3k a meeting over 20 meetings that's £60k and get in £3k/£6k and struggle to pay the remaining amount

 

Or

 

Agree the £3k match fee with BT based on no official amount of GP riders

 

If the bspa wanted GP riders the one rider over 8 wouldn't be there, simple as that

[Theboss]

The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is if the clubs accept the BT offer how will those clubs the bridge the financial gap between the £120k plus they received from sky last season to the £6k they will potentially receive this season.... Plus on top of that two meetings where they will potentially bring in less income as they are being forced to lower their admission to £10?

 

In my opinion this is what is stopping the clubs signing and I can not say I blame them.

 

So what happens if they do not accept the TV deal? Well I would hope they have a back up plan for PPV broadcasting, and if they don't then I can see teams starting 4 or 5 points lower than the 42.5 point limit as they look to cut costs, possibly putting two national league riders at reserve.

 

Shame all of this wasn't thought through prior to AGM. Hindsight was not required, just some business acumen.

[OldRacer]

The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is if the clubs accept the BT offer how will those clubs the bridge the financial gap between the £120k plus they received from sky last season to the £6k they will potentially receive this season.... Plus on top of that two meetings where they will potentially bring in less income as they are being forced to lower their admission to £10?

Could you give a ballpark guess as to what percentage of a clubs income the sky money represented? Are they looking at a reduction of 10%, 30% or 50%?

[stevebrum]

care to put your 7 together without getting shut of the reassessed averages, I have already stated I didn't know what MJ last UK average was

Depends on the classification of GP riders. 2017/2018??

There aren't 7.

 

Fricke, Masters, Tungate, Kurtz have all ridden in a GP in 2017. They aren't GP riders tho.

The BSPA have messed the deal up by making up the 1 over 8 rule and no chance of those who might be interested in coming back.

[PHILIPRISING]

Depends on the classification of GP riders. 2017/2018??

There aren't 7.

 

Fricke, Masters, Tungate, Kurtz have all ridden in a GP in 2017. They aren't GP riders tho.

The BSPA have messed the deal up by making up the 1 over 8 rule and no chance of those who might be interested in coming back.

AGREE with that. Why don't the BSPA ever simplify rules rather than over egg the pudding.

Edited December 1, 2017 by PHILIPRISING

[BluPanther]

AGREE with that. Why don't the BSPA ever simplify rules rather than over egg the pudding.

Because they always cook in the dark....

[Theboss]

 

I guess you wish to understand what clubs need to do to make ends meet.

 

Bottom line is deep pockets are needed to bridge the gap because I am sure it will also be harder to attract decent sponsorship due to either having no TV or what looks like skeleton coverage from BT.

 

My guess is the difference in sponsorship and TV income from 2017 and 2018 will be £150k.

 

With 2 home and 2 away matches (ignore play offs for moment) then it is around £11k of net income lost per match. If outgoings remain the same as 2017 then clubs will require around 800 extra adults per match (£17 x 800 - 20% VAT) to make ends meet.

 

As I said deep pockets and that is why I believe clubs will come to the tapes under strength in a bid to cut costs and try to survive the season.

[stevebrum]

AGREE with that. Why don't the BSPA ever simplify rules rather than over egg the pudding.

I remember a time in the not so distant past that the AGM press release gave loads of information, made the rules quite clear and easy to understand and by doing so treating the fans with reverence and respect.

Now its as minimal as you can get with more questions than answers!

 

Do we know when the averages for team building will be available?