Off-Season Team Building

[TheWellBehavedWorrall]

I recently finished reading The Secret Agent which is a football book and it got me thinking about speedway, given the off-season is approaching.

I’m intrigued by how a club’s off-season and subsequent team building plays out, but there isn’t a great deal - if any at all - information available on the subject.

Perhaps we have some members currently or previously involved in the running of a club, or perhaps just those in the know who could shed light on any of the following questions;

1. Do clubs set transfer and salary budget, or is the market fairly flat, so there are no rich clubs and no poor clubs, as such?

2. Who builds the team? The owner, the promoter or the team manager?

3. Is there a list of which club owns which riders, accessible to fans?

4. How many of each club’s starting line-up is typical made-up of loan deals?

5. What sort of fees are associated with full transfers?

6. Are clubs allowed to approach riders directly, or do they have to go through the club that owns the rider?

7. Are riders able to approach clubs to express an interest in riding for them, or again, so they require approval from the club which owns them?

8. Factoring in relocation and work permits, what sort of costs are associated with bringing a foreign rider to the UK for the first time?

9. Do clubs scout riders throughout the season and typically have shortlists?

10. Are expenses paid for riders? Transport, accommodation, etc.

Edited September 16, 2023 by TheWellBehavedWorrall

[TheWellBehavedWorrall]

[IainB]

There's not really such a thing as an asset system anymore in this country as no club can really afford to buy riders and why would you as they can be stopped from riding for you by their Polish club.  And nobody really knows anything about anything involving money in Speedway.

What you'll likely find is clubs drip feeding out rider names during the close season just to keep some kind of media interest going, even if they're all signed and sealed

Edited September 17, 2023 by iainb

[noaksey]

Wolves have always said that CVS and Adams sit down and agree the team building, I presume in the event of a difference of opinion CVS has the casting vote

I believe the Poole teams have always been built by Matt Ford and Middlo just manages the team he's given, I think that's on record 

[KK62]

On 9/16/2023 at 3:09 PM, TheWellBehavedWorrall said:

I recently finished reading The Secret Agent which is a football book and it got me thinking about speedway, given the off-season is approaching.

I’m intrigued by how a club’s off-season and subsequent team building plays out, but there isn’t a great deal - if any at all - information available on the subject.

Perhaps we have some members currently or previously involved in the running of a club, or perhaps just those in the know who could shed light on any of the following questions;

1. Do clubs set transfer and salary budget, or is the market fairly flat, so there are no rich clubs and no poor clubs, as such?

2. Who builds the team? The owner, the promoter or the team manager?

3. Is there a list of which club owns which riders, accessible to fans?

4. How many of each club’s starting line-up is typical made-up of loan deals?

5. What sort of fees are associated with full transfers?

6. Are clubs allowed to approach riders directly, or do they have to go through the club that owns the rider?

7. Are riders able to approach clubs to express an interest in riding for them, or again, so they require approval from the club which owns them?

8. Factoring in relocation and work permits, what sort of costs are associated with bringing a foreign rider to the UK for the first time?

9. Do clubs scout riders throughout the season and typically have shortlists?

10. Are expenses paid for riders? Transport, accommodation, etc.

1. Each club sets its own ‘budget’ based on how ‘ rich ‘ they are, so some clubs will always be able to offer more than others , that doesn’t mean they will get whoever they want due to race night issues and travel.

2. clubs are different, some promoters do the team selection some leave it to the team manager.

3. There is a ‘ assets ‘ list of riders, not available to the public and it’s always out of date and means very very little in the scheme of things as a rider will sign for who he wants not necessarily who owns him.

4. How long is a piece of string ? That’s upto the club.

5. Depends on the rider….things such as average, age , etc can all come into it.

6. Rules say the ‘owning club’ should be approached officially first, in reality , this rarely happens and ‘tapping up’ goes on all the time .

7. See above. it works both ways.

8. Visa’s can cost many hundreds , then it depends on what your offering the import, living wage, accommodation, bikes, van, mechanics etc, but you don’t have to offer any of those things .

9. Scouts ? Word of mouth usually, other riders and ex riders recommendations more often than not.

10. Expenses ? Not a standard thing but some clubs , the richer ones, do . Most have fans how will let a rider ‘ lodge ‘ when required. Air fares don’t need to be paid , it’s all included in what ever deal the club comes up with for the rider.

 

All of these things are different between clubs and riders, there isn’t an official pay scale , it’s all done by ‘that’s what others get ‘….

If you stand in the pits long enough and listen to the chat , especially between mechanics, very little is kept secret for long. It’s not a very professional approach but it’s the way it’s always been done . They have tried to have pay scales etc but it never worked and never will.

Things differ from division to division and country to country but my comments are based on the UK. Poland is a different scenario all together.

 

[TheWellBehavedWorrall]

19 hours ago, noaksey said:

Wolves have always said that CVS and Adams sit down and agree the team building, I presume in the event of a difference of opinion CVS has the casting vote

I believe the Poole teams have always been built by Matt Ford and Middlo just manages the team he's given, I think that's on record 

That’s interesting. Thanks.

CVS and Matt Ford are the owners, right? I wonder how much, if any, input promotors have.

I’ll use Glasgow, for example. The Facenna’s are the owners, but Alan Dick and Michael Max, two of the promoters, have much more internal Speedway experience, so their input would be valuable.

I’ve no idea what the manager, Cami Brown’s background is.

51 minutes ago, KK62 said:

1. Each club sets its own ‘budget’ based on how ‘ rich ‘ they are, so some clubs will always be able to offer more than others , that doesn’t mean they will get whoever they want due to race night issues and travel.

2. clubs are different, some promoters do the team selection some leave it to the team manager.

3. There is a ‘ assets ‘ list of riders, not available to the public and it’s always out of date and means very very little in the scheme of things as a rider will sign for who he wants not necessarily who owns him.

4. How long is a piece of string ? That’s upto the club.

5. Depends on the rider….things such as average, age , etc can all come into it.

6. Rules say the ‘owning club’ should be approached officially first, in reality , this rarely happens and ‘tapping up’ goes on all the time .

7. See above. it works both ways.

8. Visa’s can cost many hundreds , then it depends on what your offering the import, living wage, accommodation, bikes, van, mechanics etc, but you don’t have to offer any of those things .

9. Scouts ? Word of mouth usually, other riders and ex riders recommendations more often than not.

10. Expenses ? Not a standard thing but some clubs , the richer ones, do . Most have fans how will let a rider ‘ lodge ‘ when required. Air fares don’t need to be paid , it’s all included in what ever deal the club comes up with for the rider.

 

All of these things are different between clubs and riders, there isn’t an official pay scale , it’s all done by ‘that’s what others get ‘….

If you stand in the pits long enough and listen to the chat , especially between mechanics, very little is kept secret for long. It’s not a very professional approach but it’s the way it’s always been done . They have tried to have pay scales etc but it never worked and never will.

Things differ from division to division and country to country but my comments are based on the UK. Poland is a different scenario all together.

 

Thanks for this.

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know all of this? I find it fascinating.

[KK62]

1 hour ago, TheWellBehavedWorrall said:

That’s interesting. Thanks.

CVS and Matt Ford are the owners, right? I wonder how much, if any, input promotors have.

I’ll use Glasgow, for example. The Facenna’s are the owners, but Alan Dick and Michael Max, two of the promoters, have much more internal Speedway experience, so their input would be valuable.

I’ve no idea what the manager, Cami Brown’s background is.

Thanks for this.

If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know all of this? I find it fascinating.

It was my job, as a former promoter, to know how it works. Nothings changed in the few years since I stepped down.