Mike Parker - Saint or sinner?

[Beirao]

https://classicspeedwaymemories.webador.co.uk/january-2024/mike-parker

Mike Parker - Speedway saviour being the driving force behind the Provincial League and the Second Division or just a ruthless business man when closing down tracks? Did he have any "feel" for Speedway or were stockcars his real love or was he just in it for the money? 

[25yearfan]

Mike Parker was everything you say he was!

 

Speedway certainly would of been in a much worse state if the Provincial League of the early 60's and the new Second Division which started in 1968 hadn't actually occurred!

 

In terms of being a ruthless Businessman closing down tracks, its easy to judge when its not your own money being lost. You can be the biggest speedway enthusiast in the World but continually losing money loses its appeal after a while. Mike Parker obviously got out of running loss making tracks as soon as he could and sold on the profitable ones eventually as well.

 

You've only got to look at the publicised huge losses currently being incurred by Nigel Tolley in keeping speedway going at Birmingham to see that investors looking to make money out of speedway tracks in this Country wouldn't touch the vast majority of tracks with a bargepole. In years to come he won't be getting many plaudits for it as most would of forgotten it or are not around anymore to give them. I take it Mr Tolley must have a very successful Business away from speedway to subsidise the huge losses?  

Edited January 21 by 25yearfan

[Fromafar]

Mike Parker done a lot for the Sport.IMO

[E I Addio]

I’d take Mike Parker any day over ,  Godfrey, Chapman. , and the present shower.

[Chadster]

I think he sold up his last track in the 80s so he was in speedway for about a quarter of a century, which suggests that he had a feel for the sport. He was the driving force behind both the PL and BL Division 2, without which it's difficult to see how the sport could have enjoyed it's last golden period in the 60s and 70s.

[The White Knight]

A sinner in my opinion as was Bill Bridgett too. I can never forgive them for what they did to Sunderland 'Saints' in 1964.

They closed us so that they could strengthen their other two Tracks, namely Newcastle and Wolverhampton by 'divvying up' our riders between them, their reasons given for closing just did not add up. The weather was not great, but, we suffered no 'rain offs'. The crowds were pretty good - I know this for I was there at every match. It is notable that Wolverhampton were bottom of the League at the time of our closure, Newcastle got Ken Sharples and went on to win the League, Wolverhampton finished third in the League that year with a good number of Sunderland riders in their team. Jim Airey, Gordon Guasco and Colin McKee.

I am still very bitter and disgusted about the way Sunderland Speedway was treated by the Promoters in 1964.

[salty]

60 years on and still bitter! Remind me not to upset you on here. 
Seriously, fair play to you. I’m still angry about what happened to Dudley Wood, particularly the last planning decision which seemed to fly against all previous decisions, not to mention the majority of the evidence. Don’t get me started on Dudley Council either.

Parker was a hard nosed businessman who didn’t hang about closing tracks if they weren’t performing to expectations. Tough and hard to take if you lost your track, but his influence on the sport as a whole in the 60’s must have been beneficial?

[BL65]

Excerpts from the book '50 Days of Speedway, Sunderland in 1964':

“It would probably be appropriate to describe him (Parker) as a successful man in business but, overall, he had many more failures than successes in speedway promotion.  He did not prolong his association with tracks that were not making money for him.”
“By April 1964 when Mike Parker and Bill Bridgett opened Sunderland speedway, excluding Newcastle and Wolverhampton, which were their speedway home bases, the time Parker had been associated with the other tracks he had been involved with averaged just 13 months.  This was the track record of a man with a focus on short-term profitability rather than long-term development…. the only major team trophy success during his association with the club (Newcastle) was the Provincial League title in 1964, following the demise of Sunderland.”
“Len Silver made a success of Hackney post-Parker.  The key to that track becoming a viable proposition was ensuring that a good show was put on for spectators, with a competitive team which was exciting to watch, a lesson which Mike Parker failed to learn at several of his short-lived tracks.

Reg Fearman, his former business partner in the early days of the Provincial League, says that Parker 'had no feel for speedway'.  Parker was racing midget cars at Belle Vue in the 1950s, until the speedway riders complained about the cars causing damage to the track. He was encouraged to find a track of his own, hence the meetings staged at Bradford, Liverpool and Cradley Heath in 1959. It was obvious to him that speedway was likely to be more profitable than the midget cars and so he became a speedway promoter as well as a car driver.  He was party to some poor business decisions and/or team planning when taking on Liverpool, Bradford Greenfield, Leicester and Hackney during the PL years. Newcastle was his success during the 1960s and he can take credit for bringing back Ivan Mauger to the UK, although even Ivan got fed up with him eventually.  Parker took a back seat role at Stoke, Middlesbrough, Newport and Wolverhampton, which had 'speedway men' at the helm and all three lasted more than a single season as a result.  In the British League era his involvement at Nelson, Crayford, Doncaster and Bradford was also painfully short.  Some may describe him as hard-nosed and astute but his choice of venues to operate from indicated poor decision making more often than not.  By comparison many non-Parker tracks which opened or returned to league speedway in the 1960s had a more impressive life-span, such as Berwick, Cradley Heath, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Halifax, King's Lynn, Long Eaton and Sheffield.

[chunky]

22 hours ago, salty said:

60 years on and still bitter! Remind me not to upset you on here. 
Seriously, fair play to you. I’m still angry about what happened to Dudley Wood, particularly the last planning decision which seemed to fly against all previous decisions, not to mention the majority of the evidence. Don’t get me started on Dudley Council either.

Parker was a hard nosed businessman who didn’t hang about closing tracks if they weren’t performing to expectations. Tough and hard to take if you lost your track, but his influence on the sport as a whole in the 60’s must have been beneficial?

Funny thing is, British speedway history is littered with Jekyll & Hyde characters like Mike Parker! Sadly, many promoters are remembered more for their failures or their dodgy adventures than they are for their "achievements"...

[Chadster]

In fairness to Parker, Sunderland was not a great success when it reopened in the early 70s. Maybe, it's just not a speedway town, like Liverpool obviously wasn't. I think he was a little unlucky with the Liverpool and Bradford teams in the 1960 season as he stuck to the original ethos of the League whilst other promotions opted for very experienced teams. Not that that was always successful, as although Rayleigh won the league they closed down at the end of the year as runaway home wins led to dwindling support.

[BOBBATH]

14 hours ago, BL65 said:

Excerpts from the book '50 Days of Speedway, Sunderland in 1964':

“It would probably be appropriate to describe him (Parker) as a successful man in business but, overall, he had many more failures than successes in speedway promotion.  He did not prolong his association with tracks that were not making money for him.”
“By April 1964 when Mike Parker and Bill Bridgett opened Sunderland speedway, excluding Newcastle and Wolverhampton, which were their speedway home bases, the time Parker had been associated with the other tracks he had been involved with averaged just 13 months.  This was the track record of a man with a focus on short-term profitability rather than long-term development…. the only major team trophy success during his association with the club (Newcastle) was the Provincial League title in 1964, following the demise of Sunderland.”
“Len Silver made a success of Hackney post-Parker.  The key to that track becoming a viable proposition was ensuring that a good show was put on for spectators, with a competitive team which was exciting to watch, a lesson which Mike Parker failed to learn at several of his short-lived tracks.

Reg Fearman, his former business partner in the early days of the Provincial League, says that Parker 'had no feel for speedway'.  Parker was racing midget cars at Belle Vue in the 1950s, until the speedway riders complained about the cars causing damage to the track. He was encouraged to find a track of his own, hence the meetings staged at Bradford, Liverpool and Cradley Heath in 1959. It was obvious to him that speedway was likely to be more profitable than the midget cars and so he became a speedway promoter as well as a car driver.  He was party to some poor business decisions and/or team planning when taking on Liverpool, Bradford Greenfield, Leicester and Hackney during the PL years. Newcastle was his success during the 1960s and he can take credit for bringing back Ivan Mauger to the UK, although even Ivan got fed up with him eventually.  Parker took a back seat role at Stoke, Middlesbrough, Newport and Wolverhampton, which had 'speedway men' at the helm and all three lasted more than a single season as a result.  In the British League era his involvement at Nelson, Crayford, Doncaster and Bradford was also painfully short.  Some may describe him as hard-nosed and astute but his choice of venues to operate from indicated poor decision making more often than not.  By comparison many non-Parker tracks which opened or returned to league speedway in the 1960s had a more impressive life-span, such as Berwick, Cradley Heath, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Halifax, King's Lynn, Long Eaton and Sheffield.

Mike Parker did do a lot for speedway, but he was nowhere near as honorable a  character as Reg Fearman. The latter was not only a man of his word , but  always had a real feel for speedway and is a mine of knowledge about Speedway  History and even this day keeps in touch with many of the former riders e.g. Bob Andrews , Arthur Payne etc etc. His book "Both Sides of the Fence " is a great read. Reg is now 90 but fortunately is still sharp as a tack