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Post by benbulben on Nov 12, 2018 16:24:02 GMT 1
Here we go again ! Official website does not make for a good night's sleep and backs up your financial analysis, coombes.Stop paying silly money to riders which has brought us 1 lousy cup will help to a degree but I cant see speedway ever getting crowds big enough to become profitable. I await other comments with interest, lafs.
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Post by coombes on Nov 12, 2018 17:30:33 GMT 1
www.glasgowtigers.co/club-statement-club-position/Not a surprise given the financials that we've discussed here over the last two or three seasons. The real surprise is that it has taken so long to come to the obvious conclusion. Possibly the change of raceday, first to Saturday and then to Friday, was hoped to be our saviour, but if truth be told crowds seem much the same regardless of when we race. The Facennas have tried to run the Tigers professionally and it hasn't worked. We manage to run up losses greater than others teams entire budgets! Why? Well our books show that we had six, presumably full time employees, in 2017. Team manager, general manager, Den manager seem likely candidates with marketing/ publicity, maintenance and Den staff may be the others. We got on with volunteers doing these functions pre 2015 and need to revert to this kind of operation next year. We have also wasted huge sums on self indulgent marketing - remember the video billboard campaign, Kevlars for Greg Hancock, etc. Sadly the big TV screen seems another indulgent project. A lot of expense that doesn't look like generating significant income - unless we really are considering have concerts at Ashfield. Similarly the Tigers Den seems to have been a drain on resources rather than a revenue source. It was a novelty at first, but quickly outlived its benefit. It's worrying that we are looking for volunteers to work "in the ticket office, selling food and beverage, selling programmes or 50/50 tickets, track staff" Weren't these already carried out by volunteers or were they paid positions. Similarly the hope that fans are being asked to "drive new fans into our sport, spread the news of what we do here and how great the sport is. Tell your friends, your family, your colleagues, your neighbours and anyone else that will listen. To save speedway we need your help!” We've already brought friends along with the Bring a Friend exercise last year and it's hard to see this boosting our crowd next year. It's hard to know the elements of our losses. In 2017 we traded at a loss of over 400k once debt write off and Allied sponsorship was deducted. Is 200k of this staff costs and 180k the dreaded video billboard campaign? If this is a reasonable assessment, we're left with a figure of around 50K which perhaps is a figure a Fans Trust could handle - 200 fans donating £20 a month would cover it.... and that's before the promotion look at cutting back on running costs. Let's hope so.
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Post by benbulben on Nov 12, 2018 17:54:38 GMT 1
Ironic that Stewart and Alan kept it going on a shoestring for years. Why are we then still persisting in a giant screen ? The Monarchs fans do a good job in backing the Monarchs and I would imagine our fans could do likewise. I mean Weegies are more generous than the' youll have had your tea' brigade, arent they ?
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Post by md on Nov 12, 2018 20:00:40 GMT 1
Naturally plenty of debate on this though BSF has strayed off topic as per. Be interesting to know if the financial gap has widened or narrowed for this season compared to last. As has been mentioned we need to stop paying sky high wages to riders who largely haven't performed. Buying the best may result in a quality product or service in business but the same doesn't apply in speedway. The signing of Harris must go down as spectacular naivety, an ageing rider who never performed but milked the cow all season long. Shiftless unless in a Poole jacket. The rescue mission in signing Cook brought us back from the dead but must have cost a pretty packet. It almost got us to the final where I think we would have beaten Lakeside over two legs but not to be.
The other side to reducing the wage bill and costs is increasing revenue. The club have tried no end through social media to increase awareness and gain new fans. They haven't been helped by 3 or 4 week long gaps between home meetings and the lack of momentum that brings to the new fan. The play off atmosphere against Workington was the flattest of all the play off meetings going back to 2015. Many of the new faces on the terraces at the start of the season never seemed to come back after the summer holidays. They probably found something else to do. How we increase the numbers I don't know. There seems the will for fans to do more. Significantly increasing the gate price won't work leaving a more serious option of fans donating via a trust or other body as was done by STAARS previously.
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Post by benbulben on Nov 12, 2018 20:15:16 GMT 1
And we haven't even mentioned the tractors which are on track more than the bikes. I dont remember so much tractoring from White City right through to Shawfield it is but another factor. Short, sharp, speedy meetings needed. I have this season had to leave early on a few occasions to get transport connections as I dont fancy hanging about Poassil in the dark. I appreciate all the Facennas have done but i dont recall asking the fans views in any depth. Hopefully they read us lads on the forum.
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Post by coombes on Nov 12, 2018 21:17:51 GMT 1
It's a time for realism but not for panic. Back in Alan Biggarts time our breakeven point seemed to be a bit below 800 and remember we were paying rent to Ashfield Juniors then. If we cut away all the non riding paid jobs and stop throwing money away on marketing schemes, won't 800 each week bring in around 13k. 100 points at £100 "only" comes to £10k, leaving 3k for travel, insurance and other costs. Probably it's not enough to square things off, but with sponsorship and a Fans Trust surely we wouldn't be too far off. This woukd mean no guarantees, signing on fees, free Kevlars, team bonding events and a whole lot more. We've had some of the best crowd numbers in our division, we don't pay rent, we retain car parking fees and bar profits so we should be in better financial shape than others in our league IF we control our spending. Hopefully this weeks conference comes out with some form of pay policy but if not we need to be determined in not paying over the odds for any rider.
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highroad
Neck and Neck with Charlie McKinna
Posts: 205
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Post by highroad on Nov 13, 2018 14:07:12 GMT 1
what we have in our favour on a positive note, Is a much better product than in previous years. A fence that doesn't need repairing during meetings, vastly improved track, close racing and great facilities. I would be happy to watch a Budget team scrape by in a last heat decider most weeks. If most riders don't go part time though I fear we are in real big trouble for the future. 1000 a week attendance should be a realistic target hopefully.
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hector
Neck and Neck with Charlie McKinna
Posts: 138
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Post by hector on Nov 13, 2018 19:43:38 GMT 1
Reduce the tractor racing. Bin the Jungle Balls. Reduce the season from mid-April to early October, making regular weekly racing more likely. Sign mostly younger riders, no more has-beens.
Do some/all of this and I am sure crowds would improve.
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khalil
Falling off with Martin McKinna
Posts: 68
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Post by khalil on Nov 13, 2018 22:39:04 GMT 1
Certainly curtail the tractor stuff. It really annoys a lot of us - grade or water if necessary but don't get carried away with it. I've been going to speedway for over 60 years and it didn't used to be like this. A potential Nick Morris would be great but please no more like Chris Harris.
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Post by md on Nov 13, 2018 23:16:05 GMT 1
The Harris door is almost certainly closed. With cost cutting high on the agenda i can see a return to NL 2 point reserves unfortunately. Tractor grading seems to be a constant criticism as it was last year. Worth wondering how many times did it actually benefit us.
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Post by tyretrax on Nov 14, 2018 11:47:18 GMT 1
Did we not lose more races than we won after the big grade?
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dadam
Neck and Neck with Charlie McKinna
Posts: 196
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Post by dadam on Nov 14, 2018 12:12:50 GMT 1
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Post by coombes on Nov 15, 2018 10:11:02 GMT 1
Hopefully Gerry has a slot at the Winter Event on Saturday and expands on this. Are we going to cut back on the number of non riders on the payroll, particularly full time ones which few other clubs seem to have? Are we going to reduce our rider costs per se and not just rely on the 38 point limit making some kind of savings? Are we going to be more prudent with our spending. What is the crowd number we need to break even with the new cost regime in place? Would a Fans Trust be welcome/helpful. I'm sure others have other questions too.
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Post by dirtywhensecond on Nov 16, 2018 8:18:57 GMT 1
I feel disenfranchised with the current pricing structure.
Quite simply I can't afford to go.
As someone has posted already I'd rather pay twelve quid to see last heat deciders with a NL team than overpaid Championship has-beens or never will bes.
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Post by coombes on Nov 19, 2018 8:53:38 GMT 1
Disappointing that so little was said about our future, other than a passing reference that we need to increase our crowds. Are we going to continue this head in the sand approach through next season?
Our losses in 2018 are said to be in six figures which most fans take to be £100k but it could easily be a lot more than that. At 100k and with 15 meetings next year, we need 400 extra full price admissions every week to square it off. It didn't happen after an extensive Bring a Friend campaign so is there any real hope of it working next year.
Our Facebook page claims that newbies were out off from returning because they didnt understand what was happening and that the new big screen will remedy that. Not sure that was the case and we only get one chance to make a first impression. The delays between heats were more likely to turn spectators off - and this is something we can improve IF we really want to.
We need to accept that Speedway doesn't appeal to all and to budget for a realistic crowd level rather than hope we can boost the crowd numbers to meet our expenditure. The accounts for 2017 show we had six employees. How much did they get paid? 100k? More? Is this the size of our losses? Possibly Stewart Dickson was one and with the Den being curtailed there is a further saving - the Den managers job was advertised st 40k a couple of years ago. So possibly substantial savings are already in train.
I'm sure the 2k donation given to the promotion was gratefully accepted on Saturday but it is a drop in the ocean. Do we need a concerted effort either through STARS or a new Fans Trust? I think there's a will to get behind the club but do we need to start now rather than waiting to this time next year and be looking at Fighting Funds?
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