Speedway Grand Prix 2009 - Rider earnings

The fastidious Charles McKay has now collated the cumulative Speedway Grand Prix prize money totals earned by each rider during the recently completed 2009 season. They make pitiful reading for many riders concerned and also their accountants (but do accord with the derisory levels set by the FIM rules and regulations). Based on these figures alone, it can’t be even vaguely economic for most of the riders to compete in the series if, for example, you only factor in their increased travel and equipment expenses.

British Speedway also continues to pay a high cost each season in terms of intermittent and/or selective rider absenteeism during the course of each ‘long’ season. But the ongoing damage could also potentially be even more catastrophic long term - particularly if the self-interested cries of anguish from the ‘top riders’ that the British Elite League season is too long, that there are too many meetings ridden on different nights etc gains enough credence to eventually lead to structural change and, effectively, the abolition of ‘top tier’ weekend racing in Britain. Effectively such a change would merely be to accommodate the narrow commercial interests of the SGP circus and its field of notionally ‘world class’ competitors. We often hear about the packed schedule of riders who compete in the British, Polish and Swedish leagues (to name but three). Obviously, these demanding itineraries are compounded for all riders who chose to compete, qualify to compete or - in real grace and favour, true tug your forelock feudal fashion - get picked by the speedway experts found within the SGP/IMG management team as wild cards. (Blindfold pin the tail on the donkey sometimes looks a preferable wild card selection method in comparison to the informed deliberations of the small coterie of experts drawn from this particular inner circle).

Of course, the decision (once picked or qualified) to compete in any SGP series is the riders' right as self-employed workers but , ultimately, not really sufficient reason or justification to throw away eighty years of racing tradition in this country. We hear so often nowadays about the need to adapt – aka a convenient shorthand for the idea of ‘fixed’ Elite League racing nights - that you could half suspect it’s become the speedway equivalent of a Buddhist chant. Often without apparent irony, there’s wild talk of meaningless Elite League fixtures from riders (or their tame press representative advocates) who, nonetheless, conveniently forget that they also compete in the many turgid rounds of the borefest that the SGP has become. Clearly some promoters who operate midweek tracks will be in favour of such change to shore up their strategic, competitive and (possibly) financial positions. Bizarrely, some promoters even advocate, tacitly or implicitly, a measured form of entente cordiale and compromise with the SGP. This, despite the fact, it’s only ever been a parasitic one-way street, never mind the long held perception that the SGP couldn’t give a monkey’s about British Speedway and remain sanguine if they or the riders take the proverbial. However, it’s an unavoidable and incontrovertible fact that most well attended sports in this neck of the woods (and practically all countries elsewhere) pretty well all take place over the weekend or, at least, the extended Friday to Monday weekend that television sports coverage has gradually foisted upon us all.

A reasonable question could be posed, namely ‘why does British Speedway have to suffer (any more than the BSPA directs) by further compromising its traditions?’ Particularly when this appears to be for an independent commercial party with no connection or investment in British Speedway. If this were a detective novel or murder mystery, any half decent investigator would automatically ask ‘who really benefits from this?’ Based on the figures below, it’s clearly neither the majority of the riders nor British Speedway that emerges financially triumphant. If the siren voices for radical change (and supposedly moving with the times) are heeded, would the reduced EL fixture list so many are apparently in favour of demonstrate a pragmatic way to work round the SGP elephant in the room? More likely, it would be a bodged solution too far and signal itself as the precursor to the further inexorable decline of an already diminished top tier racing product?

Rider
1 Jason Crump $101,600 £67,811
2 Emil Sayfutdinov $84,300 £53,388
3 Tomasz Gollob $72,650 £47,225
4 Greg Hancock $60,200 £39,130
5 Andreas Jonsson $58,550 £39,263
6 Nicki Pedersen $54,650 £35,775
7 Rune Holta $53,750 £34,852
8 Kenneth Bjerre $53,050 £35,080
9 Fredrik Lindgren $52,150 £33,894
10 Hans Andersen $51,650 £33,581
11 Leigh Adams $49,500 £32,445
12 Sebastian Ulamek $46,350 £30,207
13 Chris Harris $42,350 £27,595
14 Grezegorz Walasek$41,950 £27,355
15 Scott Nicholls $38,500 £25,761
16 Neils K Iversen $13,900 £8,938
17 Antonio Lindback $12,000 £7,736

Promotion/Relegation Meetings 2009

Congratulations to the Edinburgh Monarchs for triumphing through the Premier League Play Offs for the second successive season to again take part in the promotion/relegation meetings that could potentially see them join the upper tier of British Speedway. They certainly look to have put together at team that, on its present top-notch form, could stand a chance of doing so. Obviously, on their day they all go well at the Scotwaste Arena and a trip to Kirkmanshulme Lane will hold no fears for the majority of the team. Clearly, on a regular day-to-day basis, there is still a difference (in equipment investment and to the first corner?) between the perceived standards of Elite League and the Premier League. This was evidenced by the comprehensive drubbing the Monarchs received from Wolverhampton who, last season, were apparently completely demoralised and but a pale shadow of the team that’s subsequently torn up trees this season. Nonetheless, they still swept their erstwhile challengers aside and only an optimist person would bet otherwise for the forthcoming Monarchs versus Aces meeting.

No one can deny that the visit of an Elite League team to any Premier League will, weather permitting, draw a big crowd especially if there is something more than pride to (notionally) race for! With a couple of in form riders - people like Kevin Wolbert (who through accident or foresight will start the 2010 on an assessed average of 7.00 rather his higher ‘real’ average) and Ryan Fisher - plus a roster of talent that includes Andrew Tully, Matty Wethers and their latest secret weapon of the rider who sounds like a new but obscure martial art, Kalle Katajisto, Belle Vue will face more of a battle than Wolves did last season.

Even if we ignore on the ongoing encroachment of residential properties moving inexorably towards the Scotswaste Arena or rumours of site visits from supermarket surveyors keen to plan a possible future for this land, there are number of significant factors that indicate the promotion/relegation opportunity is much more a theoretical than a practical possibility. Though there’s the incentive of the nowadays increased Sky payments due to each Elite League team, all that glitters isn’t necessarily gold never mind that it’s widely accepted that increased rider costs will automatically swallow a big proportion if not all of this apparent satellite television bounty. Should the unthinkable happen, there would then be the complication of the Monarchs regular race night. This is currently a Friday and they’d quickly find themselves in the same boat as other Elite League clubs like Lakeside and Eastbourne. Whose fixture lists and gate receipts allegedly suffer from the ongoing deleterious impact of the increasingly boring but unreasonably demanding Speedway Grand Prix series events and its mandatory pre-meeting practices. Should any Friday night EL club stubbornly continue to run their League meetings on SGP weekends then the ‘stars’ of said same series would, most likely, not ride so fans would understandably think twice about the increased admission costs just to see something equivalent to what they have now (and nothing like what it says on the tin).


All these issues exist even before we take a brief look at the present geographical distribution of the Elite and Premier Leagues. Belle Vue are the most northerly of the Elite clubs and effectively have no local derbies while, if the Premier League split into regional North & South groups, the preponderance of ‘northern’ based clubs would probably find Stoke (38 miles from Belle Vue’s track) in the Southern group! In Quantum of Shale (a lovely present for the speedway fan in your life) as long ago as June 2008, Monarchs fan Ronnie Trotter expressed concern during a visit to Smallmead about the likely financial impact of lost revenues. “So, even though this year is a good year to go up for the big payment, our nearest club would then be Belle Vue and we’d lose the derbies against Glasgow plus the meetings against Workington, Newcastle and Berwick! So it wouldn’t be economically viable to even think about.” Even if you don’t include Redcar speedway in this list (which, given their location and support you should), based on their 2009 fixtures the Monarchs would lose the finances generated from four home meetings against Glasgow, three home meetings against Newcastle plus two home meetings against both Berwick and Workington. Who knows what the realities are of the actual income these local/regional meetings generate for the promotion? They’d certainly be missed! One thing is for sure: a couple of visits from, say, Lakeside, Eastbourne and Ipswich that the current Elite League structure (assuming no revamp over the winter months) dictates definitely isn’t going to produce such robust crowds for the Monarchs promotion at the Scotswaste Arena. Especially once the initial enthusiasm for visits from such top tier rival clubs fades.

For Belle Vue, the situation might possibly be the reverse of that faced by the Monarchs since ‘demotion’ to the Premier League would immediately eliminate the Sky payment but also significantly reduce their rider costs, provide much greater variety of visiting teams and many more regionally relevant meetings. Recently Belle Vue suddenly showed shockingly awful form over the first three heats against Ipswich in their last vital Elite League meeting on September 28th to, thereby, effectively guarantee their participation in the lucrative promotion/relegation meetings. If history suddenly repeats itself, Edinburgh riders could find themselves needing to lose races rather than win them in order to ensure that a possibly fatal financial ill wind doesn’t wreck their club.

All things considered, the smart money (if there is such a thing in speedway outside the SGP) remains on the Aces. While the concept of promotion/relegation meetings just about remains plausible, beyond its revenue raising and entertainment potential, at best the reality of its practice and execution looks ill conceived. For many speedway fans, whether neutral or partisan, the C word (for charade) will remain the abiding description, irrespective of any enjoyment derived from the clash of these two speedway clubs.

"Speedway is broken" claims Matt Ford

Far more relevant to the future of the Elite League level of the sport and its overall reputation than the Internet debate over the post Heat 15 goings on at Arlington last night*, Matt Ford’s interval comments appear to have attracted little consideration or attention.

In a wide-ranging chat with Kevin Coombes, Poole Promoter Matt Ford appeared to call for the resignations or removal from future involvement of key but unnamed figures within the upper echelons of the sport. His comments upon governance were along these lines: “[British] speedway is broken…..we need some drastic changes….we can’t carry on the way we are. We need to do something! The same people who’ve been in charge need to step aside and changes have to be made…I sincerely hope that there will be changes!”

Quite who exactly Matt refers to is open to conjecture but such public comments clearly highlight that dramatic changes to the governance, structure and organisation of (at least) the upper tier of speedway in Britain are both needed and likely during the coming months.

Calling for unspecified changes is all well and good but after he’d identified that the future governance of British Speedway is a task “beyond any one man” alone, Matt Ford then proceeded to praise both Jon Cook (“has some fantastic ideas about how to take the sport forward”) and Jonathan Chapman (“not everyone’s cup of tea but someone who really cares about speedway”).

Prior to his outburst, Matt Ford also confessed he’s been “speaking to Bob [Dugard]” about the future of the Elite level of the sport before the meeting. During the latter part of his interview, Ford went onto attack the surprise mid-season decision to reduce the number of available Elite League play off places from six to four. “Things have to change – they can’t go on the way they are! People in glasshouses can’t just change the rules half way through the season. Ipswich and Eastbourne should both have been competing for play off places not having the rules change half way through the season because some people want them to!”




* After a tough financial outcome to the 2009 season for the club had again been raised, Bob Dugard identified a possible last gasp solution, “I’m just gonna fine every rider who was fighting here tonight £10,000!”