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Post by admin on May 28, 2007 19:58:41 GMT
I see a lot of comment on the Bulldogs' forum regarding the absence of John Postlethwaite, uber-boss of BSI, at BSI's meetings this season. This is leading to great speculation regarding the future of the Bulldogs. However, with BSI selling their rights to the SWC and SGP, it's probable that Postlethwaite's attention would have been focused on firstly negotiating the deal and then, having taken a role within IMG, of integrating the SWC and SGP into IMG. On 30th April, 2007, Postlethwaite issued the following statement:
"I am acutely aware that since the announcement that BSI Speedway has been sold to IMG, I have made no official comment with regard to the Reading Bulldogs. I felt it was important to let the fans know that following the integration of the BSI Speedway team into the new IMG set-up my attentions will be focusing on how we move forward with the Reading Bulldogs. I have meetings planned with the stadium owners and team management over the coming weeks and it's our intention to make an announcement of what our plans are with the Reading Bulldogs by the end of May."
So, broadly, that statement looks encouraging. But with the crowds at Smallmead continuing to be, as far as I can tell, poor and the recent troubles with Messrs Hancock, Zagar and Bird, the BSI camp doesn't seem to be a happy one. As I understand it, the Bulldogs were not part of the IMG deal, but remain firmly a BSI asset. So surely all that remains of BSI is a rump organisation ready to be asset stripped and wound up. Should be an interesting week or so.
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2007 16:41:17 GMT
Looking forward to JP's press release certainly .............
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Post by schumi on May 31, 2007 19:32:40 GMT
I'm wondering if the news at Oxford has taken the heat off this somewhat, and providing an excuse for a delay. Not many hours of May left to issue a statement.
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Post by admin on May 31, 2007 22:24:33 GMT
Still no news? Is this a case of no news being good news? Or have BSI been prevailed upon to delay their bad news until after the furore surrounding Oxford has died down? Surely if it were good news, the BSPA would be eager for it to be broadcast to offset the crisis at Cowley. As ever, the long-suffering public are left to wonder.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2007 11:41:36 GMT
it's probable that Postlethwaite's attention would have been focused on firstly negotiating the deal and then, having taken a role within IMG, of integrating the SWC and SGP into IMG. One wonders how long he'll last at IMG. One indeed wonders if IMG actually know what they've bought - they wouldn't be the first to overextend into sports they didn't understand.
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Post by admin on Jun 1, 2007 15:33:13 GMT
My views on this are well known. I'm of the opinion that Postlethwaite recognised the law of diminishing returns would hit his circus and to insulate himself against that, he sold out to an organisation eager to extend its portfolio, but largely ignorant about speedway. Naturally, I bow to Postlethwaite's talents as a salesman. He's sold IMG London Bridge, only they probably thought they were getting Tower Bridge.
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Post by schumi on Jun 6, 2007 13:41:25 GMT
The latest statement from JP gives little away, and appears to be a way of appeasing fans for the time being: "As always I like to keep everyone informed as best as possible. "Today we have had a very constructive meeting with the BSPA bosses at their offices in Rugby. "The main subject on the agenda was how we can work together to protect the future of Reading speedway. We expect to continue those discussions over the next couple of weeks. "I remain hopeful that we will be able to continue to support Elite League speedway at Reading." From: www.readingbulldogs.com
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Post by admin on Jun 6, 2007 18:50:53 GMT
Negatively seems to be the only way to read that, if you ask me. The great and mighty BSI reduced to going cap in hand to the BSPA to try and help them out.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 8, 2007 18:55:44 GMT
The great and mighty BSI reduced to going cap in hand to the BSPA to try and help them out. His whinge about Terry Russell taking too big a cut of the Sky money was also hilarious. Are they not chums any more?
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Post by admin on Jun 8, 2007 19:21:33 GMT
The great and mighty BSI reduced to going cap in hand to the BSPA to try and help them out. His whinge about Terry Russell taking too big a cut of the Sky money was also hilarious. Are they not chums any more? My own personal guess is that the only real complaint about one person getting 30% of the wedge is that he's not that person. Reading the whole article it was refreshing to see the almighty Postlethwaite admit to a couple of small mistakes, but largely he cast around for scapegoats for the troubles that he himself had caused. Oxford caused wage inflation among riders. But no one forced BSI to stump up the readies, Postlethwaite decided upon that himself. He gave the fans their "dream team" allegedly, except he didn't. Their dream team were Racers not Bulldogs. Postlethwaite claims to have lost circa £500,000 and he's got no one to blame but himself. His hubris (a telling comment was his arrogant and I feel wholly inaccurate statement that people "know he can promote a good meeting") may bring nemesis down not only upon himself, but Reading speedway as a whole.
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Post by admin on Jun 9, 2007 13:08:32 GMT
A reminder of my own thoughts on the BSI takeover at Reading:
The bubble bursts: A cautionary tale on the folly of hubris
Well, it was bound to happen, that’s my view. BSI has recently sounded the alarm bells down at Reading, the club it assumed control over amid much fanfare during the last close season They say they need 2,000 paying customers to make it pay, but, apparently, only 800-or-so of the terminally addicted are passing through the turnstiles at Smallmead on a weekly basis. Whoops. If attendances don’t rise, changes are being threatened. The club, elevated to the Elite League after the BSI takeover may make a humiliatingly rapid return, the bulldog’s tail between its legs, to the Premier League (a step not even Ronnie Russell at perennial wooden-spooners Arena Essex countenances), otherwise a more “economic” team will compete in the Elite League. Some of us warned the Reading supporters to be wary of becoming part of the BSI stable. But they dismissed us as BSI-haters, or of simply being green with envy that the wonderful BSI hadn’t picked “our” club. They weren’t concerned at all: the future was bright; the future was BSI. All of a sudden, after years in the wilderness, their club were a force to be reckoned with – they gloried, for a time, in the power and influence being part of BSI brought their club. Did they not realise that BSI is a commercial entity, dedicated to the pursuit of profit and with a seeming obligation to pay CEO John Posslethwaite circa £350,000 per annum? If they did, they didn’t care – a heady cocktail had entered their system. Power’s the ultimate drug and unmatched in its ability to destroy those whom it ensnares: look at Tony Blair. Blair’s hopelessly addicted to power, that’s why he’s hanging around Downing Street when his time passed years ago. That’s why he fawns embarrassingly (and inflicting reflected embarrassment on this country) over the likes of George W Bush, Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi. That’s why he’s lingering around, hoping for an upturn in fortune that’s never going to come. It’s downhill all the way for Blair and the only question is whether he’ll have any reputation left when eventually he topples from power. Personally, I doubt it very much; history will remember him as the most shamefully, shameless prime minister ever. And rightly so, he is. BSI and Blair have much in common, although neither would care to admit it. They’re both playing on a myth of their own creation that bears little resemblance to the truth. Blair’s myth is that without his “charismatic” presence the Labour Party would’ve remained unelectable, when the truth was that by 1997 the electorate were so sick of the sleaze ridden Tories they’d have elected a Labour Party led by Michael Foot. BSI’s myth is that they and they alone rescued the speedway world championship from the abyss and turned it into the success story it is today. The truth is they didn’t and it isn’t. Reading’s fans didn’t have long to wait before the bitter truth of BSI’s takeover was revealed. It wasn’t long before concerns started mounting, especially when rumours started circulating that the long-standing Racers nickname was under threat. Now, rumours, as well all know, are merely premature facts, even in the cruel, crazy town. And, sure enough, the Racers name and all the history and tradition that accompanied it were dumped in the bin: the Racers were dead; long live the Bulldogs. The what? Didn’t BSI realise, or didn’t they care, that Bristol was the home to speedway’s Bulldogs? I favour the second option. They didn’t care, but they should’ve done. People are sentimental creatures and none more so than speedway supporters. They grow strangely attached to such apparently prosaic things as their team’s nickname – changing the name loosens the bonds that tie club and supporter. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the new logo was a Loony Tunes inspired creation that brought forth a flood of ridicule from rival supporters. And then there was the Danny Bird fiasco, entirely avoidable and enormously damaging. The loss of a favoured rider, such as Danny Bird – through whatever circumstances, in this case a cock-up on the averages front – was another error of judgement. The bonds loosen some more. In fairness, BSI did put together a powerful side, quickly picking up the subtle ways and means of building a title-challenging team by taking advantage of various iniquities in assessed averages – bringing in Janusz Kolodziej, the reigning Polish champion on a 4.00 assessed average at reserve, for example. But that wasn’t the masterstroke it was made out to be – even the dimmest of the dim could see that was going to be a blinding move: it wasn’t rocket science, was it? I recall watching the first televised EL fixture of the season and wondering, as I often do, which planet John Postlethwaite – uber-boss of BSI – resides on. It doesn’t appear to be planet earth and you can be damned sure it isn’t Planet Subedei. Reading, I dimly recall him saying, was chosen by BSI because of its proximity to London. Really? I had to glance at my atlas after that one. The atlas confirmed what I already thought: Reading is bloody miles away from the capital city of empire. And does a speedway club really need a sporting director? No, I don’t think so either. But there is Sam Ermolenko, firmly ensconced as “sporting director” of the Reading Bulldogs. What he does, I know not, but I’d imagine he gets well paid for whatever it is. Everyone kow-tows down before and gives eternal thanks towards the great and almighty BSI, saviours of speedway, but the truth is that they’ve done little or nothing at all for the sport and been richly rewarded. It’s about time a little boy, or girl – we don’t want to be sexist – cries out that the emperor’s naked, it’s all a sham, just like the Wizard of Oz (the worst film of all time, incidentally), when the curtain is cast aside, John Postlethwaite is revealed to be just a man and not an especially good promoter of speedway. Come back Patt Bliss, all is forgiven and beware the folly of hubris, for nemesis is surely just around the corner.
Posted towards the end of the 2006 season.
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Post by schumi on Jun 10, 2007 11:42:38 GMT
Seems Jim Lynch isn't happy with Simota who has decided he has insufficient time to return to the UK after riding in Italy today, and won't take his place in the Reading lineup tomorrow. Apparently he's "having talks."
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Post by admin on Jun 10, 2007 11:46:25 GMT
Lynch better get used to being treated with contempt. Now that BSI are no longer commercial rights holders for the GPs, their status has been diminished. People now believe they can treat BSI the same as everyone else.
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Post by schumi on Jun 15, 2007 9:25:24 GMT
A little bird tells me that Reading will close today if a buyer can't be found.
The Bulldogs' website says tonight's meeting against Wolves has been cancelled due to the weather, despite some reporting there hasn't been much in the way of rain.
The Sky meeting on Monday has been reported to have changed from Reading v Coventry to Wolves v Swindon.
Coincidence?
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Post by admin on Jun 15, 2007 10:33:21 GMT
Interesting. Patricia wasn't so bad, was she?
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