'Betrayed': The secret speedway deal that left fans gobsmacked

Sunday, 14 October 2018

Some speedway fans feel 'betrayed' by a secret deal between speedway promoters and Auckland council to move the sport from its iconic Western Springs home.

The agreement to move to a venue near Auckland airport was being struck with council even as speedway promoters were encouraging fans to write to council to fight to stay at their home of 94 years.

Negotiations for council to pay as much as $15m for a new stadium at Colin Dale Park may have begun as early as February - but promoters Springs Promotions Ltd continued public campaigning to stay at Western Springs until April.

Simultaneously, talks were also continuing for them to share Auckland's other track, Waikaraka Park, leaving Waikaraka organisers and local politicians stunned by the about-face.

Most councillors only learned of the Colin Dale deal a day after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in June,  triggering the start of a stadium reshuffle also affecting cricket and rugby.

Speedway fans submitted in 'record numbers' to the council's Long-Term Plan to stay at Western Springs.

Promoters handed out 'Save our Springs' bumper stickers in May, and in an April 11 statement, Springs promoter Greg Mosen said they 'remain firm, we won't be worn down by the bureaucrats' and 'the fight is only just beginning'.

But negotiations had already begun for the Colin Dale deal between council and Springs speedway bosses Mosen and electronics millionaire Bill Buckley, a former Businessman of the Year.

Mosen now says they were having background discussions about Colin Dale but 'if that didn't fly we knew exactly what we wanted, which was to stay where we were. We didn't use any one group against the other in order to try and leverage anything out of that. And the council were across that so it was no surprise to anyone.' 

Meanwhile, council's stadiums arm Regional Facilities Auckland were negotiating with the Maungakiekie-Tamaki local board for Springs Promotions to share Waikaraka Park.

When the Colin Dale deal was done, Buckley and Mosen fronted a council finance committee. Maungakiekie councillor Josephine Bartley was then questioned around the timing. 'It seemed like they had made their decision to move to Colin Dale but work was still happening with RFA and the local board [for Waikaraka],' she said .

Frank Irvine, president of the Auckland Stock and Saloon club which runs racing at Waikaraka, said the deal was 'out of left field' after two years of negotiations, meetings and $100,000 plans for the clubs to share Waikaraka. 'It blew me away. It would have been a world-class facility with a little bit of money spent on it and it would have done for everyone.'

Irvine believes the best case scenario was for speedway to stay at Western Springs, the next best was the Waikaraka groundshare, and Colin Dale was by far the worst because of the huge cost to the taxpayer .

It's left Springs fans angry . Tim Clark, who owns a business building speedway cars, said: 'What right do Bill and Greg have to sign away 94 years of history?'

Craig Pascoe, former assistant clerk of the course at Western Springs said: 'I feel betrayed that when they were asking supporters to campaign to keep the Springs open, they had already done a deal behind our backs.'

Mosen said Springs owned the rights to speedway at the Springs and that gave them the right to negotiate its future: 'We own the rights: that's not something that's available to be taken by anybody else, that's us.'

Car owners like Wayne Green believe Mosen has assumed more rights over the sport than he should. 'He thinks he owns the sport,' Green said.

Council must ratify the deal on October 23. Councillor John Watson will be asking questions about the secrecy .

'It's pretty clear to me they were playing a double game behind the scenes, encouraging the speedway fans to fight tooth and nail to stay at the Springs, while at the same time looking at what deal they could cut with the council.'

Mosen doesn't deny that. 'There's always a bit of work that goes ahead quietly behind the scenes before we all hear about things,' he said.

Mosen said they struck the deal direct with the council, not the RFA, and they would accept a deal at Colin Dale under certain conditions. The first working documents were tabled in April. The same month, RFA stadiums boss Paul Nisbet - who didn't return calls - made a TV appearance to say the future of speedway was at Waikaraka. 'Whatever happened with Waikaraka or whoever else I guess you'd have to ask them [RFA],' Mosen said.

Critics of the move believe it's built on claims that don't stack up.

At that June appearance before council, Buckley made a series of assertions to explain the deal. Among them:

* That audience and competitor numbers for the sport were rising at Western Springs

* That sharing Waikaraka Park was impossible because two different types of speedway couldn't co-exist because of different safety fencing requirements

* That competitors supported the move to Colin Dale

Tim Clark believes the claims hold no water.

Buckley told the meeting that 'our followers and competitors have grown substantially since we first took over'. But statistics prepared by Midget Car Drivers president Brent Holden, showed an average of 25.5 midget contestants per race in 2012-2013 dropping to an average of just under 20 last season. A former Springs promoter told Stuff he believed attendance figures had declined substantially.

Buckley told councillors the classes of speedway run at Waikaraka were a 'completely different sport' and different safety fencing requirements meant the two were incompatible.

Western Springs run open-wheel classes, while Waikaraka run stock and saloon classes. However, 18 of the 20 Speedway New Zealand-sanctioned car tracks operate both forms, without changing fencing. Speedway Promotions have run nights with both forms competing at other tracks. Waikaraka's Frank Irvine said any suggestion the classes couldn't co-exist was untrue.

While Buckley implied his version of speedway, open-wheel, was the growing one, Speedway NZ statistics show 1631 stock/saloon entries at the last national championships, and 435 in open-wheel classes.

Buckley said competitors backed the move because 'Greg has done a good job on what they really want'. But Clark said that didn't account for many owners opposing the move.

Stuff has seen the MoU between Springs Promotions, the council and the RFA.

The council has agreed to extend their lease at Western Springs until March 2020, then offer a ten-year lease with two ten-year renewals at Colin Dale, with incentives including a three-year rent holiday, construction funding of $10m plus GST and potentially another $2.5m, 6,500 plastic seats, floodlight towers and $300,000 to pay for a project manager.

In return, Springs Promotions agree to bear 'other associated costs' in building the venue. Mosen said that would be in the order of $15m.

Watson questioned why council would give so much money to one of New Zealand's wealthiest businessmen and a 'business entity looking after themselves, not reflecting the wishes of the wider speedway community.' Clark added: 'Why would council want to invest money into a private identity that… doesn't have the support of a lot of people?'

But for council, says Watson, the move is important as the first domino to trigger a reshuffle taking cricket to Western Springs and starting the mothballing of Eden Park. 'So they are more than willing to pay millions to get rid of them,' he said.