Meet the Riders Night - Alan Dick
(Posted 06/03/08)

Buildbase coming on board has been one of the best deals the Tigers have had and hopefully it can be lucrative for both for a long time. It has brought a cash injection into the club and they have also been involved in other ways as can be seen with a look around the track.

They are a multinational company and its initially a one year deal with Buildbase also sponsoring some meetings as well. Buildbase will shortly be opening a new depot in Glasgow and a lot of the credit for getting them on board has to go to Elaine Daly.

Its important not to forget the other sponsors involved as well. FSM are still involved with the van sponsorship and have been good to the club. As an indicator, the speedway club needs £0.25m every year to run and that is why sponsors are so important.

The planning permission rejection for housing on the current season ticket holders car park and shale pitch was very important for the Tigers and it shows that the Council don't want any more buildings round Ashfield. Alan publicly thanked all those who sent letters or e-mails on the planning permission.

The club still have no lease but simply deal on a year to year basis with the landlords, the football club, with whom they have a good relationship.

There is also a good relationship with Glasgow council, the local councilor for Ashfield Ellen Hurcombe has been very supportive as have the council in general as shown by the permission to hold the Press shoot in George Square and the promotion are very grateful for this.

The work permits being held up was very frustrating for the club with the football transfer window being one of the main problems. However Josh and Mitchell worked hard on their side to obtain the relevant visa's once the work permits were issued, twice making the 3000 mile trip to Canberra to push things forward.

We don't have a particularly good asset base but Josh and Mitchell will become part of the Tigers asset base and that increases the strength of the club in what will be the current promotions 8th season in charge.

Ironically Glasgow did not know at the time they approached Josh that he and Mitchell were from the same town and were such good mates, that was pure chance but definitely worked in their favour as had Mitchell and his dad Gary not been coming over and been able to keep an eye on Josh his family may not have been so keen for him to travel on his own to the other side of the world at such a young age.

Expectations for this season have to be realistic as the team will need to settle in but they always want to win. there is no pressure on the riders as expectation levels away from Glasgow for the Tigers are not high but in any professional sport those involved want to win and there is no harm in having ambition.

With regard to the newly introduced potential for promotion it will be very hard for any PL club to win promotion as they will still have to ride against a full strength El side.

Sky have indicated that they may cover the occasional PL meeting and it would be nice if they chose to cover a Glasgow meeting. Should this happen, Glasgow have a lighting contractor who would come in and provide the lighting needed - this would probably be on Sky's traditional Monday evening.

Alan gave thanks on behalf of the promotion to Charlie Ross, Eddie McKenna and all the volunteers who have been in over the winter and during the recent working Sunday's to get the stadium up to standard.