PREMIER Speedway officials will consider spectator improvements for its Allansford track at the end of the season but unless it can find a “white knight”, any upgrades are likely to be minor.
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As the dust settles on the club’s 43rd Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic, which attracted more than 26,000 fans through the gates across three nights, general manager David Mills said he was acutely aware of the need for a revamp.
The Standard earlier this week raised a number of issues facing spectators and club officials as a result of the Classic’s growth into an international drawcard.
Unprecedented tourism from fans across Australia and the United States, plus new levels of media coverage, have seen the Classic outgrow the Allansford track. Organisers stopped selling tickets at 5.30pm last Sunday because the venue was full.
“All the complaints I get, other than the late finish, relate to getting in and their comfort levels and that’s something we need infrastructure funding for,” Mills said.
Premier, a volunteer-based club, has been built by members over more than four decades. But it has never had any council or government support.
Mills said the club’s priorities were to improve toilet amenities for spectators and drivers but any changes would be governed by funds.
He said club leaders had met the city council several times in recent years but had been unsuccessful in seeking access to grants.
“We’ve loved working with the council on the Knoxville Sister City relationships because that is such a fantastic development and we really appreciate what’s being done. But we would dearly love their support in some shape or size (for upgrades),” Mills said.
“We’ve tried and tried and we get the same line. They have to set their budget and everyone is putting up their hand up for a slice of the pie.
“It’s a bit of a merry-go-round. We can’t seem to get on the same horse.”
Mills said research commissioned for the club had shown spectators at the Classic alone generated more than $7 million on the weekend.
That’s without the teams, which would account for about another 1500 people.
“What we make at the track is secondary to what the town makes,” he said.
Mills said the popular belief was that the club made a fortune from the event each year and it should be doing more to invest back into the facilities.
But he said the overheads associated with the event, including $270,000 in prizemoney and the payout to drivers, security, catering and the hiring of big screens, ate up a majority of the income.
“We make a little that subsidises the rest of the season and anything over that we put back into the facility,” he said.
The club can generally afford one or two projects each off-season, which usually involves significant effort from its volunteers to keep costs down.
Mills said the club would love to build more reserved seating, like a back-straight grandstand, but it needed funds.
The club’s wish-list also includes a permanent clubrooms-type facility with corporate boxes at the back of Mount Max where a temporary facility is erected each year for the Classic. He said the club was looking at plans for such a facility that could be used by other clubs.