Millions of losses for Polish clubs. “I'm waiting for them to bleed out.”
Some Polish speedway clubs recorded losses of millions of dollars, the WP SportoweFakty portal found out. We know what is the reason for this state of affairs.
Speedway is very popular in Poland, and PGE Ekstraliga is the best league in the world. This causes the presidents of individual clubs to fight for the biggest stars, entering into horrendous auctions for contract amounts. This means that, despite the support of television and local governments, some clubs end up with a loss. According to information from WP SportoweFakty, the situation is the worst in Grudziądz, where the local ZOLeszcz GKM was in the red by PLN 4.5 million. Tauron Włókniarz Częstochowa recorded a loss of PLN 1.16 million.
CEOs look at the here and now
In Grudziądz, they have been dreaming of entering the medal zone for years, but in most cases they end up fighting for relegation. The stadium is full of fans, but the lack of competition for medals and star contracts means that the club is still in the red. GKM is owned by the city, which is supposed to allocate PLN 2.5 million to the team every year. He will probably not allow the threat of his collapse to arise.
Most club presidents look at the present and immediate success. The situation is slightly different in Leszno. Fogo Unia had stars and great players in its team in 2017-2020. This resulted in four Polish Team Champion titles in a row. Later, however, president Piotr Rusiecki abandoned the bidding. He introduced a cost-saving version of the squad, which allows the team to stay in the top league, but rather rejects dreams of fighting for medals. The club's loss for the previous year amounted to PLN 35,000. This is pennies compared to teams from Grudziądz and Częstochowa.
Rusiecki assumes that by contributing a lot of money from his own pocket to the activities of Fogo Unia, he could also contribute to the destruction of discipline. His approach to the matter is praised by Jan Krzystyniak, a former outstanding speedway rider.
– Activists are to blame for the current situation, because they have the last word. I'm glad that Mr. Rusiecki can behave himself. I'm waiting for the presidents to bleed out. In a few years, Unia Leszno, which is famous for training new players, will be at the top again – predicts in an interview with WP SportoweFakty.
Will someone stop this madness?
Looking at the rising player contracts, one may question whether the madness will somehow be stopped. Currently, Polish speedway is experiencing a hot financial period and an arms race. However, it is difficult to predict that this will last forever, because in fact, as Krzystyniak said, “presidents will be able to bleed to death.”
– PLN 4.5 million is a huge amount. You can probably do a lot of good in Grudziądz for this money. I love this sport, but it cannot be that due to lack of economy and inadvertent financing, the local government is giving taxpayers' money to foreign stars – emphasized the former player.
