It all began back in 1992 with a crazy idea from a young entrepreneur with a hunch about indoor racing facilities! The idea was not only laughed at, but even his lawyer expressly warned our founder against starting the business "you are taking a serious commercial risk... and in doing so you will not hold me nor my firm responsible for any losses, costs, claims or proceedings which arise from your decision to proceed." and "in view of the speculative nature of the concern and the possibility that it may not be successful I must emphasise to you the prospect of personal loss!"
Even with warnings from legal teams this brave and adventurous man decided to go ahead with his passionate proposal, and that's where our original Guildford track was born, with a basic single level layout and a bunch of petrol karts, Go Karting For Fun was up and running!
In 1996 after the success of the Guildford track two more locations were added to the company, Crawley and Southampton, plus Guildford was moved to a much larger building in Aldershot where we also had our sales and admin offices. By 2000 Andover and Gosport had also joined the ranks and by 2010 we had Cardiff, North London, a brand new Crawley site, Bristol and Tower Bridge, our first ever electric site! The company went through huge changes to cope with the immense increase in popularity of go karting and sales volume of all these sites and in 2013, after the build of Brighton in 2011, the owner of more than 20 years decided that it was time for some fresh faces to take charge and power on with the growth and development of the company, with the help of a private equity firm and banking support, we purchased the majority shareholding in TeamSport! Not wanting to sit still for more than 30 seconds, the company quickly progressed toward a target of running 20 tracks and by the end of 2015 we had built the TeamSport empire to now include venues in Warrington, Birmingham, Docklands, Reading, West London, Leeds, Farnborough, Nottingham and Liverpool!!
As TeamSport continues to grow with sites added last year in Mitcham and Manchester, plus Sheffiled in 2017 (and a few more surprises) we can't help but be proud of where the company has come from and got to today, from humble family run warehouse beginnings to a multi million pound machine, who would have thought that an idea so unbelievable (and laughed at) at the time could end up as such an epic organisation delivering the ultimate indoor racing experience to thousands of customers each week!
Happy Birthday TeamSport, come and celebrate with us.....
To celebrate in true TeamSport style we will be running a whole host of competitions, give-aways and offers throughout the year!
LOOK OUT ON THE 25TH OF EVERY MONTH THROUGHOUT 2017 FOR FURTHER OFFERS AND COMPETITIONS TO CELEBRATE OUR BIRTHDAY
Can you remember the thrill of your first race with us? Do you remember when we were known as Go Karting For Fun? Ever race at Guildford, Aldershot or the original Crawley? If so we'd like to hear from you, have you got any old photos, memories you'd like to share or even an old plastic trophy in the attic gathering dust?
If we use your photo or memory within our 'Story of TeamSport' then we will be sending you an open timed race session voucher to use at a track of your choice to say thank you!
If so please email them through to claire.bowman@team-sport.co.uk