All Activity

The rumour a couple of months ago was that Louis would be involved at Northampton. Personally I can’t see it happening now as he has put Ipswich up for sale as things in British speedway no longer align for him. Also going from a stable club to one that could be a money pit isn’t the sort of thing I can see Chris gambling on.

Rye House was a track available 365 days of the year and had a history of producing young riders. How many young riders have been lost to the sport or never had the opportunity due to the ineptitude of the pair of idiots(Chapman and Godfrey) in charge at the time that saw the track unlawfully ripped out?

I did get told today that he is the promoter at Northampton and there is a tv deal imminent although it’s not a financial one, who knows, it’s a rumour and to be honest I’m getting sick of it all, 6 team league is not enough imo and I just wanted sorted now

A "perfect scenario", I 100% agree.. However, some promoters pay for their lifestyle, and pension, off what they make from running a Speedway Team, (and fair play to them).... (And you can do that, just as well, in the 2nd tier, so why "move up"?).... Some promoters are quite happy to just be Speedway Promoters, running in front of any number of fans, as long as any losses are within budget... The bottom line is the operating model is now ran for the riders to earn money which justifies a significant outlay... Winning any of the competitions has very limited reward, either financially or publicity wise.. So why would I tender to, ultimately, increase my costs, if my business was sustainable, or even, very profitable..?

Will Tate be 3rd heat leader on a 5.76 average, or a 2nd string, what do we reckon?

Perhaps if initially there are only sufficient riders for 9-10 teams there should be a tender process for licences in that league Win the bid and you are in and if you don't no league place for you....

More of you should try the digital subscription. I know its not convenient for everyone tho. Id say if you have a tablet then go for it, make the change... Like Speedway, get into the modern day!!!

100% there is a need, and I think you know this. Those 6 clubs are not coming back anytime soon (if at all) but if they did that would make 2 healthy leagues of 10 teams. There would undoubtedly need to be some form of doubling up until such a point that a properly implemented rider development plan started to produce league quality riders... instead of the lip service we pay to such development at the moment with clubs being allowed to stage just a single development meeting a year.

Of course.. However .. Being profitable down to having great sponsorship doesn't help when developers move in... Having thousands in attendance every week does make a difference when you want to influence a local authority and, possibly even more importantly, having the local councillors of those thousands, having to listen to them and support their views... Or they get voted out..

I remember going to Swindon a few times watching Bradford in the mid 90's when Peter Thorogood was promoter, and he would always have a walk round to the back straight to say hello to the Dukes fans. Always seemed a real decent bloke.

What veterans are we talking about ?The championship racing is a lot better than any premiership meetings I have seen ,maybe apart from the playoff final or maybe Poole home meetings 😉

There's a bit of footage of that on one of the Crashes and Cockups videos, can't remember which year it was.

Its an absolute tragedy. What's just as shocking is there are folk on this forum justifying the direction the sport is going and (dare I say it) palpably celebrating the demise of more clubs.

Very solid start to our 2026 team building so far, I’m assuming Hook is nailed on ( be extremely shocked if not ) but sounds like the promotion have got things in place. Already excited for the new season ahead it’s always a long winter !

Yes, absolutely. The total reason why speedway is well and truly on the way down & out in the UK. We don't want the very best. mediocrity will do so long as me/I is ok - so need for top riders, no need for national sponsors, no need for national TV - no need for ambition. Least of all no need for anybody who wants to try to make the sport better. Ok the sport wont actually grow and other countries will provide a home for any British rider with talent and aspiration to rise through the crud of UK speedway and move on from these shores - but at we'll always have somebody willing to ride around some track some where and we can still call it speedway - just.

Perhaps he's delayed it as a deal is close to being concluded.... Fingers crossed if so

Yes I am worried there may be no speedway. we had a save our speedway in 1995 and like many others I’m a member of the 400 club some 30 years on but this scenario isn’t a financial one at the moment. The club is extremely well run and has many sponsors and is viable. however next season there won’t be no tv money which is rumoured to be £60k. Not only that will the sponsors want to pay the same money for no national tv coverage ? Unlikely. if the league is reduced to 5 teams will fans pick and choose or stop coming so often because it’s the same old faces ? Chris Louis deserves a lot of credit and respect for what he has done for our club and I can only imagine this is his last resort. im guessing as this is his primary income he isn’t going to gamble it away in a 5 team league. Maybe some of the other teams which are subsidised by their owners are willing to? Who knows. I don’t agree with some saying he has thrown his toys out. Like all democratic organisations you reform from within but he seems to have reached a point where he has had enough and doesn’t like the direction the sport is going. there had been no mud slinging just a for sale notice going up at foxhall. im desperately hoping a resolution can be reached and Chris will carry on but I’m less optimistic. But thank you to John and Chris for providing us with such service over so many years.

The developers moved in because they could... If those clubs had 5,000 a week then that would have been a very different scenario played out... I remember a photo of about 30 Swindon fans stood by a gate with some badly hand written signs... This was a "protest", and didn't "look good".. 5,000 fans, plus friends and acquaintances, walking through Swindon on a Saturday afternoon doing a "proper protest" and what has happened since might not have taken place... 5,000 fans and the landlords would get much more rent too, so maybe not so quick to "cash in".. Sadly, it took a long time for the custodians of the sport to "get it together" to try and defend the tracks, as a collective, against fhe developers.. The cynic in me could even think that some saw a closure as an opportunity to gain certain riders for fhe following season.. So many tracks lost in the past two decades, and, even now, 14 promoters seemingly cannot agree on how to run the sport, with some more clubs closing being a possible outcome...

Just gave it a quick wiz through,,the sound is good this week, can’t comment of the quality of the content though 😂give it listen what do you think

There’s a oap home waiting for you 💦

Perhaps what was supposed to be to happen with Buster in 2018 might be on the cards again with Chris still involved as manager.

Think most fans don’t give sh#t these days ,just go along with flow to see a meeting. No credibility in the sport . Racing can be OK though.

You are correct, outside of the speedway world very few folk if any will care. But maybe that also is the same for those within the sport too. Its interesting to note circa twelve of the clubs listed were lost to development with great sadness expressed by many at the nasty workings of developers and the greed of land owners. Yet here we are with folk shrugging their shoulders at the possible demise of five, (definitely three) clubs who have perfectly good viable stadiums, two of which have been built from scratch in the last fifteen years.

Same hear. Christmas Card priority now I would imagine🤔👎