Playoffs/shootouts/etc. have their place in sports where there are a large number of competitors. In football, it has had the impact of keeping more teams in with a shout of promotion towards the end of the season. This means there are a lot less 'dead rubbers' so it keeps the crowd numbers up and benefits the clubs financially. In F1 stock car racing, we had the issue of the 'national points championship' often being decided with 2 months of the season still to go, meaning numbers on both sides of the fence tended to drop off after the World Championship in September. By bringing in an end of season shootout, the battle for the silver roof goes to the final meeting of the season, and the crowd numbers for the 12 shootout rounds are far higher than they would have been in previous years. The difference is though, that in football the top 25% in each division are in with a chance of promotion, in stockcars you are looking at 16 out of over 100 drivers can win the silver roof. To have a season long tournament where 60-80% of the competitors can still win at the end of the season, irrespective of how far behind they might be does seem very farcical.

Never a fan of the p.offs, they were an invention so that TV could be at the meetings that decided the “league champions” over a 2 legged winner takes all final.  with no tv and few teams they are just there to give a few extra fixtures in a PL season that looks to struggle to last more than a couple of months.    Still stuck with the 15 heat formula for every meeting , maybe they might get a little more inventive and use different race formulae for the B and C fixtures ? 

He does look class act on the bike.

Totally understand that, my thought process would always be to run a league with no play offs, the reason the play offs bring in additional income is due to it basically being a mini tournament for the winners of the league, thus making the rest of the season void once you enter the play offs 100%. If you scrap the play offs, people surely would go the league meetings as every single match is one step closer to winning / losing the title. If a team runs away with it the supporters and other teams should just respect the fact they deserve to win it and no other team deserves a second chance (play offs) to try and it away from the most dominant team over the season.  

Agreed eye watering risk level and even if there is someone willing to risk dropping £100-£200k on one season . The other big question is who will they actually get to ride for them given from the handful of top riders that rode in the UK this year Emil, Woffy, Doyle have all said they aren't coming back. So you could end up risking six figures on an unknown venture with a Birmingham like team plus if to believed no tv money either to offset part of the loss.

Having three rounds of fixtures, plus playoffs will test the patience of the most ardent fans. If I miss a match, it will be a case of 'oh well, they're here again in a few weeks'. What if the 'third round' had a different race format with six or five rider teams with no guests allowed? At least it would bring a little more interest as we get to the peak spectator time of July / August.