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Wooden spoon

Clubs used to run every week with a 16 club British league,and still have spare dates for cup and individual meetings.

Interestingly a top six of Museilak, Basso, Tarasenko, Klindt, Iversen and Lambert would come in at just under the 40 point limit. However if there was an opportunity to get Wojlydo in at reserve rather than Simon I think they should go for it, as good as Lambert was last season.

The 1st one of those 6 has signed, welcome back Ben Cook

No I don’t blame him but he’s bought a lot of it on his self - all saying is when you have a gathering like Saturday to protest the closing of the showground and the current owner of the club doesn’t turn up it’s not a good look - it says to me the true owner of the club is the fans and the real owner couldn’t give a rats arse if Peterborough Speedeway continues.

With the comment of "the sport doesn't attract young fans I beg to differ, yes the sport can always do with more fans young and old but the problem is how do you get them to attend the sport? Back in the 60/70s when I started going it was mostly a family outing, these days how many family's do things together apart from watch tv? The first meeting I attended on my own was Wembley 71 and I could walk from home to the stadium in 45 mins and the same home again after the meeting. I was 14 that year and lets be honest how many of us would let our son or daughter do something like that these days? Yes the latest generation need to be tempted to speedway but exactly how? In 2022 my grandson was gifted a couple of free passes for Sheffield speedway by the Bluebell Woods charity and he asked me if I would go with him and his family to a meeting as he knew I was a speedway regular at one time. From that meeting in May that year to the end of the 2023 season I think we have missed one match and we have also attended a few away tracks as well. He is obsessed with the sport and on the phone to me daily with speedway updates he has found out, AND to go with his obsession he has a subscription to the Speedway Star and he had a 2023 subscription to BSN. The lad is not into football as much as he is his speedway and its all down to Sheffield speedway and the Bluebell woods Charity for those couple of tickets.

Ben cook first signing and new captain for next season.

1. Robert Lambert 7.61 2. Rory Schlein - 5.89 3. Luke Becker - 7.03 4. Chris Harris - 6.36 5. Sam Masters 7.13 6. Lewis Kerr - 5.31 7. Jordan Jenkins TOTAL 39.33

Bit of a shame for Sheffield fans that Tobi isnt back, rather have him than Tai personally

If points limit had of been 41 instead of 40 then Jye would have had the number 6 race jacket at Sheffield

That's great to hear my friends lads 14 and doesn't get to go as much as he likes and always watches the live streams with me also, but as a brand obsessed 14 yr. old he's rarely not got his oxford shirt on absolute loves it. I think speedway as a has a bigger growing youth support basis than they realise I see the same kids week in week out at oxford all with there horns etc.

think the last time he ride for us his machinery was pretty good it was his crash just before the playoffs and 2 broken wrists that were the problem lol

Do you blame Buster for not turning up ? He's been publicly slagged off repeatedly by a " consortium member" and others who have basically whipped up a public hate campaign against him, turning everything negative that has happened into busters fault. The term " witch hunt" springs to mind.I wouldn't have gone either if it was me

Time will tell,I personally don’t see crowds flocking back to Championship Speedway any time soon.Be great if they held their own though.Money from streaming more likely needed to keep Clubs afloat.Can’t keep charging more for lesser goods.IMO

I've said it before and I'll say it again you cannot be failed to be impressed when you first attend a Speedway match (Unless you've attended a shambles that we occasionally get). It's when you take a deep dive into the sport as you become more interested in it that it starts to let you down. It'll be interesting to see how your grandson retains his interest as he gets more into it and dare I say it Sheffield don't manage to put a serious challenge in to retain their title

That’s Speedway nowadays.Enjoy the racing.The trophy’s are just a sideshow.

A quick genuine question for all Oxford fans on here. How many of you are intending to watch all three teams in all three leagues in 2024?

-25%

Hopefully one of our better informed colleagues may be able to throw some light on who that 4 pointer (or up to 4.20) rider might be

I would suggest the Team Manager needs to be the first signing, I can't see any point in signing 7 riders then get a manager who may or may not fancy certain riders, I'v said before Rosco would be the man to get Brum moving in an upwards direction, he is a 4 time winner of British Speedway's top league as a manager, and were I Nigel Tolley I would be getting myself down to Rosco's pub and would'nt leave until I had got my man.

No

Has Pickering got a place in Poland yet?

Personally I think Rew has alot of improvement to come, he had a good season in general. Howarth has no improvement left so Rew could well be good value on his current average

Think he might stay at Redcar.Just my feeling.

Might be best to keep quiet

@AceBelle looks a right idiot now

We've gone for a strong top three and our reserves may well be among the highest average pairing in the league coming in at just under 7. This squeezes the second strings leaving very little to play with. It may well prove to have been a mistake going heavy on the top three - after all only two are needed for heat 15. Bailey in place of Flint would have left more for the second strings and given us a better balanced side. Bailey may well outscore Flint next year too!

A very good team in paper and will make play offs easily. but don’t think they as good as a lot are saying. Not a lot of improvement in that team except jack and the reserves. Pickering maybe

I think his interest in the sport of speedway will keep him going (well I hope it does) because apart from following Sheffield he is a supporter of speedway in general as many times since he has started going we have taken a trip down the M1 to Leicester for matches (Lions and Cubs) and also down the A1 to Peterborough. Its funny the wife and I can see that he has the same enthusiasm for the sport that we both had back in the 70s only these days he has the internet, YouTube and the likes of BSN to keep his interest going (which is a lot better than just the speedway Star and mail along with programme notes and word of mouth going around the terraces that we had )

Speedway Star ran it last week.

It’s a common system used for drafts in American sports. The worst team in the league gets first pick to help them try and improve. Kind of a moot point in Speedway where the other six riders can change completely from one season to the next.

Read loads of posts regarding points limit etc but clearly teams ride in this league based on money to run that's why there is two leagues, having watched Darcy,Holder,Magic ride at Poole the goalposts have now changed and much as I would like Poole to have these riders it isn't possible with the points limit and it's this limit for a reason cost, so while I couldn't at first understand why the points limit is lower I now realise why it's a league below.On the other hand if what I read on here Glasgow promotion are not short of a few quid and maybe Poole being well supported are comfortable and they choose this league why do we both not go up, well Wednesday issue for us I suppose, when Birmingham who must have won the lottery based on last year and Oxford running two teams go premier who knows but we both have a team unlike many who sadly have folded

I’m a passionate Oxford fan, but the original closure had a lot to do with crowd levels. Colin Horton’s quote at the time was: “Crowds have been in the region of 400-500 for home meetings and we value greatly the support, but the harsh reality is that we need attendances of double those figures to even stand a chance of breaking even and I just don’t envisage that happening here.“

Decent machinery or Sherbet ?

Before Oxford announced the Spires in the Premiership, Masters was heavily rumoured to be Leicester bound. Last season, Birmingham struggled financially in the Championship. I do wonder if riders might fight shy of joining Brum in the Premiership, fearing that they may have trouble getting paid.

Can see Masters at birmingham then Oxford in the champ, his average dropped at the end of season for wolves so I’m guessing would be struggling for a top spot at Oxford in the prem as I’m sure they’ll be going all out for a star leader.

You've just noticed? And they complain about paying for programmes, and they complain about paying more than £10 admission, and they complain about the cost of catering....notice a trend? If speedway fans can't complain about the cost of something, it ain't worth having.

Good solid rider years ago but I suspect the injuries are catching up , This team building to 38 points is starting to look more ridiculous by the minute if that is the rumoured side.

isn't there a picking order in which teams finish the league pretty sure that's why Aces ended up with mulford because we had last choice for winning the league ?

Can't a rider on the RS list ride at 6 as just a normal reserve? Pretty sure Ipswich used a rider on the RS list not as an RS a couple of seasons back. Definitely going to be contenders for the title again.

There's been a lot of people saying Oxford running in all three leagues is madness. I was initially a little perplexed by it as well, but every other fan I've spoken to has been quite excited about it (bar the Spires name) - and all are saying they will try and go to every home meeting. Not a single person said they would only focus on one league, so maybe it's not such a crazy idea after all. I guess time will tell, and perhaps people will naturally start missing the odd meeting here and there - but the crowd sizes will tell all. Last season the Cheetahs were averaging around 2,500 fans I think, and the Chargers were around 1,000. They're good numbers to build a base from, and it means they've got the finances in place to deal with potential losses if it all goes horribly wrong in 2024 - it won't be a case of the club going bust. Worse case scenario the promotion will just have to reevaluate for 2025, but good luck to them.

Surely this will be more succesful if the same core riders - maybe the top 4 or 5 from championship - are in both teams. Imagine if, say, Sam Masters is at number one for the Cheetahs one week, then turns up riding against the Spires a week later and celebrating a last heat decider win, or getting excluded for knocking off and injuring an Oxford rider. Then he's back for the Cheetahs a week later. It would be a bit strange to say the least.

So where exactly has it been stated that 'attendances are plummeting' or 'clubs are going bust'?? Premiership clubs are reporting increased attendances due to having some 'big names' and several Championship clubs are also reporting increased attendances. Those clubs that are closed have been forced into the situation due to the actions of stadium owners/leaseholders - otherwise the likes of Wolves and Panthers would be continuing successfully. Oxford's owner is the stadium leaseholder (for 10 years at least) who also runs the greyhounds at Oxford and other tracks. I'm sure its his backing that is supporting Oxford Speedway Promotion to operate at 3 levels - simply to have activity at the stadium on several days a week. Presumably he takes the food. beverage revenue on all those days!?

Not if it's in Cheltnham I won't. I will if it's in Theale though.

Make that three reasons... I've often said that they state at the GP's, " the track takes a few heats to settle down". Same with league; if the juniors get out there first, the track will be in great shape from the start.

Not a decision I would have made but I'll be at every home match, won't be able to make every away match for each team as normal, don't have enough days holiday for a start !!! Team wise, rumours we will be competitive at least, I'll take that. Janowski?? Vaculik?? Harris Kerr Hopefully Jenkins as RS Seen Tungate and Klindt mentioned, Klindt has more to give after last season but think we would need a bigger hitting 2nd heat leader. Wright normally goes well at Cowley. Anybody who didn't ride here last year interested?

The idea that tracks have to have a meeting every week is pretty archaic. You can have too much of a good thing, especially in the current economic climate where people can’t afford to attend every week. I can’t think of any mainstream team sports in which a team has a home match every week either. People are not going to forget about speedway or stop going if there’s not a meeting every week. Look at the patchy fixture lists we’ve been exposed to in recent seasons. There’s a huge novelty factor at Oxford at the moment. The top tier team will become the novelty in 2024 and the Championship team will not be as attractive, especially when fans are picking and choosing meetings. Eventually the top tier novelty factor will wear off too. My concern is that they’re overreaching by making this move.

yip only 4 teams entered NDL KOC and it took 7 months to complete unreal

That was when bikes and riders could cope with different weather and track conditions though.

I think it's a very bold decision given the number of fixtures that need to be run. However it is an idea that nobody has the guts to try but could work. British Speedway's inability to ensure that all teams end up completing the same number of fixtures before the cut off is poor, the number of rain off and number of fixtures that end up being crammed into the end of the year or becoming meaningless is poor. However i also think that it's achievable for Oxford to run that number of fixtures, if they are run professionally and they have an approach of getting meetings on rather than calling meetings off. It is understandable to see comments saying that it is going to be hard to see fans spending that amount of money to support 2 teams on a week to week basis because of the cost of admission prices. However every year you see a significant proportion of Speedway fans saying that they want a regular weekly meeting because speedway should be every week and that a Stadium should be in use. I think it's a reality that fans don't travel as much as they used to, following a Team Home and Away in really large numbers is a reality for Speedway Fans anymore. However watching attendances at Newport dwindle and subsequently becoming an irregular fan at Swindon and Somerset also gave me a much more realistic perspective around attendances. When an attendance figure is mentioned regarding a Break Even point i do wonder what that point would realistically be, if clubs didn't have other income streams Attendance wise a lot of tracks struggle when the weather is poor and other events are on, do well during the summer months and school holidays, and there is a benefit to successfully hosting major meetings are on e.g. Pairs/Fours/Rider Championships. And it's always noticeable during Playoffs that attendances are up However, I think Speedway's viability is entirely contingent on other income sources whether that be Sponsorship, TV Revenue, revenue generated from other businesses or owners who bankroll the sport. That being said, regarding Oxford. They have had good crowds by all accounts, they have been run professionally. Oxford has a sizeable population & people support successful teams. Most tracks have also seen the benefit of Emil joining Ipswich, which did have an impact in increased attendances. It's helped show that more Premiership clubs from a Club/Rider perspective are being run more professionally, and i think that has played a large part in other riders wanting to return to racing in Britain. The other thing with attracting more top level riders back. It has the potential to appeal to more casual fans, TV fans, Fans of defunct Tracks. I applaud Oxford for having the guts to try something different.