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very similar to when you left the forum recently no?

No it isn’t sensible, the control board should set out a pay structure and enforce it and riders either take it or leave it, if an amateur rider can’t make it pay that’s tough, it’s amatuer, until we get away from entitlement for riders we will never move forward, nobody wanted to listen when I tried to cut costs for riders, well fine you made your bed don’t complain when the springs stick in your back . I don’t care how any promotion make their money or how much money they haven’t got all I care is the future of the sport and at the moment it doesn’t have one

What I do not really understand from a financial aspect is that very few if any riders are a major draw for fans who know the sport let alone potential new supporters so why pander to the riders demands paying over the odds for nil return? Build teams that are viable and some riders will climb the professional ladder and perhaps make it to GP level but if the tracks that do exist put out teams who can provide exciting racing each week at whatever level and it is affordable and competitive then that is where UK speedway is. Let’s face this country cannot get decent crowds to turn out for a GP and the halcyon days of big names attracting 50k to 60k are never going to happen. If riders cannot make a living riding for one club then the cost of participating is too expensive and needs looking at. Expecting increasing numbers of supporters and sponsors to pay someone the equivalent of an annual salary for six months work is nonsense. The whole business model is barmy and has been for years. Fools and their money are soon parted and that applies across the entire speedway spectrum.

Have we got a forum full of kids in here or something? Embarrassing reading all this. Wouldn't think you are all grown adults

But if they didn't run a Premiership then every Speedway rider in the world would retire... Or something like that....

I use the ignore facility

Whatever the outcome and most hope that Ipswich come to the tapes come March, April or May, generally the sport is unlikely to entice broadcasters to cover the sport live, it has been a disaster the way things have carried on thus far, sponsors probably unwilling to commit without a t v contract, riders dropping the UK, no idea of a fixture list and the sapping interest of the UK punters who are losing the will to get excited with any enthusiasm about the coming season. You have so few if any new ideas to rejuvenate a dying product and a total lack of general tangible investment in the sport at any level leaves most wondering just how much longer it can it continue in any form other than an amateur part time pursuit by a few enthusiast. Unless those in charge have kept under wraps something really special, then the sport is going nowhere and they are trying the patience of every punter who puts money into the pockets of the clubs. The riders don’t really give a toss as they will look to ride in Europe or walk away and earn a living elsewhere. It is not just an Ipswich issue it is a problem for speedway UK and the lack of updates in any shape or form from the body that allegedly runs the sport is not doing anyone any favours. Still I am sure the promoters think all is rosey in the UK speedway camp. Fools comes to mind.

Northampton Cobbledtogethers have announced their exciting new team to take on the 2026 Premiership. Spearheaded by the new Norwegian sensation, Redd Herring, the Cosmopolitan line-up will also include; Nevva Urdavim Legg Traylor Lass Tagane Myles B. Hind Novvi Swobbla Ove Andout

Even at today’s standards and equipment/prices you could could go buy 2 decent bikes, all the riding gear and the equipment to set up your workshop to service your own engines all for under £5000,no fancy covers or shiny new wheels and it would be good enough to ride in the national league which would pay you £20 per point, where else are you going to get any other motorcycle sport to achieve that level with such an investment and pay back? The trouble is we have grown a breed of entitlement within riders for what is an amatuer level and it’s backed up by promoters and parents, just because you want to be a speedway rider doesn’t mean someone else should be paying for your privilege

I think we can all agree .. This is the best, most comprehensive, and detailed update so far....

So you're happy to believe that Stewart Dickson is a liar while at the same time believe in your own mind that Mayfield Sport are going to be huge for British Speedway, with absolutely zero experience and no track record... how very strange

Pathetic isn’t it. Those giving it back are just as bad, ignore it and it’ll soon get bored. 99% of people come on here to talk speedway and have a debate. If it bothers them that much then dm instead of airing it all clogging feeds up.

So you think it’s funny do you, parents spending £1000/s of pounds from when there kids are 8/9 years of age to maybe make a good fist of it around the age of 15, and a slim chance of getting a team spot, then after maybe 6/7/8 years of those parents losing money travelling everywhere to say a NJL fixture and the club says sorry curfew is happened or something else not tonight guys, and you still stick at it and then you get overlooked by clubs who bring in riders who just fancy coming over here and trying their luck and who as you say will turn up?(bit difficult not when you are 12,000 miles from home) ahead of you it’s no surprise when the cupboard is increasingly empty. I’m telling you that not one parent of the youth section believes that they are entitled to anything, what they want is a fair crack at it for the countless hours they have done keeping their kids racing when the easiest thing was to pack up, and without doubt attitudes like yours more parents will gradually do the latter.

Being the parent of a rider we have no sense of entitlement as a family we have worked hard to get the boy to the level he at .

I think the reality is most have other businesses that make money that they can offset the speedway losses against the other business profits , its still not ideal as it doesn't eliminate the loss merely reduces it from a tax perspective. I think 99% of us on here would agree from the current bunch of promoters other than Louis and the Fords probably nobody else makes money out of the sport. The promoters take plenty of stick and a lot of time rightly so but equally they are subsidising the sport we all desperately want to succeed like it did in the 70's and early 80's sadly I'm coming round to the idea there is no saving it the sport is just a bygone of another age like nightclubs where the young of today just have no interest in either of them.

It’s no cop out at all. Had we not of brought Simon in to this team it was highly likely there would not have been a young stars team in 2026. Simon will be a fantastic rider coach. Even Jake Mulford will learn more from Simon. I like to have a rider coach in my teams whenever it’s been possible. In 2007 at Redcar I had Mark ‘buzz’ Burrows and in 2015 at Buxton I had Tony Atkin. 2 great captains and rider coaches. Every team should have one at this level, for the younger ones to learn from.

The NDL is a great ideal in principle, but in practice looking at some of the riders named by teams it could become financial suicide for some! If you have a promoter with deep pockets who is/are happy to fund things great, but is this a sustainable business model for any longevity of the product? At Birmingham in 2025, the average crowd for the 4 NDT meetings was around 150, less than 30% of the average PL crowd. Deducting riders pay (no Championship riders involved), insurance, referee, medical, track prep etc costs saw a loss for every meeting despite some generous sponsorship! if you factor in stadium hire costs and security every meeting drained strained resources even further. Now some clubs might not have the stadium hire or security costs that the landlords at Perry Barr asked, but assume they do have rental obligations, unless they own their track. As a stand alone venture, I wish Buxton every success as I know the guys financing it have put some serious funds in, but when you hear of the crowd levels in the past at the venue they are going to have get a lot more people through the door!

Important message ../ the next move https://www.savecoventryspeedway.com/_mobile/news.php?extend.4313.1

I do get frustrated by the rhetoric continually posted on here. There’s a fallacy that things were different in speedways heyday and the problems blighting our sport are of the modern era. The other week I posted about the excessive use of guests on one Saturday night in ‘74 and the fact that most teams did NOT ride at the weekend, yet people will still point the finger as these being the failings of modern speedway Taking the now famous ‘73 KO Cup final as an example. Belle Vue used a guest and Reading ran R/R. The 2nd leg wasn’t run until the last week of the season, some 3 weeks after the 1st leg as due to the late running it was hit by the bad weather. Sounds familiar? Jim Mcmillian had been knocked out in an earlier round but enjoyed his “winners” medal as a guest for the Aces. We had been running a guest since June. The rules stated in the event of a draw it had to be re run but this was jettisoned in favour of a run off. All this was carried out on a cold Wednesday late October night. All those people who attended that night and in ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, 77 etc did not suddenly experience amnesia, they DECIDE not to attend. During its heyday we had ALL the ills currently affecting the sport, the big difference is that of the customers - they have changed massively and we need to find the holy grail to attract them back. The league is as meaningful as ever. The guests & R/R as prevalent as ever. The UK FIM golds are pretty much as regular as in our heyday. Our “gaters paradise” tracks are still here as they were back then, etc, etc. If we keep kidding ourselves that the sports ills are new then we will waste an awful lot of time and energy trying to fix the bits that are not the reason for our downfall. Speedway is primarily populated by old blokes who think the old days were better, but the reality is that’s not the case and it is to our peril that we get bogged down by this dogma instead of looking to the future and how we engage with modern customers in the modern era.

Or they could be sponsored by Linda Lusardi: Northampton Knockers

My lad gets paid for playing football on Saturdays and on Sundays... Semi pro level on the Saturday and normal Sunday League stuff the next day... The bloke who owns the Semi Pro team runs a Sunday team and pays a few of the lads to play.. There are a couple of other teams on the Sunday who also pay players, with the three teams easily better than the rest... UK Speedway, for me, has a similar vibe to it... Many benefactors who are quite happy running it as a hobby they can afford, and, with no real kudos, publicity, or financial rewards for winning, meaning, its more of an enjoyable labour of love, rather than a bona fide sporting occasion that they present... And, given the lack of authenticity as a team sport that Speedway in the UK has, you can see why many are quite happy to never change things...

Personally don't think there are any minor Fim events they are all major in each individual age category.

oi, im always right, just things change 😂

So the Academy have Announced their 7 for the new season, with 4 new faces and 3 old ones. 3 brits and 4 fake ones, with one being the sister of Jordy Loftus Jordy Loftus Dayle Wood Connor Coles Vinnie Ford Jamie Halder Ben Whalley Anika Loftus Interesting looking line up that should do well. Slightly disappointing the lack of actual brits but it can be a bit challenging to get them to travel this far.

In a recent Speedway Star,, Mark Lemon said how he didn't want to be telling riders they had to take a pay cut as he understood their challenges.. He is looking at it the wrong way, (like so many ex riders who become promoters do, as they are far too close to the riders).. He should actually be telling them... "You increase the crowds by 500 and you will get more money"... As currently, their presence clearly doesn't engage enough fans to attend...

Just reading this thread . How is this laughable . My family are not a rich family myself partner and son all work and pay for his riding what cost a lot . At times it really hard to get time of work especially for rearnaged meetings when we have took leave for the first meeting thats been cancelled .i would guess this is the same for most parents or hopfull riders. If the sport was perfect then NDL and NJL would take place over a weekend of bank holidays to allow familys to earn and pay. As they say its ment to be a devepoment league

And these riders, in the PL, literally don't put a single bum on a seat, they just make the numbers up, which is no bad thing, but there's a long queue of riders behind them that would happily take their place... the tail is well and truly wagging the dog.

It’s a absolute disgrace that Edinburgh has a bspa member in control of the club and has always ran a youth meeting but see fit to unveil a development team that has 5 members that are lets be honest not British youth riders and never have been, are they really saying that this is the best way forward to developing British speedway in the long term, if so god help us or have they just been just taking the micky out of every parent who’s spending hard earned money to try and get their kids through the system, they ain’t the only ones but this many is scandalous

So some positive news last night at the NSSC event with Jason Edwards. He has met the new owners who have experience in lots of other motorsport classes, the new team manager and said that he thinks with the team that they have they will be challanging for Silverwear again this season. So all sounds positive for Ipswich.

It's funny how Leicester were at least breaking even in the championship and are now running at a loss in the promised land premiership.

I expect them all to be retiring from Speedway then as, some say, they can't afford to ride in just one league.

Most of the Forum also do the same.No wonder he got haemorrhoids he talks out his a*se most of time .

And that other Norwegian, Reidar Replacement....

I think the Northampton Norbolds has quite a catchy ring to it.

that comment was for a few people on here who because we say what we are seeing, they are classing that as hating British speedway , they have lost the plot.

Simon Lambert hasn’t stopped these riders from riding. I contacted Mark Parker back on January 18th and he told me he doesn’t want to ride in 2026. I already have my 2 reserves in Kenzie COSSEY and Ollie BINNS, who are both making their first full season debuts in the NDL and BOTH are British riders and always lived in the UK. You’ll have to ask the northern based clubs why they haven’t given team places to Liam Greens, Laylen Richardson, Owen Booth and Billy Budd. Maybe Greens didn’t want a team spot? I know he’s always busy helping the Pijper brothers these days. With respect to Booth and Richardson, they are not yet ready for NDL racing. That’s not saying they never will be, but they need to be winning races regularly in the NJL and Amateur meetings first, before clubs will look at giving them a start in a declared 1-7. Both great lads to deal with, but clubs look at things like this before they offer a regular team spot to riders coming through. Both are still young and have time yet to be knocking on the door for a regular team spot. Billy Budd impressed me last season when I seen him race a couple of times for the Colts at the back end of the season. Unfortunately I wasn’t in a position to offer him a team spot in the end.

It’s not really hate I don’t think . I think everybody’s opinions come from astonishment, frustration and anger but probably most of all , sadness, at the state our once great and attractive sport has been allowed to decay to this point. Any hate is towards the clowns responsible I reckon. I like your enthusiasm though . Bring on the March ? April? May ? start of the season.

The trouble is they're rich enough to buy and run a club but not rich enough to really do anything meaningful to improve things. I was listening to the guy from Mildenhall on the 360 podcast this week and he deserves all the credit for doing what he's done there and the same goes for the guy at Worky but when you listen to them speak it's painfully obvious that they have no real ideas on what to do to improve the sport, especially at a national level. Listening to Rob Godfrey also the other week and he said they've got David Howe's daughter helping them out with the socials. Now I know nothing about David Howe's daughter maybe she runs a successful creative agency, brilliant if she does and good luck to her, but if she doesn't then is that really going to achieve the results that the sport desperately needs?

So, Leicester who have openly admitted to (heavy?) losses over the last couple of years, have binned off their draw card and are in for another season with a (heavy?) loss... yet are still propping up a new team, that is bound to make, erm a heavy loss! You just couldn't make this stuff up! What on earth are those trying to make this happen thinking of? 🤷‍♂️ And that's just a Leicester perspective, Sheffield seem to be in a similar boat though they've kept their big hitters. Can't think that it would be any different for the Aces and Stars.

I am unsure why anybody would be optimistic about this project, where does a crowd come from to support it? Any new people to the sport will surely become disinterested once all the normal nonsense kicks in, guests, late rains off & all the other stuff that has been mentioned to death. Until a complete overhaul is looked at, I fail to see how the Sport is turned around.

I don't like where I work, but I go there e everyday cos the money 😏

My point exactly... Expecting to work six months and earn twelve months money from Speedway in the UK is folly... The competitors, and competitions, do not resonate with enough people, therefore the renumeration package should reflect that low standing... Not be something far in excess of what is affordable...

I'm a realist, I don't see why your creaming your pants over a totally unproven, unknown organisation entering our sport. Your only argument seems to be name calling... I'll add you to the roll of honour 👍🏻

Christina did well as the Leicester number 8 in 2024 😂

The joys of being old self employed & semi retired. I had a long lunch on Monday with a client on who has been going to Foxhall since the 70s, Anyway from what they had to say the deal is done between Louis & the buyer but there is a minor 3rd party hold up. Which should be resolved in the next couple of days & that the team is signed up. We’ll see

No... They just leave Speedway... Adrian Smith a case in point. . He had very limited knowledge of Speedway when he became CEO at BV, but was "blown away" by the core, raw product that took place, and saw huge untapped potential... Unfortunately he was less "blown away" by the operating model around it, and several of those who delivered such a model... One of a good number who knew what was needed, but stopped from doing anything, so those "tiny, tiny empires", many of which want so many different things from fhe sport, could keep doing the same thing ad infinitum...

I’m not convinced he’ll be riding for either.

It's a rich mans play thing, not a business.

Time for these old timers to retire then me thinks.

If they were really interested in showing the way they’d put a NDL team together instead of using this to cherry pick riders out of it for themselves.