The anti-Poole rhetoric on here is as predictable as it is disappointing. The Poole management put together a team, and a track, designed to provide their loyal supporters with a winning team, but not just at home but away.
I first went to Poole maybe 25 years ago and thought the racing was largely processional then but realised that, as long as it was Poole riders leading the procession, then the home support was happy.
Matt Ford has a winning mentality and that shows through with both team and business success. His only year of losses was when he was forced to run on Thursdays and he found the resolution to that. He has proved he is not afraid to run in the top league. And often win it, so the decision to drop a league was sensible not cowardly.
For too long, British speedway has supported the weakest teams and where has that got us? Dwindling crowds, fewer tracks and increased prices. The sport needs more teams like Poole who will improve the product not keep reducing what’s on offer.
Which brings us to Glasgow, the only other team in the league who sees the sport from a business perspective. Their route has been to improve the customer experience by investing in the stadium, the team, the track. They must have the lowest average age of supporter though there’s still plenty of room for the long term fan. With the number of children attending, I’d guess the average age is closer to 40 rather than 60+ at many tracks. And that approach is paying off with the team consistently towards the top in performance. And, in my view, if you had to rank what is important to a regular supporter, then performance beats racing. I don’t support those that say they only want to see good racing - not if it means your team is regularly beaten you don’t! You only need to look at the crowd levels this year at tracks perceived as providing good racing but who’ve regularly lost at home.
From a neutral’s perspective, these are the two teams that deserve to be admired, maybe even envied rather than being attacked. Both provide a product their supporters want and both see dividends through the turnstiles. If only there were more like them