Steve Irving

There it is. You’re making assumptions on something you know absolutely nothing about. You haven’t got a clue what is going on Phil.

Could be the four I mentioned and one from the Championship or a.n other if Ipswich don’t get sold. If it IS a five team league, they’re simply going to have to change the rules and do away with play offs for next year at least. Top team wins the title. It’s the only way.

Belle Vue, Sheffield, Leicester, Kings Lynn, and??

And he hasn’t done that has he Iain? You haven’t got the first clue what is going on so pipe down. It’s not your money or business at stake here. If Louis feels what is currently on the table isn’t something he wants any part with, he’s perfectly entitled to make that decision. His money, his business.

Judging by the attendance when Ipswich staged the “Tiger’s academy open” meeting a few weeks ago, including the latest Great British hope Cooper Rushen, I’d say you’re wrong and spectacularly wrong. Look, people on this forum are obviously die hard fans of the sport where any level of speedway is seen as great. But they’re in a tiny tiny minority. I’ve seen someone say on here recently that we don’t need the “GP Stars” because riders of a far lesser ability can provide “just as good racing”. But that isn’t reflected in the attendance the further you go down the Speedway pyramid. The NDL is pitifully attended. You can literally stand there and count the supporters in between races. So not many actually want to see “Johnny Local” making his way to better things at all. The hugely successful Championship that has their “house in order”, is also embarrassingly attended. You’ll get the odd anomaly such as Poole and Glasgow who get decent crowds by Championship standards, but they are an exception to the rule. The majority in that league have pitiful attendance figures. Any Poole fan by the way that comes on here and try’s to convince people that the crowd levels they’re seeing in the Championship aren’t that much different to the crowds they got when they had Holder and Ward ruling the roost, or Trick and Leigh Adams before them, are lying. Simple as that. The fact of the matter is, that attendances has steadily declined in this Country over the last 10-20 years, and that has coincided with an ever dwindling number of world class riders that ride over here to the point we now have only a small handful left. There are other factors as to why attendances have dwindled of course there are, but let’s please stop pretending that having or not having, the best riders in the world riding here doesn’t make a difference! Of course it bloody well does. Rider costs have spiralled out of control for the very top riders and any increase in attendance at tracks that manage to sign them, wouldn’t in all likelihood cover the financial outlay to get them over and that is the problem. It’s a catch22 situation unfortunately but getting shot of the ones we do still have, water the product down even further, and the death of the sport in this Country will gather pace at a rate of knots. You can forget any meaningful sponsorship or TV deal! Nobody will be interested. There’s a reason nobody, even back to the Sky Sports days, were remotely interested in showing anything below the top tier.

You bring in “rider control” and you then run the risk of pi$$ing off a large number of riders who are forced to either ride somewhere they don’t want to and for less money than they could have gotten elsewhere, or knock it on the head completely. The whole thing is a sh!tshow and there really are no easy and obvious solutions. No wonder the AGM has been delayed.

I have no idea why “Poole Keith” is laughing at your post. He (or she. You never know these days 🙄) knows damn well what you’re saying is true.

Question marks over Sheffield granted, but they’ve always managed to have a good sponsor, and they’ll pick up another one after tru7 I’ve no doubt about that. There’s reportedly “plenty of interest” in the purchase of the club, so remains to be seen how this one ends up. I stand by my point, Ipswich, Belle Vue and Lynn in particular would be plum clubs to ride for and clubs in the Championship that have already “signed” riders, would inevitably lose some of them. IF (and I’m confident there won’t be) it went to one league, everything done so far would have to be ripped up and everyone starting again from scratch. Pickering won’t be riding for Scunny for example and you can take that to the bank!

It’s not going to happen for many many reasons, but talking hypothetically if they went with one league then any deals currently done would be null and void. There is absolutely no way you could have all the current Championship clubs practically sorted, and then five clubs joining them having basically nothing to pick up. That just won’t happen and anyone thinking it would, are completely delusional.

I’d be staggered if that is the case! The train of thought was the clubs were getting next to nothing, but the exposure of the sport on a mainstream sports channel was what made it worthwhile.

What Premiership money? I thought it was minuscule if anything at all? The costs of running in the Premiership compared to the Championship are far greater than anything they’ll have received via “TV money” which I’m sure you’ll concede. The clubs coming down will more than LIKELY, be in a position to offer better deals considering the substantial lower costs of running at that standard. There’s a reason all the Championship clubs won’t touch the top flight with a barge pole and the main reason isn’t race nights. It’s the cost of running a Premiership team.

Do you really think so? The riders who have “signed” for Championship clubs would soon be backing out of those deals quicker than a rat up a drainpipe. The fact is, those clubs that would be “dropping down” are more desirable clubs to ride for who more than likely could/would offer better deals. The first thing Ipswich would do for example, is take Scott Nicholls off Plymouth. Those deals aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Pure delusion to think those riders would stay loyal to the Championship clubs they’ve already agreed to ride for, if they’re suddenly offered a better deal by one of the clubs currently in the Premiership. They’ll go where the money is and rightly so. 99% of riders have been dumped by clubs over their careers when they’ve hit a sticky patch, so none of them can cry foul when it’s their turn to be dumped. It works both ways.

They’ll run regardless. Why is everyone on this fuc*king forum so glass half empty ffs 🙄🙄

Louis is probably just completely pi$$ed off that kno*heads in both tiers can’t run their clubs as well as he can.

Supporters who have been saying “well our league is ok and we’ve already signed this and that rider” need to slow down a little. There’s quite clearly still plenty to discuss according to today’s Speedway Star so any “signings” already made could well end up null and void! Rob Godfrey still talking as if there’ll be two divisions, but if nothing gets resolved to have a viable Premiership then they may simply have to go for one league out of necessity. There’s obviously still plenty to resolve and everything is still up in the air.