1 valve

Couldn’t agree more. It’s the promoters job to promote fixtures which they and their fellow BSPL members have the responsibility to arrange & publish. Clearly at this moment they are failing miserably- but it’s not the riders fault which was the point I originally made.

It’s not the riders responsibility to put bums on seats. That the responsibility of the promoter who has two key tasks. 1. Build a competitive team. 2. Promote the team/fixtures. Clearly a winning team puts bums on seats - even more if well promoted. The riders have two key tasks. 1. Ensure they have competitive bikes. 2. Race to the best of their ability. Obviously it helps the promotion if the riders avail themselves to PR activities which most do willingly.

Becker not available anyway as he has already signed to ride in three countries.

Becker has already said he will not be available to ride in UK in 2026.

But there's no intention of claim by the developers to include a track in their plans.

So this is a proposal for the development of the old speedway/greyhound stadium? Meanwhile any news on the proposed “new” speedway facility?

There are only a few established riders who do not double up. Those that don’t (putting aside those who ride in other countries in addition to UK) are by and large riders starting out. One league would not mean additional meetings because there would only be eight professional clubs (it’s the math of riders available).

Well you may not buy it, but you need to consider the realty of what one league means in terms of earnings. Assuming rates of pay remain the same then one league would mean a rider such as Howarth would lose at best 35% of his current pay but in reality more likely 50%. So quite reasonable that in such circumstances a rider would need to quit the sport to take up full time employment and no, in today’s job market, unlike yesteryear there is far less opportunity for a family man like Kyle to double up with conventional employment and riding speedway.

If there was no Premiership- but only one “senior” league running on something like a 38 - 40 point limit then that league would consist of no more than eight (maybe nine) teams simply because of a lack of suitable riders. And to be clear, this is not a personal opinion, just an outcome of the math involved. One thing to be sure of …. The eight or nine surviving teams would not all come from this year’s Championship.

Other than it would take a significant amount of cash to get to a level where it conforms to FIM standards.

License’s are issued by the Speedway Control Board (SCB) not BSPL.

License’s are issued by the Speedway Control Board (SCB) not BSPL.

4.84

Your final point makes good sense. However, UK speedway is far from being a great product, it does not use the best ingredients, such as riders, stadiums and universal matchday experience. If things were done correctly promoters would invest (not divert from current costs)) significant amounts of money on local marketing & PR utilising the appropriate professional agencies whilst the BSPL did likewise on a national basis. Unfortunately, the majority of the promoters do not have access to the levels of cash or acumen necessary and so sadly they should not be running the sport at the professional level in the UK. For those folk who currently sit both inside and outside the BSPL with both cash and knowledge of what to do with it to grow UK speedway they will not be doing so whilst the BSPL functions in the significantly less than cohesive manner it currently does - it just does not make good business sense to do so, biding their time does.

It depends on what constitutes "huge" over decades. sure the sum over 20 years looks big but when viewed as an annual spend its not huge by any stretch of the imagination. Its not clear if you mean a couple of million spent on riders each year is the figure per team or in total but at an an average of around 150k per club per year (low) or 280k per rider (high). If it is the former and being on the low side even a figure double that, is not remotely big. By and large todays promoters spend what income they generate from gate receipts, sponsorship and media deals and cover small losses (200k is small) as their interpretation an an investment. sure it keeps the sport going which we should be thankful for, but in no way does it create the prospects for growth. What's lacking is additional working capital (cash) investment by the promoters in significant marketing & PR (so folk do know who the riders are), and the improvement of the meeting experience which (besides a few exceptions) is woeful with sub standard presentation. The reason its not done is for two linked reasons. 1, The promoters don't know what great promotion (marketing & PR) is and 2, They don't have the money and so rely on keen and willing volunteers to help out rather than being able to invest in engaging full time professional PR, marketing & sponsorship agencies. Also, worth considering that there is a need to promote at the national level (BSPL) and at the local level (individual promoters) in a coordinated and cohesive manner at a much greater level than is currently undertaken.

Changing the chair person is not the answer. Many small companies like the BSPL don't even have a Chair person preferring instead to appoint an existing Director to chair the meeting with main duties as in the case of the BSPL to oversee governance, structure, and smooth running of board meetings as per the company's Articles of Association. The outcome being fairness, focus, and recording of decisions made by the BoD. By the very nature of the position a Chair person cannot be independent. The only type of independent position available would be a Commissioner, or a CEO tasked to lead the business, set the strategic agenda and ensure compliance by all promoters to a specific direction....Given the way the sport is currently owned by individual promoters with their own differing and competing agendas, there is more chance of Lionel Van Praag winning this years GP series than any individual being granted and then allowed to function in the required manner.

By "They" I presume you mean the promoters rather than the riders. If so, in addition to a lack of vision, strategy and ambition there needs to be added, MONEY or more precisely lack of money. Whilst recognising that apparently some promoters operate at a loss, the amounts involved are actually tiny in comparison to what levels of investment UK speedway really needs. Of course there are some individual owners who most probably do have the right levels of money required, but given the position/ability of the majority of their fellow promoters wisely decide to keep their hands in their pockets rather than deal with futile hopes.

"The top table" (the Directors) decisions are an irrelevance if the majority of shareholders disagree with what has been decided by the board albeit, shareholders who consistently challenge the board tend to make the position of the Directors somewhat untenable which could leave the company within breach of their constitution. Worth noting that since 2018 there have been a number of changes to the board members which sort of challenges the concept that the "top table" is the same group of folk "looking after themselves first". Incidentally, personally I do not have a lot of time for the collective assembly of promoters called the BSPL. This is mainly because of how the majority of them care only for their own enterprise and have little or insufficient vision and or means of meeting costs associated with a national sport. Think small, remain small appears to be their mantra. Looking ahead, speedway in the UK will during the course of the next 3-5 years go one of two ways. 1. A continued bumbling decline to a point where it will crumble into oblivion - along with the tardy stadiums. or 2. The money men will see the opportunity and having bought the sport will form a professional elite competition with no more than eight full time clubs involved. Whatever the outcome, the majority of todays promoters will be out of the professional game.

R/R is using riders aligned to the team. The problem is the use of guests from a rival team.

No, in terms of the scope of responsibility/constitution please feel free to provide an example of where BSPL have not followed there own rules in terms of decisions being made and implemented.

Chris Louis would have been one of those at the top of the pecking order and he was most certainly not accommodated with "the rest compromising". Speedway works in the UK the way it does because the majority of promoters want it too be run the way it is. Can't beat a bit of democracy eh?

The Directors are unable to implement anything significant without the approval of the shareholders the majority of whom are the self serving championship promoters.

Who do you actually mean by "they"? It surely cant' be the promoters of the five clubs who have committed to a top flight division. So are you referring to the "I'm all right jack" group of promoters in charge of championship clubs? If its the directors of BSPL then they are representatives from the two leagues where the majority appear not wanting to take part, or not wishing to develop a league of elite riders.

Which folk should graciously accept.

Yes, generally you can refuse to employ someone with an unspent conviction, as it's not considered discrimination under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. But to be fair, it would be good if such matters were judged on a case by case basis.