1 valve

Sheffield more than likely will not be a Premiership club in 2027

Depending on exchange rates at the time. Winning the Extraliga earns the winning team circa £100k prize. The winner of a GP gets £10k with a sliding scale down to £4k for last place. No money paid for heats.

Spot on. So long as UK keep to Monday & Thursday otherwise almost all of those in your list will leave UK.

Howarth said he was fed up racing the same four tracks. That statement is irrelevant because he would ride 16 tracks

Howarth said he was fed up racing the same four tracks. That statement is irrelevant because he would ride 16 tracks

Yes. Have a league that runs on Friday & say good bye to all those Australians & Poles who ride in Poland, Danes, Swedes , Czech etc leaving enough riders for nine teams made up of current lower scoring Championship and NDL riders. Not a healthy recipe to ensure the continuation of speedway in Uk

Can’t see that being a relevant point for Howarth. As a rider who doubles up, he would ride at fifteen different tracks during the season including the two “home clubs” he’s left. There’s more behind his reason for quitting than taking a break - there’s sufficient time between October and March next year to rest up.

As has often been stated, “One big league” in the UK would actually mean a maximum of eight teams featuring the best available riders (full time professionals) coincidentally the same number as Polands top flight leaving all other promotions to operate on a semi-pro basis providing rider development opportunities. No other formula is reasonably possible given the quality of rider availability and cost. Top league of eight - Belle Vue. Kings Lynn, Leicester, Northampton, Ipswich, from current Premier league plus three from Scunthorpe, Oxford, Poole & Glasgow. All of the above have sufficient availability of stadium to run on Monday or Thursday with sufficient capacity of at least 2.5k which are two of the necessary fundamentals as a means to attract a significant TV deal, halt the decline & provide a basis for growth.

As has often been stated, “One big league” in the UK would actually mean a maximum of eight teams featuring the best available riders (full time professionals) coincidentally the same number as Polands top flight leaving all other promotions to operate on a semi-pro basis providing rider development opportunities. No other formula is reasonably possible given the quality of rider availability and cost. Top league of eight - Belle Vue. Kings Lynn, Leicester, Northampton, Ipswich, from current Premier league plus three from Scunthorpe, Oxford, Poole & Glasgow. All of the above have sufficient availability of stadium to run on Monday or Thursday with sufficient capacity of at least 2.5k which are two of the necessary fundamentals as a means to attract a significant TV deal, halt the decline & provide a basis for growth.

Amazing that 300 extra folk attending would be a game changer, a number which should be in easy reach of any club who professionally promotes their club. but, spending a grand a week on the concept would need funding otherwise the £90K extra benefit actually becomes a lot less nett wise. .

It looks like (Dougy apart) the Lions riders just don’t have the correct set up or maybe even the right engines for BV. Masters especially.

Poland has eight teams in their top flight and seem to do rather well.

Being brutal, maybe shift workers will miss meetings. The reality is that the majority of speedway fans are not shift workers and its impossible to facilitate any form of fixture list which can accommodate all eventualities. FYI, back in the day, when I worked shifts, where possible I arranged swaps or even had to have my fingers crossed that the meeting finished on time to enable me to get to work on time for the 22h start.

Why would a league of eight teams mean less fixtures during the season than the current league of six?

All of the above would be definitely be the right road for the recovery of British speedway. But will need the promoters to be looking forward and working together behind the scenes to ensure it happens and continues to evolve. let the track action be the place where the competition between promoters exist - not in the board room.

Attendance for this week’s second leg of the KO Cup at Leicester appeared to be around 2,500, with a strong mix of travelling Witches fans, supporters from other current and former tracks, and a sizeable Leicester contingent. This is surely the kind of crowd Premier League promoters should be aiming for as an average attendance. Yes, there was a trophy at stake, even if the tie had largely been decided after the first leg, however, the meeting was also shown on BSN, which many blame for lower attendance figures. Looking ahead to 2027, I hope the sport’s top level moves beyond “hobbyist” promoters whose survival plan is simply to do nothing. Instead, we see the continual emergence of profit-driven promoters developing a cohesive strategy for growth to include better top end riders, far less doubling up, a clear distinction between Premier and Championship clubs which results in an “Elite” competition comprehensively promoted every week to generate greater and wider media interest to attract significant sponsorship opportunities for both riders and clubs. As I believe the initiative to make this happen is already work in progress, yes I am very much interested in 2027 and beyond.

Maybe Doyly pulling out of the meeting (with very painful rib injury) could be the reason the aces capitulated to defeat But maybe not. After all, he had ran a distant third in his fist race, and his two remaining programmed rides yielded a win and strange decision by Lemmon to put in Z Cook. Yes he may have featured in heat 15 but it would have been hard to justify given the performance Norick was putting in throughout the meeting and certainly no gurantee that he would have bettered both Leicester riders Fundamentally, Whereas the Aces got off to an absolute flyer in the first five heats the Lions were none existent. The stats make interesting reading. In the first five heats, a Lions rider finished last four times conceding four heat advantages as the aces raced to a 12 point lead. In the next nine races Lions finished last just once, notched up seven heat advantages to lead by four points with just heat 15 remaining where they duly collected the required two points. On balance, I would say the turning point wasn't the loss of JD but the much improved performance across the board by all of the Lions riders from heat six onwards.

This looks set for a home victory but a close meeting with most probably the win being secured by heat 14 maybe even a last heat decider.

But. It’s not just Poland but also Sweden, Czech & Denmark that riders who ride in the UK also race. So to go to one uk league with meetings throughout the week would mean all those riders giving uk a miss. The consequence being The number of riders available including NDL would be circa forty ie enough for six or seven teams for the whole of the Uk meaning a massive dilution of the sport.

No he can’t. However he is on an upward trend performance wise and it won’t be long before he moves on from being an unused sub.

We can have one big league, but only with eight teams i.e. the same number as in Poland's top flight given the limitation of available riders (and rider capability). now and in the near future. The challenge for the next five years isn't really the quality of riders that will have come through to replace the current "capable" riders but the ability of promoters to have somehow evolved from being hobbyists to a commercially profitable biased organisation delivering a healthy future for speedway in the UK. On the point of riders coming through, Dan Thompson was barely starting out five years ago whilst the likes of Cooper Rushen and Will Cairns are only in their first season. These three alone are on the right trajectory to become number ones in the not too distant future and there are a good number of young riders who will continue to progress well beyond their current capability. The resolving of the hobbyist promoter may have a future too. There are a few of the current promoters who do actually understand what is required and the arrival of Richard Coleman may just be the catalyst to get things moving in the right direction . It was encouraging to hear him say last Thursday at Leicester, that UK speedway needs TV but before it can happen UK speedway needs to understand what's actually required and set about becoming something desirable to the TV companies. He added that he continues to speak with those who run UK speedway and fellow promoters about such requirements and was hopeful for the future of UK speedway. Yes only words, but from somebody who is far, far more professional than a hobbyist and someone looking at the future as something more than getting through one season at a time.

Really, what football did he see in the height of summer? I ask because football season finishes early May and doesn’t start until mid August.

No it doesn’t. in “other sports” a squad system is utilised. Such squads are made up of multiples of the required number I.e Football - 11 on the squad of 23or 25 and another 20 or so full time “juniors”. However, speedway has never been able to work an affordable and competitive squad system. Just to say, whilst I think RR is an acceptable solution for a missing rider, Guests are not, neither is doubling up between Championship and Premier clubs. That said, I remain hopeful that in the not too distant future, a group of professional like minded promoters will, together, begin to influence the much needed change required for UK speedway.

And you’re the one saying a couple of posts back “It really cannot be taken seriously as a sport”. your idea above would see a top heat leader “substituted” by a NDL learner which is hardly the way to ensure a competitive meeting is it?

In the “long run” I’m hopeful that there becomes a sufficient number of professional promoters who get together to drive the sport as a business profitably onwards and upwards. That said, there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before that becomes reality.