ouch

So Louis plays the Sandhu card due to the proposed set up not being to his liking. Try being a Belle Vue promoter and having to deal with the crap laid at our feet with irritating regularity. No matter how disgruntled you feel about not getting your own way you do not jump ship. Think of the bigger picture for once and not solely your own club as this thinking has got us into this situation we are now in. It’s better all round to try and attempt change from within rather than just washing your hands of our wonderful sport. You never win every battle but you still have hope to win the war. I posted when the NSS opened my concern of not having any top flight clubs to ride against due to the volatile nature of many promoting teams. It’s come to pass in the main due to this insular me, me, me thinking that culminates in this situation when things don’t go their way. We know it’s not a financial decision as like Poole in the second division the witches have the best crowds and due to incredible work done by Louis they have the best sponsor support. Pulling the rug like this has MASSIVE repercussions to the WHOLE sport in the UK and even if he gets his way and performs a U turn the damage from that press release will last. I feel for the witches supporters who would turn out to see their team in what ever guise they appeared. To have that potentially removed whilst the perpetrator sheds crocodile tears is particularly galling. Keep fighting guys, someone’s got to. Up the witches!

Apart from one team, Belle Vue met everyone twice at home and twice away. It was not repetitive. 14 teams can’t meet home and away twice as there are not enough available dates. Once home plus the addition of a north/south league cup would give 19. Add in one cup meeting then that’s a guaranteed 20 meetings with the potential of another 7 Double downers were guaranteed 29 meetings last year with a potential of another 12 so why the hell do they desire one big league? Is it because they think they will get top league money for ALL their meetings as that won’t happen due to the strength of the league. They will get second division money for ALL their meetings. So they will lose up to 34% of their meetings and have a lower mean average wage per meeting. Double whammy and they want that?

Apart from one team, Belle Vue met everyone twice at home and twice away. It was not repetitive. 14 teams can’t meet home and away twice as there are not enough available dates. Once home plus the addition of a north/south league cup would give 19. Add in one cup meeting then that’s a guaranteed 20 meetings with the potential of another 7 Double downers were guaranteed 29 meetings last year with a potential of another 12 so why the hell do they desire one big league? Is it because they think they will get top league money for ALL their meetings as that won’t happen due to the strength of the league. They will get second division money for ALL their meetings. So they will lose up to 34% of their meetings and have a lower mean average wage per meeting. Double whammy and they want that?

Overall number of participants. 13-4=9 8-1=7 2015/2025

When the second division started accepting journeyman foreigners, it was a step back for British speedway as a whole but good for them. Like wise when they moved from double uppers to double downers around 2017/18 it was good for them but bad for British speedway as it led to our rider shortage. Championship fans are constantly referring to the predictable nature of the top league which is laughable given the championship is now the Poole & Glasgow show and has been for years. Add in the supposed variety you get in the Championship compared to the Premiership even though we are only taking two more teams and the fact that two of their teams met each other 10 times also slips the mind. Ten years ago there were 13 teams in the championship but that is down to 9. When it comes to losing teams from then to 2025, it’s 4-1 to the championship. I post this to balance things up and shine a light on the them and us mentality that has blighted our sport for longer than I care to remember. WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER and need to leave our competition out on the track and not in the boardroom. It’s a symbiotic relationship where what happens to one massively affects the other.

Please don’t included The Aces in this. Matej didn’t ride for any other team apart from his beloved Aces (where he was greatly loved) over the last decade or so. To see him line up for Birmingham was tough as it was with Tom the year before but the bigger picture needs to be looked at here. Max was the same and if we need to lose another of our GP hero’s for the greater good then so be it. Sign them young and inexperienced then help build them up as it benefits the whole league. That would be fine by us, wouldn’t it.

Fricke, Kurtz, Bewley, Lidsey, Brennan etc were not top riders when we signed them. Other clubs could have signed them at the time without breaking the bank. We are now being berated for wanting to keep some of them! Birminghams top three at the start of the season totalled more than Oxford & Kings Lynn and around only one point less than the others. They had the second best third heatleader in the league. In 2013 they topped the league and shut the following season. On behalf of the “big five”, we apologise for that. Not all problems are down to a few handy sound bites. I agree about the 10th match thing as variety is no guarantee of great entertainment but it’s something on here that is continually being put forward.

For one big league, I’d not thought they’d reduce the total number of fixtures on top of no doubling up. “Sorry Chris, you’re not getting your income from the 27 Kings Lynn meetings. Oh well I’ll just make do with the 26 Glasgow meetings. You might want sit down.” Ouch!

It’s just the 25% reduction, they don’t get a further 2.5% off. See Toms average at the end of 2022 compared to his start in 2023. https://britishspeedway.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/p22_issue_final-1.pdf https://britishspeedway.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/p23_issue_1.pdf

Looking forward to one big league and Sam Masters battles with Jack Shimelt, add in seeing Glasgow v Edinburgh 10 times makes for a mouth watering prospect.

Poole finished with one rider over 8 this year so aside from the decades used points limit, they will done nothing to share out league strength. The “big” five didn’t screw over Birmingham or Oxford. If the Brummies had won the league this season they would still have closed. Kings Lynn (one of the “big” five) screwed Oxford over last year and simultaneously finished below them in the table. It’s widely known that there are no assets any longer so how in a free market can teams screw over other teams? If offering better terms is screwing over, then people and companies are screwed over every day and this has gone on since commerce came to be. With the lack of riders for one big league I anticipate screwing over will become more prevalent - and costly.

I find the views on here so contradictory it’s little wonder the sport is in a mess - when you think that it’s basically run by fans and ex riders. I end up more confused on every visit. We need to be running at weekends as this is the time families and others look to spend their leisure pound, unless you live in Poole. Plymouth have the right idea about racing on the night that is best for them. Klindt only missed half of their home league meetings but that’s fine as people are ok with guests. Top stars add little if anything to the gate apart from Ipswich who saw a jump in attendance when Jason & Emil signed. Poole has the biggest and most passionate fan base but if we run 24 hours early, we’re screwed. If we run at weekends without the top stars we’ll be onto a winner, unless it’s the Colts. Teams should compete in the league they can afford, unless you are Poole or Glasgow. Top teams don’t share out their top riders, said Max Fricke. Etc, etc, etc.

Could someone with time on their hands put up the teams and (guessed at) riders for each team so we can see where we are at in terms of riders for each club?

If the sport continues its dumbing down and our top riders are either not wanted or are to be shared amongst those with no desire for rider development then The Aces should embrace this and purely look after themselves. Forget the GP & British Final, let another track look after that as they had a detrimental affect of our domestic attendance. Build a team to Birmingham’s total from last year and save on rider costs both from an initial point of view and a match by match basis - less points, less pay. We are pretty much running on diehards with regards attendance and they like me will turn out for their fortnightly speedway fix. The days of us looking at the bigger picture need to end as it’s not as though we’ve change anything nor gathered more friends within the sport. Ben Cook 6.39 Jake Mulford 3.00 Charles Wright 6.11 Tate Zischke 3.00 Zach Cook 6.20 Billy Budd 3.00 Jack Smelt 3.00 30.70 just short of the Brummies total last year.

You use to be able to watch top flight speedway every night of the week as clubs had their own set days that worked for them. Poole moved down a league to keep their midweek race-night. It’s not always the case that weekend is best. Belle Vue ran on a Sunday this year (without top stars) and the attendance wasn’t anything to shout about. Imo, with everything on offer in Manchester on a weekend, Belle Vue would find the battle for the leisure pound in the area much tougher. For my five pen’orth, I only saw one Belle Vue team meeting on a weekend this year as I was busy for the others. In previous years I maybe missed one.