ouch

Let’s hope he can’t be assed (sic) getting injured as apart from COVID in 2020 that’s the only thing keeping him away from UK fixtures for eleven seasons now - unless anyone has links to the contrary.

The Leicester info is for 2025. It’s just not been removed/updated for 2026 yet.

A league once placed a ban on Swedish riders who lived in Sweden. Bullies throwing their weight around.

Me too. This has been done before and it’s not popular with the top team as they miss out on a lucrative semi final. That is all the play offs are about, creating welcome extra income for a few teams at the top. It goes some way to balancing the books due to the lack of interest/attendance for the qualifiers. For the teams not in the play offs, it’s tough and they just have to suck up the losses created by the implementation of the play offs.

That makes sense at face value but with a little unpacking Louis motives become a little clearer. At the end of October he knew the tv deal was over and that his team would be weakened by the departure of Emil. So that’s the tv deal and weaker product covered. The air fence is another known item Louis still had to contend with whilst openly planning for 2026. Now we come to the fixture issue. If it’s five teams you’re basically dropping a Birmingham type team for extra visits from Belle Vue & Sheffield. Only Louis can say which is best financially, through we probably all have our own thoughts. BTW, it’s less fixtures with the same repetition or the more repetition with the same fixtures. The house seemed at equal risk in October as it did 2/3 weeks later but imo that’s not the issue, it’s purely down to not getting his own way. I kind of don’t blame him as the trait of almost all speedway promoters is one of “I’m alright Jack, screw you.” Owning that mindset is another thing and we continually get this smoke screen from clubs PR and social media trolls that everything they do is for the good of the sport. Hopefully he doesn’t kill off the club as they have been a welcome addition to the top league recently and their true fans don’t deserve to have the rug pulled after their cup win only a few weeks ago.

Being a Belle Vue man since a rookie at 16 he knows the value of bigging up British speedway including other teams. It’s a bigger picture thing sadly lacking at some other promotion. What a shame that his social media post has been hijacked by the not rights trying to make out it’s a slight on the club he loves. I know it’s just trolling but should some young rider get the wrong idea and subsequently not post then it’s another missed opportunity for the sport to engage with social media. Given the column inches in the Star where young riders have bemoaned the trolling they receive, it’s clear the impact they have and I can testify to that being on the receiving end way too often. Maybe a New Years Resolution for you guys to think about, tone it down.

I’d say that’s more a dig at Sheffield & Leicester, given that was where we won the last two of our fourteen championship titles.

Agreed. As with three out of the last four seasons when they have been the best team in the league, I can see similar success in 2026.

He’ll clean up in the watered down weaker premiership without the top riders returning.

Birmingham closed due to development not self interest and having a pop at Oxford who have gone from three leagues to two is rich when Louis won’t even run a junior team, despite all the hype about a run of the mill, one off, end of season junior meeting being touted as the most innovative initiatives in decades. Spin at its finest.

Birmingham closed due to development not self interest and having a pop at Oxford who have gone from three leagues to two is rich when Louis won’t even run a junior team, despite all the hype about a run of the mill, one off, end of season junior meeting being touted as the most innovative initiatives in decades. Spin at its finest.

The nine championship teams finished this season with a total average of 377.61. It’s been well documented that the five premiership teams aren’t bringing any riders with them as the top liners would skip the UK and the rest are already riding in the championship. To fill those 35 vacant spots would require using new (to the championship) NDL riders who average around 2.50, so thats a total of 87.50 to add to the pot. 465.11 divided by the 14 one big league teams gives a team total of 33.22. To create some kind of bargaining power when negotiating rider terms the limit would be set lower than that and most probably be around 30. Would championship clubs have wanted to water down their teams just to accommodate the ex premiership teams and how would they have felt letting riders whom they had agreed a verbal contract that there was no longer a place for them? The option of five or six man teams doesn’t sugar the pill either. Once you understand that one big league is unworkable with just 3/4 months to sort it out then the only alternative is what we have. Digging your feet in and saying I’m not supporting that doesn’t help whatsoever but then this has been going on for decades. Me, I’m just happy to enjoy that sixty seconds of excitement and I’m not bothered about the score nor what the competition is just that race, wether it’s U16, NDL, Aces or GP’s at the NSS.

Never could I defend the play offs nor a division where teams meet 5 home 5 away.

Starting in March the play offs would be in June. Clubs don’t run weekly speedway. It’s more like fortnightly meetings meaning the same club would be back in eight weeks time following its previous visit.

Every time our sport takes a step back, that becomes the new normal from which to work backwards from. Rarely if ever does it step back, regroup and move forward. It just moves further back.