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The problem with the BSPL committee members is they’re not looking to take speedway forward or even protect it’s position. They join the committee purely to protect their own interest and get a favourable decision when dodgy dealings raise their heads. It’s no surprise to me to see two jump ship once the waves get choppier. We nearly lost the TV deal that has just lapsed but thankfully Adrian came in at the eleventh hour to save at least something. The gratitude show to him by the committee was to continually sideline him on his many proposals (independent body, junior development, streamlined rule book and competition structure to name a few) so in the end he turned his attention to other business avenues. As a none speedway man he, as is always the case, couldn’t join the old pals club that have presided over the demise of our wonderful sport.

We are already, partly.

That’s not been the case for our team as we always have to make our side weaker over winter. The number of riders we have signed, improved and see move on would fill a new 1-7 with a very decent line up. Over the last two seasons three riders who have had to leave Belle Vue have lined up at number one for their new team. There needs to be more balance in these posts as remaining “one note” only leads to the more impressionable on here believing it all.

Whilst I’m not condoning the system, guests have always been with us. On Saturday 18th of May 1974 there were six top flight meetings and four of them had guests. Thousands attended those meetings as the sport was riding high in people’s consciousness and nobody seemed to bother about it. I had it in my head that we hardly used guests back then but by using the excellent Speedway Researcher website I was able to check that wasn’t true. It’s ironic that MikeBV bangs the drum the loudest about this subject when for the last 4/5 seasons his team have hardly used any guests, in fact way less than during the sports halcyon days.

Hobson choice, which is an annual occurrence for us. If it wasn’t Max it would have been another of our Aces made top liners that would have lined up against us for a new member of the top division. ‘Twas ever this.

https://www.fimspeedway.com/news/frickes-exciting-opportunity-with-lions

I put this together for what I anticipate our fixture list will look like in not to distant future. Belle Vue fixtures 2028 Easter. PCMT Colts May BH. GB v Australia test match Colts May BH. Challenge v Sheffield select Colts June. GP June. GP Colts July. British Final Colts August. Speedway centenary August BH. GB v Rest of the world test match Colts September. Challenge v UK Select Colts September. Challenge v Glasgow select Play off final. Belle Vue v Aces 😂

So it’s the jeopardy and not the participants that is the draw. For PCMT see BV junior championship (when it ran) for play offs see NDL play offs (when they ran) for GPs see the British Junior Championship which we also run two rounds. All have jeopardy. Doesn’t the visit of Edinburgh, Scunthorpe or Middlesbrough provide any kind of novelty? I don’t believe you’d attend these fixtures as they don’t have the top stars. They are no doubt a draw.

Bang on. It’s mainly due to slick PR by Henry, ably backed up by the trolls on here and no doubt other social media. A good example of this was the annual AGM statement we are all eagerly waiting on. This years included a large section on Ipswich running a junior meeting, painting Louis as some kind of saviour on the junior front. I urge you to read it again and compare it to the damp squib it turned out to be. Don’t get me wrong it was a worthy venture and I’m always pleased to see top level clubs help us with the task of bringing on the next generation, no matter how small. It was not worthy of the being included in the AGM statement. https://britishspeedway.co.uk/miscellaneous/british-speedway-agm-statement-2/

Aarrghh! You quoted him and I read it. I cannot believe he referenced the junior meeting as an innovative act, unbelievable. Run a junior team if you want to bring on youngsters. It’s completely lost on him that an ex Colt (having graduated out of our team) won the event. Sign young English riders when they are 16 and help build them up (no mention of the compulsory RS riders please) don’t wait until they are world number three before you come sniffing round. What has Louis actually done? Ran speedway at the same venue it’s been at for decades? Let lifelong Ipswich fan Guy bankroll the club? Signed Doyle, so innovative that nine teams had done that before them? Signed Emil when the Ukraine war hit Russian sportsmen? Moved up to the top league six seasons ago? Nobody puts any meat on the bones of him being a standout promoter, well now is your chance but don’t mention the junior meeting again.

You do realise you’ve picked meetings that contain the top stars. Even the play offs have top stars as generally their inclusion makes for top teams. What made you choose these meetings?

I wouldn’t use the word trust but there is little to no respect for Belle Vue or their staff amongst the BSPL committee and many of its members. Adrian was too vocal about the need for an independent body and that did not go down well and this has been mirrored with Mark. To have a business man who basically fell into speedway but could see the direction it should be going, move on due to the shenanigans of those at the top table said it all much more and much earlier than Louis latest stunt.

Looking at the teams that finished in the middle of the table, namely Belle Vue & Berwick, the difference in average between the top three and bottom three is GREATER in the championship. The stats don’t back up the suggestion that racing is better in the championship due to them all being of a similar standard. Just like the idea of variety, this is another championship fallacy.

As we have a chance for a major reset in UK speedway, I’d like to ask any mechanical boffins how easy is it to make the kit massively cheaper? You can’t just change regs overnight in a big way as that sees riders with expensive & unusable out of date parts but can costs be driven down with minor tweaks as time goes on? A speedway bike will always be a speedway bike but it would be nice to have a cheaper alternative to the highly tuned rocket ships currently blighting the domestic scene.

Four ex promoters, all fighting back the tears whilst describing their own tales of woe regarding the loss of their teams. Developers, said the first. I couldn’t make it pay said the second, I really tried. My landlord kicked us out, said the third, they didn’t want us, it was so sad. They look to the fourth as they all hold hands united in sadness and ask, what about you? He replies, sobbing, I didn’t get my own way this time.

No, he just moaned about the state of speedway as we have been doing on here since then. He could see where things were going and his demand for a neutral overlord repeatedly fell on deaf ears as the jolly few won their trophies. He was willing to move on if he received acceptable offers but kept the club running for local fans and British Speedway as a whole until Tony Mole took over. I don’t believe this is Chris’ stance as he is looking to wash his hands of his “beloved” witches & fans. Christ, if Belle Vue put the club up for sale every time things went against us, we would be permanently no the market.

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