Mr Bee

Anyhow, its not the answer.

Sorry, not gone back that far

Gilkes in, Lambert out.

Difficult isn't it? The only real one on the list is number 2 and that leads me to the question as to why the rest of them can't do the same. I can't count 1 because Lambert has very little to do with the promotion of British League Speedway.

But what is there to be positive about? Can you give me 5 genuine things to be positive about in British Speedway? I can’t think of anything. I don’t count the Northampton venture because too many clubs have been lost.

Do you mean David Hemsley?

I think "panic-merchant" is a bit of a stretch. As far as I can tell, nobody on here is actually from Northampton, so technically it isn’t "our" club and I suppose, in that retrospect, none of us should care. But we do care, and that is the point. It isn't about panicking; it’s about genuine concern from people who have a lifelong investment in this sport. The Star article might have made perfect sense to some, but for others, it still leaves a lot of silence where there should be activity. If pointing out a total lack of engagement or questioning a "wait and see" approach is considered demanding, then so be it. But most of us aren't looking for excuses to moan, we’re looking for signs of life in a sport we want to see succeed. There is a massive difference between being a "forum merchant" and being a concerned fan who understands how a modern business should actually communicate with its customers.

That approach would be kind of understandable if the first meeting were six months away, but it isn’t and it wasn’t when the news was first announced. If they truly know what they’re doing, then fair enough; time will tell. They may well have a five-year plan in place to go from strength to strength, but in the meantime, the silence isn't doing much to build momentum.

This forum only represents a very small percentage of the overall fanbase, but I’m certain we have people on here and in the stadiums with some terrific ideas. Imagine if the clubs actually reached out and asked their entire supporter base to put suggestions forward via a dedicated email address. There might just be some real nuggets in the postbag that could help the sport move forward. Whether it’s a fresh marketing angle, a community link, or a better way to handle the meeting experience, the fans are the ones seeing it from the outside. Beyond just ideas, many fans have professional contacts and networks that could be a huge asset to a club. You simply don't know what’s available to you unless you actually try things and open the door. It costs nothing to ask, and it might just uncover the exact help or innovation a club has been looking for.

Great stuff. 👍

Great stuff. 👍

I couldn’t agree more with this. In my professional life, we do exactly the same thing. In fact, we had a monthly meeting just yesterday where part of that is sharing "best practice" across different departments. We look at who is innovating, what’s working in one area, and then we roll those successful ideas out across the rest of the operation to ensure everyone benefits. It’s common sense in any other industry. If clubs like Glasgow and Poole have cracked it, why on earth isn't that being formalised into a national "Operating Model" for the sport? Work together. As you say, the on-track product is usually decent. The racing isn't the problem; it’s the lack of off-track leadership and professional marketing that’s holding everything back. There are individual clubs doing "good things", whether it’s social media, sponsorship packages, or community outreach. On that note, I genuinely can't understand why the British Speedway Podcast has been cancelled, along with the national media day. Surely the sport can manage to put on a media day somewhere. And as for the podcast what is the actual cost of production? It can't be that prohibitive. I stand corrected if it is. I listen to "That Cov Pod", run by three Coventry City fans. They put out an excellent show after every single game, and they’ve even managed to attract a couple of sponsors. I can’t imagine it costs them much more than their own time to record, edit, and post it. If three fans can produce a quality show for football, why can’t a national sport manage one? Who is taking these decisions to strip away the few pieces of media we have left? If one club finds a way to increase gates by 20% through a specific digital campaign, that blueprint should be shared immediately across the league. There is no excuse for the rest of the sport to be lagging behind when a few clubs have already demonstrated how to do it well.

I notice they have put a race from Scunthorpe up on the British Speedway YouTube channel from last Sunday. While that’s great to see, it appears to be the first post in four months. Just because the season had ended, it doesn't mean the content should stop; you don't grow a brand by going silent for a third of the year.

Following up on my post from yesterday, I think it’s important to clarify one thing: some people seem to confuse concern with criticism. My comments come from a point of genuine worry, not just for the situation at Northampton, but for UK Speedway as a whole. In Northampton's case, I can only assume the deal isn't fully over the line yet. As Karlito mentioned in his video, why wouldn't there be at least some social media activity? It’s free advertising, yet there’s a total vacuum. Speedway has been the backdrop of my life and my brother’s for over 40 years. We’ve had the highs and lows following Coventry, travelling the country together when we were younger. Mum and Dad taking us to Coventry away meetings in the 80’s are great memories. When the Bees weren't riding and we could drive, we’d be at Cradley or Stoke on a Saturday. Dad would take us to Long Eaton and Birmingham Wheels. When I moved to Woking for my first job after Uni, I was at Reading every Monday. Now living in Lincolnshire, I’m at Scunthorpe for every home meeting. This isn't just a hobby; it’s a lifetime commitment. My Dad is 80 this year and has been a regular since he was a boy. Now, he has nowhere to go. The sport hasn't even got a proper TV deal for him to watch — and yes, I know BSN exists, but it doesn't solve the visibility issue. If I were a promoter right now, I’d be turning to the one big asset every club has: its fans. I’d be appealing to the fans in the Speedway Star and the club programmes for help, because some of us might just have some good ideas on how to actually run a business and turn things around. Clubs seem to treat us as the enemy these days rather than engaging with us. I can think of one fan who runs a very successful business: Alex Brady. Yes, he’s been involved before, but I believe someone like that has incredible transferable skills. You only have to look at his company’s social media output to see that they know what they are doing. Both himself and his business partner, Jamie Minors, have gone from strength to strength from a cold start all those years ago. They are young people who know how to engage with a young audience as well. In my view, promoters and speedway managers should stick to building teams and using their contacts within the sport to do that. Yes, the promoter also puts his or her money in. But seek out people who actually know how to drum up paying customers. Not just wait for them to magically appear out of thin air. At Scunthorpe, I think they get a lot right. The price point is spot on, and the programme is a no-frills scorecard that does the job keeping cost down. Their biggest bonus is the track itself, which serves up terrific racing. They deserve bigger crowds. But the social media output and the website are poor. They could put some great races out on their social media as advertising from the EWR. I haven't been into the town centre, but I can’t imagine there is much around telling people the Speedway even exists, or in any out of town shopping areas. There is a big sign at the entrance to the car park....... It shouldn't just stop at Scunthorpe looking for fans, either. Lincoln isn't far away, and I’d be heading straight to Lincoln University and other UNI’s nearby as Lincoln isn’t the only one. I’d be seeking out the Media and Graphic Design courses and offering those students the chance to promote the club. Give them access to the social media channels and let them crack on. When I was at school, we were taught to keep a display book of our best work for interviews; this would give these students real-world results for their portfolios. I notice my own football team, Coventry City, have let Coventry Uni Graphic Design students handle some of their social media content and it looks superb. They also have a "City Unseen" video on YouTube—watch it, it’s brilliant. You could do the same at any Speedway club on a smaller scale. I’ve heard the "wait until May" argument for Northampton, but I try to imagine that logic in my own professional life. If my directors asked for an update on my latest £1.75m project and I told them I was just waiting until May to see what happens without telling anyone about it, I’d be out of a job. It’s not criticism; it’s concern for something that has been part of my life for four decades. If promoters stopped treating the fans like the enemy and tapped into the skill sets, we have, we might actually be able to help this sport thrive again.

This post is a classic case of demanding blind faith in a sport that’s already on its knees. The idea that fans should just "stop knocking them" and wait until May to see what happens is exactly how we ended up in this mess. In any other industry, if a business asked for your money but refused to tell you the name of the company, who the staff are, or what the product looks like until the last minute, you’d walk away.