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It will be tough sell, just as the rest of the teams find... Particularly in areas with plenty of other established sports... The days of attending several professional sports in the local town are long gone for many given modern livings stretch on disposable income... In the mid 90's I could go to Old Trafford, Kirky Lane, and watch Wigan Warriors, several times a month out of my salary, and still pay a mortgage and "live".... Not a chance of visiting United, The Aces and The Warriors nowadays, several times a month, and that is without a mortgage to pay... One promoter once told me that you lose half of an opening night crowd the next meeting, (novelty factor brings in plenty of other fans), and then half that again over the season... Let's hope, if still true, they get five or six thousand to that first meeting... The standard of racing will be a key factor I would think, and, I presume, they will be racing on a Thursday due to the Stox meetings at weekends will require plenty of track maintenance? Will that mean only the Aces run on a Monday? Best of Luck to whoever takes over...

I’ve been watching the replays that have been on YouTube and they are very welcome in the off season. I do however wonder what management have seen in Smith that has resulted in him being back in the team. He had a decent meeting against the comets but a fair amount of that was because of bad luck for the away side. I also wonder what Max Perry was asking for that he didn’t end up as a Bandit. He was brilliant on both visits so it can’t have been a performance issue.

Maybe so, good luck to all involved BUT the season officially starts in less than 4 weeks, Easter is 7 weeks away, prime attendance time if the weather is good, no track built, no fixtures out for away fans to plan journeys, no team announced, no local promotion can be done as no one knows what is happening. This is not just Northampton it the whole of premiership speedway, it's a fookin joke 😗

I think it's going to be a disaster. The football club only gets around 6000 for home games, whilst the rugby club regularly pulls in well over double that crowd. Rugby fans are rarely interested in speedway, in my experience.

Northampton will get decent crowds in season one. Season two the crowds will drop slightly, third season they'll be lucky to get 700 fans turning up every home meeting.. fourth season will be survival. Lets hope I'm wrong .

6 teams is less than ideal, BUT, with what it looked like in December its not to shabby and is a perfect number to get through this season before hopefully a complete reset in 2027 which i imagine

i see what you are saying, but just because nothing is public doesnt mean nothing is happening, nothing will be rushed, a lot of stuff been going on behind the scenes.

see what you did there, like it

Should all be in the nick of time.

Line up for Inzell World Championship, 14/15th March:

i think 99% on here wish them all the best Phil and would be more than happy to be proved wrong and it ends up being a resounding success. My worry is that it seems to have been rushed without any testing for public appetite for the Sport in Northampton. Given how hush hush its been I can imagine 99% of the Northampton population have no idea anything is even going on with the new season weeks away. Over the years I have seen numerous promoters come into speedway loose a bundle of money then exit a year later, if the other promoters are all going to chip in you still have a situation where Leicester and Sheffield both lost money last year, Lynn and Ipswich maybe made a small profit ?, Belle Vue no idea do they make money or operate at a constant loss. But you still have at least two of the five above who might be being asked to shell out a contribution on top of expected losses for 2026 and no tv money either. I would be delighted for anyone to say to me "i told you so" this time next year and i want to see the sport thrive but think it will need another Tolley character to finance a large chunk of it. Your way better connected than myself so hopefully the venture will be in experienced, long term planning, wealthy hands.

Do not think that is an issue, there will be a few teams built that way.

Early to mid March at the latest.

Will only be able to put together a team of 6 pointers as that's all there is. No top riders interested in riding in UK, especially without TV. Could be like KL last year with Mulford/Harrison as RS?

That’s good to hear Phil. People have said on here one extra track makes little difference but I totally disagree. One more/less club in a division with a high number of clubs I agree makes little difference, but the lower number you go, the bigger difference that one club makes. A six team Premiership is far far better than a five team Premiership no matter what some naysayers will tell you. Just hope they can put something decent together team wise to make it a reasonable success. Nobody wants a weak marooned team at the bottom that everybody else is beating every week

I’d fully expect Thorssell and Nicholls to swap positions after the first set of Green Sheets. RE King, agree with you there although to be fair to him, he’s still very good around Ipswich and after a sea of change, they may have wanted a semblance of continuity. A better signing for Ipswich than he would have been for anyone else.

What we say on here will have zero effect. I for one will be going, when the Lions aren't racing, as it's only an hour down the road but it's very high risk. I can see the first season being a relative success, due to novelty factor, the limited fixtures these days and probably most importantly the catchment of defunct and existing tracks (Leicester, Coventry, Peterborough, Oxford, Birmingham) all within an hours travel. Good luck to 'em 🤞

Ben Morley & Eli Meadows just been announced.

Completely agree, the negativity on here has been pretty staggering. At least let it happen before slagging it off! Its been happening for a long time, all the best to everybody involved.

Northampton is happening so lets get behind it and stop being negative about it. good luck to them

all this just so his son got a track to race at when hes old enough. what a father

Spot on he is the key if someone can get him motivated again, he does seem to go better when he's not number one, it looks a solid side and if the rumours are true of the Swede coming back on a buttons average they should have the best reserve in the league all season long. The only thing I personally think is there might have been a better choice than King on his average I understand he's been a great servant but he will do well to maintain his average this coming season.

Is Greta free that weekend ?

I’m personally glad about that. Not a fan of the same people running two clubs in the same division.

He definitely is, but Ipswich will have to find a way of getting him motivated and back to his best which was only a couple of seasons ago. In Sheffields title winning season, he topped their averages over the season above Woffinden posting a season average of 9.35 with bonuses. That comfortably outstrips anything Doyle or Emil posted in Ipswich’ title triumph last year. Things then started to go downhill which began with the farcical situation at Kings Lynn where he looked uninterested, then picked up an injury, and then completely disappeared. Then last year he rarely hit the heights, but then again it was a bit of a car crash situation at Birmingham where they all struggled as a team, and they all knew it was the clubs last season. Maybe it’s just a case of two wrong moves and clubs for him. He’ll now be at a well run club (or WERE, remains to be seen if that’s still the case under new owners), and riding in front of a good crowd every home meeting which absolutely does make a difference to riders. Let’s see if that gets him going again because there’s no doubt about it, Musielak is a fine rider capable of much more than his current average. He’s good to watch as well when he’s in the mood and on song. Has ridden Ipswich well in the past too.