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They all have other businesses outside of speedway so can afford to bank roll them. Also a loss making speedway club is quite good for tax reasons. If the Speedway is your only income & you risk bankruptcy because of a failed business model you’d look at things differently.

Maybe that tells you that the people of Ipswich don’t feel let down, it’s the supporters of the other tracks that do.

Anyone know why they can't tell us what day a meeting is taking place? Friday or Sunday? when will this be announced?

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The top flight is finished, nothing is going to save it...

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.

It’s hard to be positive signing rider who has been riding for over 10 years( mainly at reserve in Championship)and has an average under 3.Wish him well though.

Seems as though there will be another signing announcement or announcements on Christmas Eve according to the clubs social media

Smith does seem incredibly popular on fb. In previous seasons whenever a rider is injured, someone will say "what about Jack Smith, he could do a job" even when it's a heat leader missing. Heck someone just said he could do a job in the Prem. I find it hard to put a positive spin on the signing - maybe he can get his average back above 3?

Good signing not unexpected and rode very well at end of last season.

Like chalk and cheese though... One has jeopardy, consequence, relevance, resonance, credibilty, and delivers a reasonable level of publicity and financial reward... And the other, which delivers none of the above, is British Speedway... Fans stay away from the POQ's because, well, without being too harsh, the whole shebang isn't too far short of being meaningless... Other than to provide riders, and some promoters and managers, with another job, and other promoters an expensive hobby to spend a budgeted amount of money on...

Your point would carry far more weight if he wasn’t alone and others were doing the same. But they’re not are they? There’s four other clubs in that division, all four are not as well backed as Ipswich, and all four don’t get the numbers through the gate that Ipswich do either. And yet all four are prepared to battle on to save Speedway in the top flight while Louis has bailed. Louis has seriously let down the people of Ipswich and the amount of people coming on here and defending him is bonkers!

Smith has been around a while but has often been the victim of the numbers game, so maybe not as experienced as done think. Partly as he has tracks he rides well and others he really doesn't. In this line up he could be at reserve all year. If he carries on his end of '25 season form he should be fine.

There`s a reason why he never gets a good run in any team.

Same here?

That`s been said many many times before.

As I didn't own a teddy bear named Dan in my younger years, my tribute to the great Mr Luckhurst shall remain indefinitely 🙂

Maybe the fans would liked a wee look at proposed new set up.Just to see what was knocked back.(After all we do pay admission money to watch.)

I’d say almost certainly terms would have to be renegotiated. No TV (yet) exposure either. On the flip side, those two missing would save an awful lot of cash. They were both apparently, very expensive so horses for courses.

No tv money worth £60k and a new airfence is required probably approx £35k So a deficit of ££95k before a wheel has touched the track. Prospective purchasers please form an orderly queue.

To all the critics of Christopher Louis. If you were presented with proposals that you believe would make your business unprofitable in 2026 ... and you were dependent on that business for your living , would you decide to (a) carry on with your business, and make a loss (b) sell the business and take a change of career

And, you would have to think, put the P+L account looking quite healthy... However, no guarantee of the same this season, or any season, going forwards, so any potential purchaser would not be including those numbers in their bid.. And. No Emil and Doyle? Maybe sponsors money will drop too without the star names?... And with the stars missing, and the same teams on repeat, maybe the average attendance could also be hit? Any buyer would probably need to be a fan with an outside business, and be happy to spend what is needed...

Don't forget in line with the general speedway trend there's probably only 40 of us knocking around this forum these days.

As far as I’m aware, he had no other job outside of speedway? So unless he made enough money out of his riding career to never work again (obviously not), then he simply MUST be earning a living out of Ipswich Speedway. Just like his Father John did before him. Id also bet that the 5k+ attendance at 24? Quid a pop (no season ticket admission remember) for the play off final has nicely paid for his little Holibobs to the other side of the world!

This is the problem clubs are essentially worthless you are being asked to buy into a dying business model so the only likely buyers will be long term fans, it used to be that when a club was in trouble their would be several interested parties but with speedways ageing demographic a lot of the wealthy fans are now pushing up the daisies leaving an ever shrinking pool to possibly be the latest saviour of the club/s.