Judging by the attendance when Ipswich staged the “Tiger’s academy open” meeting a few weeks ago, including the latest Great British hope Cooper Rushen, I’d say you’re wrong and spectacularly wrong. Look, people on this forum are obviously die hard fans of the sport where any level of speedway is seen as great. But they’re in a tiny tiny minority. I’ve seen someone say on here recently that we don’t need the “GP Stars” because riders of a far lesser ability can provide “just as good racing”. But that isn’t reflected in the attendance the further you go down the Speedway pyramid. The NDL is pitifully attended. You can literally stand there and count the supporters in between races. So not many actually want to see “Johnny Local” making his way to better things at all. The hugely successful Championship that has their “house in order”, is also embarrassingly attended. You’ll get the odd anomaly such as Poole and Glasgow who get decent crowds by Championship standards, but they are an exception to the rule. The majority in that league have pitiful attendance figures. Any Poole fan by the way that comes on here and try’s to convince people that the crowd levels they’re seeing in the Championship aren’t that much different to the crowds they got when they had Holder and Ward ruling the roost, or Trick and Leigh Adams before them, are lying. Simple as that. The fact of the matter is, that attendances has steadily declined in this Country over the last 10-20 years, and that has coincided with an ever dwindling number of world class riders that ride over here to the point we now have only a small handful left. There are other factors as to why attendances have dwindled of course there are, but let’s please stop pretending that having or not having, the best riders in the world riding here doesn’t make a difference! Of course it bloody well does. Rider costs have spiralled out of control for the very top riders and any increase in attendance at tracks that manage to sign them, wouldn’t in all likelihood cover the financial outlay to get them over and that is the problem. It’s a catch22 situation unfortunately but getting shot of the ones we do still have, water the product down even further, and the death of the sport in this Country will gather pace at a rate of knots. You can forget any meaningful sponsorship or TV deal! Nobody will be interested. There’s a reason nobody, even back to the Sky Sports days, were remotely interested in showing anything below the top tier.  

True! Flying in and out of Glasgow would be a lot easier.

if they  are that desperate for  these teams to. Run They could allow  Peterborough  Swindon and Coventry to use other tracks but on alternat race Nights .

Last I heard was Toby was talking to Glasgow,but he was touting himself for a team place last season allegedly.

And both will be as well known as each other to the vast majority of the local population... Watching Dan Bewley fly around the fence at the NSS is great, however, watching him cross the finishing line as two rising stars are still getting around bends three and four doesn't make for much of a spectacle... Evan, four "Superstars" in a race, most times, ends up with the winner being half a straight ahead of fourth... At the NSS. You can basically pay £25 to watch the "Superstars" on a Monday or Thursday, deliver similar racing to what you can see the NDL lads do, for £15, at the weekend... With the vast majority of the local population not knowing their "Dan Bewley's" from their "Will Cairns'".. Or even who Belle Vue are, or what Speedway is... In any business, if you can find a way to deliver a similar standard of product, but for less cost, and then pass that saving onto your customers in a lower price point, then surely that has to be good for your business...? Or even use some of the cost savings to invest in marketing, to get what you sell out into the consciousness of those living within your catchment area...?

I’ve often wondered how much ford, bates, Louis, Godfrey, morris and the secretary’s wages come too every year ? Got to be honest I would do it for half