Why should a Championship take the risk though,all it is achieving is propping up an unsustainable Premiership for another season. There is no miracle recovery in sight for Top League.Top riders in the sport have no interest in riding in GB in the near future.

If the Panthers came back, season ticket demand would be ridiculous. The new promotion would get the money upfront.

They pretty much were in effect! Louis was unsure it was viable so to help save the top flight, agreed to sell the club to Chapman but stay on as promoter. He could have easily taken the easy option and ran Ipswich comfortably in the second tier, but done what he thought was right to help the top flight and British Speedway as a whole. Chapman then backed out of that deal a mere weeks later (thank god) but by that time rules and structures were in place and Louis had no choice but to go through with it. It’s almost as if he’d been conned in to taking Ipswich up isn’t it?… But he got his head down, hired people to canvass around all the local businesses around the town and surrounding areas to bring in as many sponsors as he possibly could. He worked his @rse off to build the club up to make it financially viable to run a Premiership team to the point where we are today. He must have had his doubts like others probably do currently, but he’s proven to all the Championship promoters that with hard work, dedication and commitment you CAN make it work. Let’s not forget your club Leicester and Sheffield were also Championship clubs not too long ago, and both have made a good fist of running in the Premiership. Sadly, SOME in the Championship simply don’t want to bother even trying to make the same effort (I’m talking about a small minority that have the set up already in place to make a good fist of it), or in probably the majority of cases, just don’t want to take the risk and are happily plodding along where they are under their safety blanket. Is it THAT too much to ask for one, or two Championship clubs to give it a go for a solitary season to help the top flight be viable in the very short term, with the agreement that if their fears are realised and it doesn’t work, they can move back to the Championship in 2027? Just one season to help keep things moving in both divisions whilst a longer term plan for the sport on the whole can be put in place.     

The signs were there when I went in the mid 80's after Penhall quit, the time Penhall was at his peak 80-85 was probably the peak time for speedway and Mike Lee who was another huge name started having his problems and declined massively mid 80's onwards. I had stopped going by the time Sky got involved and that slowed down the decline of the sport , the grand prix in my opinion hasn't helped and Poland taking advantage of the UK's long term poor planning and being asleep at the wheel for years didn't help either. You also have so much more to do these day than back in the 80's multi plex cinema's didn't exist outside huge cities, online gaming and dating wasn't a thing, Sky tv wasn't an issue, nor streaming services, youngsters live more indoors these days looking at screens for most of their leisure time. There have undoutably been some dreadful decisions over the years but given the changes in society I'm beginning to think the decline was probably inevitable the british pub industry is collapsing , nightclubs are virtually gone as a lot of the younger generation have no interest in face to face interaction.

and bankrupt the new promotion, 8-10 away matches with no income is not a good idea

9 teams in the Championship 4 ride on a Friday, 3 on a Saturday just leaves Oxford and Poole who ride on a Wednesday.