Plus roughly 30% higher costs and running on a night that doesn't suit your customers but as others have said theres no easy fix as far as racenights go as the riders hold the cards. So at the moment you either have speedway run on unattractive nights for punters and the poor old owner underwrites the losses or you switch to a night where you have a fighting chance of breaking even but probably half the riders would clear off from UK as it wouldn't fit around their plans.

We know there are problems with speedway helping itself due to all the problems that have been allowed to build up over the last 2-3 decades but that is the number one issue in my book run on the best night for your customers but unfortunately the current set up is run on the best night for the employees which equals bigger losses and probably no jobs for the employees 3-5 years down the line.

What you describe here may well be inevitable  - no disagreements from me on that score But that is very different from the Championship can survive without the Premiership  - in that new scenario the only thing surviving is the name....

With 14 teams you would initially be looking at 5 man teams at around 25 or 7 around  30

if there is a league next year it will be less than championship standard , its the only way it ill survive , crowds this year will be down on last year, council tax water rates gas electric all going up, not many peoples wages will be. But thats my naive and stupid way of thinking.

Of course there are enough riders. There may not be enough riders to maintain 7 man teams to a 40 point limit but there will be enough for 5 or 6 rider teams at whatever strength depending on riders available. It just needs researching properly