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The rising star initiative in its current guise should be nowhere near the Premiership The Championship should hang its head in shame that they dropped it

What happens when the rain offs happen, and would it even be one meeting a week most weeks? It’s a crazy decision

threy are still stuck at the hotel trying to check in after the manager asked how many guests and they all replied its a long season how should we know

It’s not negativity, it’s realism

Janowski Harris Klindt Tungate Wright Kerr Boughen RS

Good, will force them to look closer to home to entice and build our pool of riders

Waiting for Chris Harris to arrive to make up the numbers

Due to lack of numbers the chairman is doubling up as a general committee member and heckling himself. The secretary has been given a warning for moving and someone has passed/failed a drug test with a positive non positive test fail .

Berwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, Plymouth, Poole, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Workington. Your welcome.

I think MikeBV might have been a touch sarcastic

Ill happily bet you 100 quid that Fulham and Wolves finish above Bournemouth in the league this season. For some reason you are over hyping them hugely - their a poor team. They will finish 16th or 17th - depending on how Everton bounce back from their points deduction and if they end up facing any more deductions.

Currently,except for occasional TV stipulations, and in recent seasons AFCB have held their midweek matches on Tuesdays to avoid clashing with Pirates Wednesday meetings. Hopefully the new American owners will continue with this arrangement as a good number of locals support both clubs!

They are stuck there for a week. Heavy rain has rendered the Runway unusable and one promoter who used Aviation Fuel to dry it out by setting fire to it has been arrested for Arson.

Nice to see Plymouth confirmed. Good club. Good fans.

Hopefully this seemingly barmy idea works out for Oxford. I can’t see how fans will be able to afford to attend meetings in enough numbers to make all the teams break even. I can’t see how they’ll be able to fit all their fixtures in, especially if the Chargers compete in the full version of the third tier. I also think not using the Cheetah’s name that fans identify with for the Premiership side is an error. I wish them well and want to see speedway thriving. I worry that this could jeopardise a track that so much hard work went into bringing back to the sport however.

How very dare you... Maybe they could stream it in action and let us watch it on our smart phones during the meeting? We could also maybe have a competition called "Guess the start time" measured from the Green light to tapes up... And also publish the mean start time averages of the 15 heats in the Speedway Star each week... I also presume the refs now get paid less as they no longer risk their lives pressing a start button for our entertainment a minimum 15 times a night..?

Like others have posted, Oxford would appear to be taking a massive financial risk with teams in both tiers. It could all go very wrong but I applaud their approach and enthusiasm. A breath of fresh air for the sport in this country.

And if both teams reach the play offs the league wont finish till after the Jubilee cup has been ran!!

I’m just very happy we are running again next year nice one mark. I hope you succeed in the present and future.

Insane decision.

Can’t help but thinking it should be the Cheetahs in the top league, and not Spires.

So you get on your high horse about a thread being derailed by football, and then proceed to discuss football in the very same post? LOL

It’s been postponed until the weekend. When they arrived they found the hotel had been doubled booked by a polish stag party. Apparently they were told that the polish have priority on Wednesday, Thursday’s & Friday’s. If that wasn’t bad enough they then found out that the hotel staff don’t want to work at weekends so they will have to bring in guests to cover but there is a shortage because some are already doubling up at a hotel around the corner.

AGM has requested the bar staff to also clean their rooms so the staff can now 'double up on wages '. The pool was abandoned after heavy rain 3 days prior and deemed 'unsafe for the 'swimmers' . Various promoters have not turned up to the meeting. Guests have stepped in including Bomber and Lawson. Robert Lambert will make an apperence on the last day. Richie Worrall has turned up in disguise wearing his brothers Wolves kevlars. Stewart Dickson spotted this straight away and had him ascorted from the bar. Richie was heard shouting ' The drinks are on me' as he left the building. Eurosport are filming the AGM but the camera man pointed the camera facing the wrong way so weve missed all the passing of the paella. The hotel will closing at the end of year. Crowds are down along with the landlords selling the land for dog racing. Think ladbrookes are involved in this. My sources will keep me informed

Well let’s hope it’s the last we’ve seen of Worrall, he’s let himself down his clubs and fans down and the sport down. What a first class idiot.

Another example of the sport pandering to riders. If you’re a late starter then your route to the top may be slightly harder. Get on with it. The competitor should bend to the rules of the sport, not the other way round.

It's being extended over the weekend. Still discussing how to conclude the Jubilee Cup, which was first agenda item.

For those that can't open link. 25 th July, 2023 OXFORD STADIUM STATEMENT To whom it may concern, The support we have received for speedway since reopening Oxford Stadium has been truly overwhelming. Promotional work within our local community coupled with persistent media relations and heavy fan engagement has successfully connected the ‘lost generation’ and former supporters with the sport. In our regeneration season (2022), crowds were well above the levels we budgeted for and demonstrated to us a clear demand for speedway locally. It prompted our team to expand our initial audience capacity from 2,000 to 3,500 following the completion of works to restore Oxford Stadium to its previous glory following almost a decade of neglect under lock and key. Remarkably, Oxford Speedway attendances this season have been even stronger. We are consistently attracting over two-and-a-half times the number of people through our doors compared to when the club initially closed in 2007 with many supporters taking advantage of our U16s go free offer which has inspired a new generation of speedway fans locally. It is bewildering to us that this space of extraordinary potential was earmarked for housing when its existing provisions served a key purpose to the local community. Not only that, the return of greyhound racing and speedway plus the installation of a new mental health and wellbeing centre managed by the Frank Bruno Foundation has been a much-needed source of employment locally. The reopening of Oxford Stadium is a living example of what’s possible when key decision makers see sense in the potential of reinstalling much-needed community assets to existing derelict sites. I would urge Rugby Borough Council to follow in the footsteps of colleagues at Oxford City Council - whose actions were critical in the reopening of Oxford Stadium – by exploring every avenue possible to return Coventry Stadium into the hands of its local and wider communities. Many thanks, Kevin Boothby, Oxford Stadium Managing Director

Be a good idea to get the fans on board, watching the same riders (or most of them) every week, something to identify with.

Looks like Oxford have been forced(?) to run PL as insurance for when Birmingham inevitably fold mid- season... or don't even make it to the tapes in March

Belle Vue included KOC in Season Ticket

Fixture planning in 2024 with 3 teams will be a nightmare with Olympics and Euro '24 also taking place!!

As expected, 2 great riders who are close to unbeatable at home. Great start

Deep joy

Not financially viable no matter how much promoters / owners tell themselves. Wish you luck but it's got disaster written all over this because fans won't be able to afford to attend all of these meetings across 3 different divisions.

Harris riding for Oxford in both league’s would make sense, at least he wouldn’t appear as a guest against them.

Imagine trying to follow the team both home and away

I don't think the likes of Becker or Worrall would make a huge difference, I think there might be a handful of Wolves fans that will attend PB regularly. Someone like Lindgren though would be a game changer, that would probably give Birmingham the best chance of attracting Wolves fans (albeit the team overall will have to be decent, otherwise interest will wain quickly) I'd certainly do a few at PB if he signs whereas it would be 1 or 2 otherwise

Clubs should operate at a level that is financially sustainable and build a team that meets that criteria!

How does the RS scheme work for the Championship?

It was rumoured that the Hotel said a bond must be paid upfront to ensure that they completed their stay and didn't default on extra costs typically putting extra guests into the rooms or cancelling the rooms at no notice on the day!. Also, as they hadn't stayed there for at least 2 years they couldn't vote against this ruling. The promoters replied, "This is a disgrace, it's poor encouragement to get more to attend, it's totally bad practice, nobody else operates like that ......" Oops

I agree he probably still win.He is comfort mode most of the meeting with present point scoring system though.Every point should count IMO

IMO he would win whatever the scoring system !

Because that is their capacity?

If you want competition Leicester has it hard, Championship football 30k, most successful English Rugby Union club 24k, most successful basketball club 2k, Netball 1.5k county cricket (one man and their dog, but does well for sponsorship). Its bloody competitive in erms of choice for both spectator and advertising monies. They only need an Ice hockey club for a full house.

Stop beating about the bush and tell us what you really think!

Things should be kept as simple as possible. Convoluted rules turn most people off. None of this “if you best rider is a Sagittarius he can be your rising star but only if he eats two packets of chocolate buttons with the machine examiner before each meeting” rubbish.

I’d prefer if you could have any of you top 5 ride in any order, bring back some team tactics.

Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out Richie.

Sheffield booked the tiny No1 room with no sea view for £200 per night but at the last minute we're allowed to switch to the Robert Lambert penthouse suite (amazing reassessed at just £175 per night)