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The anti-Poole rhetoric on here is as predictable as it is disappointing. The Poole management put together a team, and a track, designed to provide their loyal supporters with a winning team, but not just at home but away. I first went to Poole maybe 25 years ago and thought the racing was largely processional then but realised that, as long as it was Poole riders leading the procession, then the home support was happy. Matt Ford has a winning mentality and that shows through with both team and business success. His only year of losses was when he was forced to run on Thursdays and he found the resolution to that. He has proved he is not afraid to run in the top league. And often win it, so the decision to drop a league was sensible not cowardly. For too long, British speedway has supported the weakest teams and where has that got us? Dwindling crowds, fewer tracks and increased prices. The sport needs more teams like Poole who will improve the product not keep reducing what’s on offer. Which brings us to Glasgow, the only other team in the league who sees the sport from a business perspective. Their route has been to improve the customer experience by investing in the stadium, the team, the track. They must have the lowest average age of supporter though there’s still plenty of room for the long term fan. With the number of children attending, I’d guess the average age is closer to 40 rather than 60+ at many tracks. And that approach is paying off with the team consistently towards the top in performance. And, in my view, if you had to rank what is important to a regular supporter, then performance beats racing. I don’t support those that say they only want to see good racing - not if it means your team is regularly beaten you don’t! You only need to look at the crowd levels this year at tracks perceived as providing good racing but who’ve regularly lost at home. From a neutral’s perspective, these are the two teams that deserve to be admired, maybe even envied rather than being attacked. Both provide a product their supporters want and both see dividends through the turnstiles. If only there were more like them

The best deal is the one that gets the sport to the largest number of non speedway fans. But how to achieve this? My opinion is that the sport is not suitable for live TV but ideal for a hour long, prepack, magazine type programme. You focus on the best races from a couple of meetings with additional races that are talking points from the previous week. In a 52 minute programme (plus 8 minutes of ad brakes which is the maximum allowed) as the spot ruling will not be applied to speedway due to viewing figures you should be able to cover this. I would get BSN to prepare it and offer it prepacked to Channel 4 or 5. Being on a FTA channel but as highlights will not impact on people attending a live meeting as much as the present deal does. And you stand a chance of attracting new fans as its not behind a paywall. The key is to get a broadcast (TV) partner as a streaming service only engages existing speedway fans.

If Poole win overall, then Glasgow fans will give credit where credit is due and congratulate them as deserved winners. I was at Poole on Wednesday and had great chats with the NID crew, I hope tonight's meeting is a cracker, befitting of a grand final and no matter the outcome, a good time has been had by all. Regroup and go again next season.

Glasgow won the "Entertainment Championship"... Far more important in a pro sport to win that. Like winning the "fair play award" or "the most improved player" in football...

Stop moaning. They do it to win - and who can blame them. Their fans are happy, proved by the good attendances. Why should they pander to the whim of away supporters?

The bottom line is this... Speedway allows a rider of any team to ride for a competitor in the same league... Who can then score enough points to win that other team the meeting... With that victory ultimately, potentially preventing his own team from qualifying for the play offs.. Meaning that his teams fans and sponsors, (who have supported the club financially all season), his team mates and even himself, miss out on the most important part of the season... Allowing such a situation to exist as part of your operating model would make the sport a very hard sell to mainstream media and sponsors from outside the sport I would suggest ..

I actually thought it threw up some interesting racing. Again it looks better being there to see it live rather than on tv. The control some of those lads had for their experience level was superb. Especially as it’s the first time most of them had riden Foxhall competitively. Thir attitude & willingness to attack the track certainly shows up some of the pro riders attitude.

Well commiserations to all the Tigers fans, you must have believed the force was with you come heats 15 & 16. But Zac and Lawson's class came to the fore. Cruel to have a looser in such a great contest.

Speedway has won tonight.

Was lucky enough to be at a recording of the new Mastermind series. Clive Myrie ( question master): What can't speedway riders do at Poole Speedway? Contestant: Pass. Clive Myrie: correct.

Glasgow fans moaning about another track? Well i never. However did the sport cope until the panacea racetrack at Springburn was born? Some of the Tigers -appear to have become the self-appointed protectors of ‘proper speedway’. They need to get over themselves a bit.

A brilliant meeting for the neutral, a heart pounder for Tigers and Pirates fans. Glasgow did what I expected them to do and started to take control of the meeting until HT 15 when their momentum stopped. After seeing Howarth looking so rattled in the pits after finishing last in 15 I thought surely he would be replaced. A 2nd and 3rd repeat in the super heat would have been enough but Cook and Lawson finished in style. Much has been said about the first leg track conditions, but why on earth would Poole set up the track to suit Glasgow? First look at Ashfield tonight before the meeting was as predicted, outside chopped up and super grippy for Harris. Nobody would have expected anything less. I rarely post these days , but it is always a pleasure to look in every now and then and enjoy reading the displeasure of the Pirates continued success from the anti Poole brigade. Up the Pirates

Commiserations to Glasgow, what a fight they put up and took it the wire. Bomber was on another level tonight apart from heat 16. Well done to the Pirates. The meeting swung in a different direction during the night but Poole are the 2025 league champions. Fourth time in five years.

One better actually went to witness in person, meeting didn’t disappoint neither did the result and faces that followed.

A tense, close, dramatic tie. And once again Poole prove themselves the 8th best team in Britain, just behind Birmingham.

Would agree.Zach Cook was the Poole hero IMO.

Gavan, give it a rest mate. Your constant diatribe anti Poole is geting tedious.

congrats too Poole Lawson cook did their job

Congratulations Poole, what a meeting though

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!! Fully deserved!!!!!!

This final deserved a super heat in fairness

Proper final this

He’s dangerous, going to seriously hurt Someone one day. Can’t just pass someone without brute force.

You shouldn’t gaslight people who just want exciting speedway Michael.

Great post... I watch most sports now on YouTube with around 15 to 20 mins highlights packages... Really got into Baseball this year, and now a massive Dodgers fan!!! Sitting through 2 hours worth of TV to watch less than 20 mins of racing doesn't really work for me nowadays... A highlights package could run 30 mins, and could even show every race, and get some detailed pre and post match nterviews with some of the key riders on view.. My lad is 22, and daughter is 27, and they rarely watch "live" TV programmes due to their busy lifestyles, so they use "catch up" to watch when they can, and binge watch series.. For me, the sport needs people involved from outside the "Speedway Bubble" as they seem almost brainwashed into doing the same old, same old, "there is no other way", often ludicrous, operating model... In house streaming only appeals to the converted so ideally the sport will get itself strongly on line DAILY on Tik Tok, Instagram, YT etc, and use the riders personalities, not just racing, to keep the sport in potential punters awareness and viewing algorithms... 30 mins to an hour a week on any of BBC, ITV, C4 or C5 can only move the sport forward quicker than 2 hours on TNT or SKY, or BSN... To bring great marketing people, and sponsors, in from "outside" requires the sport to have a huge amount of greater recognition and awareness than it has now... Get that fixed and, given the very low starting point fanbase wise, just an initial 10,000 extra punters a week interested by what they see online and/or on TV, would be "huge" for the sport, and provide great momentum to build it further. ...

But then Poole don't charge a premium for seating or parking.

I hadn't seen him properly but he was certainly impressive. Especially when he almost lost it. Must say Ingram impressed me as well but seemed to run out of steam, he was very aggressive

Shale is expensive.

Even though Warner/Discovery/TNT are bigger than all the competition! Personally I'm not sure that full, live speedway meetings on any channel - mainstream or others - is the way to go in order to attract more people to actually attend meetings? A Well-produced highlights package once a week, including a regular 'where-to-watch next week' slot would surely generate more interest.

Just a reminder for those with short memories and /or little knowledge of Glasgow speedway 2025. Glasgow went for 7 UK born/based riders to minimise disruption to their team and fixtures. Sadly the signing of Ashton did not work out and they had to look for another 5.0 rider. The only option was to go abroad and we signed Villads. We knew that his Danish/Polish meetings would take priority but in theory that only meant probably missing an away fixture at Poole, Oxford and possibly Workington. In the end he missed 6 away meetings 3 of which were also missed by Dan. You can't legislate for riders being called up for FIM/European meetings, or Polish meetings being rained offf and being re-arranged, and/or being injured. He is an entertaining, popular young rider as is Dan and I'm sure all Glasgow fans hope they stay with the club and continue to provide entertaining racing both home and away.

I spoke to him this morning and he said he had planned on riding in the UK next season, but changed his mind after last night. He said he’s not flying thousands of miles to play follow the leader. He said he wants to entertain fans. He also said tell LisaColette to stop talking rubbish in the Poole v Glasgow topic. He then said Ben Cook buys his race suits from Build-A-Bear.

Flint is 100%effort but he very one dimensional in his riding,can’t make an inside pass and just holding on at times with his outside riding.When you see the class of Zack Cook against him in heat 14 it shows ,effortless to hold him off.

Would’ve preferred for them to just show the celebrations, couldn’t believe when they were interviewing Harris, it was geared up all evening for Glasgow tonight dethrone the pirates. It did feel like Poole vs the world this last week. And the Pirates won

Thanks for your support.

Entertaining meeting. So close. Congrats Poole.

And now people know why Poole took all the dirt off in the first leg. Why on earth would they have wanted Bomber doing what he did tonight at Wimborne Road? Perfect tactics by the Poole management and although it wasn’t pretty to watch, it produced the near perfect result. For those that have had a pile on about Poole’s track for the first leg, do you people honestly believe it is like that every week? Seriously? The tactics worked, we pulled out a twelve point lead and with fair luck we would have had the title sewn up before heat 15 tonight. Howarth dirty riding against Cook (be honest it wasn’t a clean move) Lawsons fall (he said he took a slight nudge a little earlier in the bend which unbalanced him but accepted the EX). And then Cairns chain coming off in heat 14 cost us the win in heat 15 when 3-3 would have been enough. Glasgow looked so strong in the middle part of the meeting but Pirates were gating well. Harris was on his best form and unstoppable. You just knew he would hunt down and pass both Poole boys in heat 15. So a superheat it was. We won the toss and took 2 and 4. Same riders. Fancied our chances. When we gated and saw Harris in third but Howarth at the back, I knew even Harris couldn’t save the day. Totally brilliant. Commiserations to Glasgow who put up a great fight. They were slight favourites going into the final and with any other team would have won it comfortably. But Pirates have that one ingredient money cannot buy. The knowledge of winning when it matters most. A great final which knocked that rubbish Premier League final into a cocked hat. Now onto tomorrow and the BSN Final first leg at Redcar.

Looking at the scores either Howarth or Dan T could've partnered Harris in heat 15. But once Howarth ran a last, I was quite surprised Cami used him in heat 16. With Harris finishing 3rd in heat 16, even if Dan had won the race, Poole still become champs. Of course we'll never know what would've happened with Dan on the first bend, could he have made a difference?

Never in doubt.

My heart is racing, what a meeting after that borefest at Poole, but whoever wins speedway is the winner

Kerr could have won that for Poole there

Haha, he's basically used all your comments before you got a chance to lol.

Let's play comment bingo... "More passing in that one race than all 15 on Wednesday".... "More passing in that race than in a full season at Poole"... "Now that is what Speedway is about, if every club made tracks like this, rather than "win at all costs" Speedway would have tens of thousands more fans"... "Tyoical from the Poole riders, cannot handle a grippy track".. "Provide Bomber with a circuit he can race on and he delivers races like that".. "A good ride that from Lawson"... "Poole may have won but Glasgow are the moral champions given the much fairer track they prepared for both teams to race on".. "I wouldn't want my team to win a title like Poole do".. Have I missed any?

Love BSN putting the boot in about the lonely racing line at Poole. Superb from the platform.

Poole fans are a weird and strange collective that can’t debate a topic …. Always going on the defensive and unable to have a discussion Nobody is saying that you shouldn’t prepare the track for your own side And at the end of the day it is about winning but surely just one Poole fan could admit the truth which is ‘ I’m glad we won but the racing was awful’ …. Instead you get the morons like Shovlar telling us it was an exciting meeting… Nobody dislikes Poole for winning just the numpty supporters Oh and the final at Ipswich this year had controversy … Emil not starting … Brennan and Douglas … King and Masters … Doyle and Howarth … 9 passes in 15 races including an exceptional effort from Fricke in heat 13 I know us at Ipswich don’t have the best track but I’ve watched Poole 4 times this season and each time it’s abysmal Poole have signed a team of gaters with the exception of Thomsen so they will make the track slick and no chance of passing

I think most people just don't like 'winners', it feels like a very British mentality. I'm old enough to remember when Glasgow had the likes of Lee Dicken carting around a dusty, shack of a stadium and nobody gave a toss about them on here. Everyone has always disliked Poole so you'll need to find someone older than me for a view on that! What the Facennas have done to Glasgow - as a club, track, team - is incredible really, and it shows what's possible when someone with a decent business mind and a lot of money can achieve (even if Glasgow fans can get precious about the money bit). They haven't just tarted up a downtrodden stadium, they've practically reinvented the sport in Glasgow to some degree - the increase in fans is testament to that. In terms of Poole, I'd love to know their secret. I don't imagine they're paying buttons, but equally, they're on for a treble with riders like Tobias Thomsen and Lewis Kerr, hardly hidden gems. I think it's a combination of their winning mentality and a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy (win more > attract good youngsters/better riders > etc. > etc).

Well by the crowd level, I assume people did not arrive at the stadium then go home appalled by the 2 pound increase. This is not the first time it has been increased for a grand final and Poole are not the only club that have done it. If you think the anti Poole rhetoric is just about the track then you are entitled to that opinion but we all know if the racing had been good and Poole had lost or only won by a small margin, the laughter and joy on here would be 50 pages by now, saying how we stupidly messed up the track to suit the opposition. I cannot believe you honestly think that any other televised meeting that was not good racing would get anywhere near the amount of flak Poole get.

This is the sad part about Poland. If they actually worked together, they could basically halve rider's wages overnight and very little would change. The riders would still be earning several times more than anything in Sweden or GB, and the clubs would become far more sustainable. It might even be a good thing for the rest of world speedway. As it is, it seems it's only going one way long term, and the bubble will burst.

The guys who are high 30’s in age must be breathing a sigh of relief that they don’t have to worry about the future of speedway! Speedway in Poland over the next few years will start to decline due to riders rinsing the clubs for money and it’s finally showing that clubs can’t sustain it. I heard one U24 rider wanted 1 million zloty to sign for stal, not naming anyone direct, but stal quickly said this shows the mindset of riders and what they think they can demand, and no the rider in question wasn’t someone worthy of 1 million zloty!