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Just back from a week’s holiday in Rhodes and on the second day I was wearing my Dan Bewley Wroclaw shirt around the pool. Later that evening while at the bar, someone appeared behind me and asked if I was Polish or English as he had seen me wearing the shirt. I replied English and he introduced himself as Andreas Bergstrom. We chatted briefly for ten minutes before I had to go. A few evenings later I saw him again and this time we spent the evening sinking plenty of whiskey and rum and putting the speedway world to rights! A top fella with a lovely family. Couldn’t speak highly enough about Berwick, the club and its supporters (less complimentary about a certain person who was at the club when he rode though!) His stories were brilliant, funny, eye opening and his opinion on a certain Swedish ex-World Champion was surprising! 😉 His thoughts on speedway’s current crop were also very interesting, and his love for Bomber Harris oozed out of him. His fears for the future of both Swedish and British speedway echo many of our own, as do his ideas of how to promote the sport and turn it round. But as he said himself, there are too many people in positions of power who don’t want wholesale change for the better due to their own business interests. He currently runs his own industrial firm which is extremely busy but hopes to get some time off to come to watch the GP in the UK next year when hopefully we can meet up again. The only downside meeting him was that I’m still in the doghouse with the missus for chatting to him all night at the bar rather than spending it with her and our daughter! 🤣

Its stands to reason, as in most other sports, that the best teams last longer in competitions and therefore will play against each other more times. It amuses me that people say why are we seeing Poole / Glasgow / Redcar / Oxford / Sheffield / Ipswich / Belle Vue again. It's because they keep winning..!

Now we know that there will be 2 Leagues in 2026, why doesnt 1 promoter have the Balls to admit there will be 2 leagues and not wait until Nov 12th,at there AGM. Also ,if all the rumours on this Forum are TRUE, tell us who told you and from what source you know this. This only having 1 rider above 8 pts,is crap.Why should the likes of GLASGOW,POOLE and REDCAR pander to promoters of other teams who have a crap 1 - 7. If the points limit is 40,build your team to 40 or close as,if some Promoters cant build a decent team of 1 - 7, thats not GLASGOW,POOLE or REDCAR's fault. Promoters should build teams within the points limit and riders they can afford.

The big stars can bring crowds in, but I’d suggest the repetition somewhat knocks that on the head. If Emil Sayfutdinov (for example) was coming to my track once a season and I absolutely had to be there on that night to see him I’d get it. But last season he went to some away tracks three, maybe four times. It’s not so much of a novelty when the big name is back in town again in a few weeks. This is one of the benefits of a larger league, you don’t race the same teams two to three times at home a season. The damage is done and probably too hard to rectify in the short term but seeing the same old faces week in, week out in both divisions is a contributing (one of many) factor to the decline of the sport on the whole.

It was distributed to vested promotions in an equitable manner who decided by and large to spend the vast majority of the income on paying riders inflated pay rates. What didn’t happen was that the money was handled in what the sponsors hoped for which was to use significant amounts of money to invest in the infrastructure and development of the sport which in turn would lead to a growth in interest and value for their subscriber base. As a comparison think what football, cricket, Rugby & darts have done to use TV money as a catalyst to greatly improve facilities and evolve their sport to provide bigger & better experiences for both attendees & viewers alike.

At last someone who seems to understand the issues regarding “sharing” the top riders around. In either League! There’s only certain clubs who can afford the more pricey riders so the issue is not only can the less well off clubs afford a big hitter that now can’t be fitted in elsewhere, and will those riders now accept a lower deal because that’s the only offer left on the table. As I’ve said on other threads, you could end up losing riders to British Speedway because they’re not prepared to accept what a lower paying club will pay them. If a few of the top boys DO accept a lower deal somewhere where they didn’t want to go, is that in itself fair to said riders because of a restriction in the rules? You’ve also got the issue of local sponsorship. You’ll have riders that have acquired valuable sponsorship at the club they’re settled at, that they’ll now lose by being forced in to moving elsewhere. I personally hope any thoughts of “sharing” riders by enforcing new rules, doesn’t see the light of day and let all teams build how they like within the points limit.

I struggle to think of many who he won't beat? Masters and Lawson maybe, possibly Harris & Wright at a push, not much else. This is a rider who put 1.5 points on his average this year, I'd back him to comfortably beat the likes of Kemp, Worrall (if he rides), Batchelor, etc. Tom Brennan improved in a similar way at Glasgow and then averaged 9+ the season after. I think Thompson is a relatively slow burner but is going to be a very, very good rider.

Never a good time for something like this but if it does happen this time of year is best from a recovery point of view Fingers crossed it is all straight forward for Tom

That’s move up to the Premiership like we did once before 🤔

British Pathe News????? 😲

Many years ago I was lying by the pool in Tenerife reading the speedway star, this bloke came up saying so your a speedway fan, looking up I recognised the guy as Alan Ham former promoter at Bradford speedway, spent a couple of hours putting the speedway world to rights, he couldn't believe that as a Workington fan a group of us used to go to Bradford every week for our speedway fix, at the time Workington had no speedway late 80's

Looks like watering down to me. Dan Thompson will be fine, a class act

In essence it’s a straight choice between kildemand and Jeppesen I’m guessing a lot will depend on if they are already signed up in premiership. Will be interesting if Morris is signed up as he’s going to be in huge demand for next year,should be putting 1.5pts on his average next year.

40 point Premiership limit? Or 40 point Championship limit? Also bear in mind, only 4 Premiership teams actually had proper heatleaders last year, 3 didn't and it showed in the final table. How are you going to make that work in one big league? And are there enough riders to make everyone ride to a 40 point Championship limit? In one league, would GP riders like Jack Holder and Bewley etc sign up to ride against 2 point Championship riders?

I’m assuming the 8 point figure is due to the current number of CL teams being equal to the number of riders with an 8 point average. As such if there’s a change in the number of teams the average figure can change to match. Fine in principle. What would happen though if a rider doesn’t want to ride for whatever clubs are left available? Or can’t agree terms with that particular club? Or can’t ride for some clubs due to fixture clashes with foreign clubs? It’s conceivable that a club might not want any of the riders left available. What if a PL rider makes a late decision to double down because there aren’t enough PL fixtures anymore? Or if a signed CL rider changes their mind about riding at the last minute? The list goes on. Seems problematic to me, or is this all a lot easier than I’m imagining?

In 1983 (chosen at random) we had Cradley visit 3 times and Sheffield hosted Coventry 4 times. Multiple visits have gone on for years and are not the main reason for none attendance imo.

Can’t say I’m a massive fan of restricting team building beyond an overall limit but the one over 8 thing doesn’t really weaken the league or teams that much imo This year only 2 teams started with 2 8+ riders these being Berwick and Redcar. The name of the game has and always will be finding riders who can improve their average so restricting teams to 1 8+ rider doesn’t change that.

Joe Owen.......

As with life in general, everything comes down to money. The money that people running the sport should be chasing is that from people currently having no interest in the sport. This will come from sponsorship and the paying public. Whilst this is an obvious market, tapping into it continues to be the problem, as those of us following the sport all know. Like everyone else on this forum, I don't have the answers, but seeking revenue from these sources has to be ultimate priority for the sustainability of the sport. Decisions relating to one league or two, hanging on to GP level riders or not etc, should not really British Speedway's priority. The reality is if new people and their money can be drawn to the sport, they will not have a clue (or care) who the current top riders are and will judge speedway racing by what they see on the track. The closer and more competitive the racing therefore the better. The future and structure (what ever form it needs to take) of the sport therefore needs to take this into consideration.

Would like to see Jonus stay.

How are they going to be persuaded? With no tv money atm can't see it. 'Oh please move up and lose a ton of money and just be there to make up the numbers so we can have six teams..' As Simon Lambert has said on a podcast, why should the championship lose a team.

its not about opinions its about costs.

100% agree with you as I said no good/easy answers, personally I think the top league is done either now or within the next 3 years the championship is a much more sustainable business model particuarly when they can run on the best night for their business Plymouth being a rare success this year.

He certainly gave us couple of great seasons.Dick just about got a car out of it too.🤔😂Great days.

Are you sure about this where has this been said or quoted i have my doubts whether that is correct

The premiership are losing two teams so the Cheetahs have to move up.

Normally arrives either on a Thursday or a Friday for me. On the odd occasion and it can go into the following week, mainly on a Monday but that is down to Royal Mail’s unpredictability.

ll have you know bulbs grow in the ground 🙈

Seems he was signed on in Pedros, amazing what ya can get for a meal deal

I can see Kildemand pricing himself out of the Championship, unless he gets a doubling up spot

You’ve finished pruning them roses then Arthur54.

Or...."The future's bright, in the Blue and White..."😜 It sounds better when it rhymes.........😇

While I partly agree with you, look at what's happened in the Prem, possibly down to only 5 clubs & that's if Sheffield get a new owner. Truth is the top clubs need to help to weaker clubs to survive, or they'll have no-one to race against. If that means a 1 over 8.00 rule, so be it.

true maybe a change of scenery at a track he says he likes would benefit Lambert

As it stands though it's pretty clear that Lynn would be bottom of a 5 team league Perhaps this year they'll try building the team differently

Although I can see the rider who is 9th in the averages with a match to go having a couple of EFs in that match to get his average down to 10th.

I don’t get this narrative at all I’m sorry. I would absolutely have LOVED to see Hans Nielsen and Erik Gundersen visit Foxhall on a regular basis. All about opinions isn’t it? Me personally, would much MUCH prefer to see Kurtz and Bewley visit with Belle Vue several times a year, than watch the splendid “variety” of top tier talent like Tobias Thomsen, Jake Allen and Palovaara sparingly. The anticipation of seeing that array of talent that you don’t often see must be absolutely mouth watering. So jealous of the championship 😞

I would give Barker a miss next year

I realise there would be many pitfalls with one league but for me personally, I think it would be a breath of fresh air for the sport. Glasgow versus Belle Vue, Kings Lynn versus Edinburgh, Plymouth versus Sheffield etc. I know it probably isn't going to happen but as a BSN subscriber, I have looked forward to watching the Championship meetings much more this year than the top tier. The Championship seems to be more gritty with more committed riders. The recent matches between Poole and Glasgow and Poole and Redcar were great adverts for the sport and for excitement and entertainment value easily eclipsed any of this year's GP's. Finally an appeal to the guys in charge (and remember of the radical changes being mentioned), if there are to be two separate leagues then please do not run the Premiership with five teams only. It would surely sound the death knell, same teams/riders every other week and the playoffs would be a mockery. Let's hope they are going to spring one or two surprises and pull some major news and/or changes out of the proverbial hat!

You have picked another good team TTT but i think they will be a bit weak when away from home.

The trouble is when you remove the big hitters all the others move up and subsequently start asking for an increase due to riding at number one and this happens throughout the new team. They don’t get Emil money but they get more than they were worth as their value has increased overnight due to supply and demand. IMO it’s not 7 or 8 top stars that are bankrupting speedway (they bring crowds in), it’s the lower order riders asking for big bucks due to trying to emulate the GP lads with increased machinery costs, vans, mechanics and tuners. Pointing the finger at 15% of your product and blaming it is a misreading of the entire league set up and it’s associated costs.

I agree with you 100% , odd that some people on hear and some clubs think keeping Emil and Co in a 5 team league is more important than having one league of 14 championship level clubs.

Pleased for Redcar as they have worked so hard over the past few years to get where they are now, In contention to win trophy’s and they did that on all 3 fronts. With Riss and Jody in the KO and league things could have been different. Personally happy to lose a trophy to Redcar, but it’s only borrowed 😜they deserve this one. Man it hurts to lose but 5 out of 6 trophy’s isn’t bad in 2 years! A lot of clubs would take that in a heartbeat.

I keep seeing various fights at ice hockey matches, so I asked some ice hockey fans do the players get fined or get any form of ban if they fight and the reply was no it’s practically encouraged, although if you have too many fights you gets points and then get a match ban, so why do we take such a pussyfooted approach to any kind of handbags

https://www.swindon-needs-speedway.com/abbey-stadium-planning-applications

A roaring success? Given Mr Rogers' track record at Mildenhall, Newport, Coventry, Plymouth and Birmingham I am sure it will be! 🤪

And if its a roaring success it will be because of Mr Rogers?

I do have one gripe, changing the name to the Buxton bulls, I get they want to stamp their name on the venture but fans can be fickle, remember Reading changing from racers to bulldogs, some fans refused to support it, there is no point changing a name and upsetting a few, get everyone onside from the outset