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i think running on a night that suits the fans not the riders has been a big driver of their success.

https://ipswichwitches.co/louis-thanks-departing-sayfutdinov/ Really nice words. And interesting about him being “alienated” in some quarters for bringing him in because of the war.

At the football last night seeing how the crowd applauded both witches and Fabio just shows how this town backs its own. Not to blow smoke up our own but what other town / city does it like Ipswich? You can say Manchester has the better football teams for sure… but Ipswich town / witches / Fabio and even Edd really does back the town and brings you to feel proud of being from Ipswich which hasn’t been the case in so many previous decades. People from Ipswich should be so proud of the entire success of Ipswich.

Think they're hoping a chunk of Oxford fans will turn up to see Premiership Speedway. It's so risky though and I'm surprised it's even being considerd tbh.

Rents won't come down though, neither will the riders costs of those who do get a team place, (of all levels)... And if no TV deal, it will remove a huge amount from the budget..... Even "staying the same" might just be a pipe dream.. Which isn't going to help move the sport forward in anyway, shape or form, is it? The hole they have dug for themselves over the last two decades is certainly a very deep one to climb out of... Unfortunately those who sleep walked themselves into it, are also, in the main, the same ones trying to get themselves out of it...

There is no chance they will be reduced.IMO

if prices stay the same it'll be far too much

I should hope that it is well publicised with the attendees! I just don't see what's the harm in letting fans know when it is, or when the outcomes will/might be known. What is decided at the conference impacts on everything for next season, even if the only outcome of a conference was 'everything is the same as agreed last year' would be newsworthy given that would be a first. I'm not asking for an invite or a live broadcast of the discussions, my point was that finding out the conference outcomes is of interest to many fans, I don't see the harm in telling fans when to expect an update. Plymouth announced yesterday that they will announce another signing on Friday. Scunthorpe announced in advance that they would be making an announcement (the signing of Pickering). It is not unusual these days for sports clubs to tell fans when news will be released. What would be your problem with saying the conference is on this date, we will let our fans know the outcomes that night, shortly thereafter, the next night or whatever timescale that you went to set?

The thing is... If someone is "OK" at spending a quarter of a million to keep a Speedway team going... They would do the sport far more good by just putting that amount up as prize money... Many come on here saying "sponsors pay for the No1's" when someone mentions the cost of them and that the gate revenue wouldn't support their inclusion... Again, these "wealthy sponsors", putting in high five figure numbers, at individual tracks, would raise the sports profile NATIONALLY far more by using this money to make a "huge" prize pot, than any individual rider would raise it by riding for any team... Literally MILLIONS has been pumped into the sport by TV, Sponsors, admission money and the deep pockets of the owners.... And the return on such a huge investment is what we have today... A strange "insular" use of an enormous resource pool that could have got some traction if used more broadly for increasing the sports awareness amongst the wider UK public...

I can't see the logic in running a prem team at an existing club under a different name, it just strikes me as more desperation to get the numbers up in the top league, I just hope whoever is taking this on has uber deep pockets as sadly I fear they are going to need bucket loads of cash to burn, would love to be proved wrong and its a success.

facts them though unlike yours

I can’t stand the miserable sod. Got a face like a slapped arse

Spot on. “Tomorrow’s a school day” by and large an excuse.

know the facts you t0ss3r

The more kids involved the better the crowd will be, give them something to want to go for....and it makes me laugh when i read"but its a school day tomorrow" but will quite happily take them to football which can finish past 10pm

Attending sporting fixtures is way different to going to a pub. This past Monday 41476 turned out to watch Sunderland v Everton. On a smaller scale 2820 turned out to watch Tamworth. And a good number of the people who went were kids with at least one parent - even though next day was a school day. Make Speedway interesting, consistent, worthwhile & known about and folk will come.

I'm pretty sure Monday's and Thursday's were introduced to allow riders to double up and not to attract the star riders... as proven by their absences throughout the season. You only have to go into a boozer in town on a Monday night to see how dead the place is.

Top man Chris Louis. Used to love watching his dad take on my beloved Bradford in the 70s and then support him for Halifax alongside Kenny and Doug etc

“Generally quite negative” That’s the understatement of the year!

Way back there was always a table near starting gate with a phone on it - a link to contact the referee. And on a regular basis, following something happening in a race, an upset rider (often plus promoter)would march angrily from the pits to use the phone to vent this anger. The crowds loved this and added to the call for a refs action - although a ref never changed his decision. But it made the crowd more involved in racing action. I presume though it was stopped because referees were given too much grief? So as you say nowadays everyone seems too nice, but it was fun while it lasted for sure.

Can you join border force - that's a better effort than the current lot

If that’s what’s being considered it just shows how much trouble the so called Premiership is in.Desperate times for the sport.If that’s their answer to keeping a failing League. Cant possibly see how that will be viable.

Thumbs up to the Comets management 😄 just been in town and the local electronic advertising board at bottom of Ramsey brow, main entrance into the town, has a message for all to see. Thank you to all supporters and sponsors for supporting us 2025 season

Something that never gets mentioned about Poland and their huge pay structure is riders can also get huge fines/deductions from the clubs for sometimes the most innocuous reasons like mechanic wearing wrong team shirt at a match or not displaying PGE extraleague sticker on back door of van or whatever but one thing it does do is get 100% dedication from the riders, it gets discipline and as a result you get a product that has credibility

and that’s WRONG as they changed to Monday and THURSDAY as Poland took up a tv contract to show live matches, but what’s in another inaccurate speedway press release.😊

Just like the crap you put on another thread about plymouths main sponsor There is always 1

Spot on. “Tomorrow’s a school day” by and large an excuse.

I would take batch back for another season at worky, especially on around a 7 average, would be a good 2nd heat leader if we get an out and out number 1 .

The worrying thing about clubs already signing riders is that we surely have to assume we are going to be served up more of the same unfortunately.

Was Batch situation a case of nearly no other options as from memory thought most teams were already signed up when he was announced. Nobody wanted him in Prem so it was Worky or sell the bikes ?? Incredible really for a guy who was once a Grand Prix Rider who rode in 28 GP's. He is getting on but was only 38 in August so still has a few years left in him.

Really sorry SteelShoe. I did not mean to depress you, but that is the way I see it, I'm afraid.

Bring back proper race jackets, same as in the 50's, 60's and 70's. They looked good and made for a far better look than the flashy boring suits they wear today. As Marko says, "they all look the same". They have removed all sense of individuality from Speedway. Sad, I think, as that was part of the attraction of the Sport.

Pretty much, including appearances from the likes of Sam Hagon. As far as past seasons go there has been no impediment to entering more than one state. I think one year a Tasmanian Championship was held [in Victoria] purely to manufacture work permit places.

More than they did last year no doubt.

How much will fans have to pay for a watered down Premiership is the question.?

Seems like the last desperate throw of the dice

The promise that if they attended that they didn't have to sit next to Ouch all night

Unfortunately without the tv money we can’t even carry on as we were

This is were Speedway will (and always has done) fall down. How to maintain that engagement at live meetings? You're trying to attract the next generation which have the attention spans of a fish. For a newbie, going to a live meeting today, 2½ hours for about 40mins of entertainment, if you're in to practice starts & laps of honour. Otherwise, it's 15mins of entertainment. For that privilege, it cost £25. Also, the quality of the Stadia in the UK, for any middle/upper class citizen its horrific. The truth is, British Speedway is lower class trying to sell itself to the affluent. This is were it's not working. 100%, the attendances would be far higher if it was £10/15 with an Offy, a Vape Shop & a Turkish barbers selling class A's. The sport would be as big as football then 🤣

.

Bluey Scott, Charlie Monk, Nils Paulsen, Trevor Redmond, Bruce Ovenden, Willie Templeton & Graham Coombes. Maury Mattingley on bike, Two Aussies, Two Kiwis (3 if you count Trevor), One Norwegian, One Englishman and a Scot. Not many 2.5% reductions there......

Greed and a lack of both discipline and vision have got the sport when it is,unfortunately the sport is in a downward spiral and all decisions taken these days are reactive and not proactive and the deeper you dig into the sport the more you realise that downward spiral is of our own doing as much as we like to blame outside influence

Dont know where this Boughen talk comes from, there is more chance of me riding for Poole!!

That's not giving an example, that's just giving an opinion. I was more looking for you to say 'Rider X was a promising youngster but he ended up quitting because he got too big and wasn't competitive' I'm genuinely not convinced that introducing a combined weight limit would bring more riders in. I'm open to you convincing me otherwise, but this sport has a lot of problems and this (if it even is one) belongs far down the list of problems. More venues, lower costs, greater awareness... these are all things to be tackled before bringing weight limits in.

I’m absolutely on board with this. I know nothing about the lad but for his name alone I’m all in.

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! 🤣