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IMO Monday night Premiership racing is the worst decision ever made. Thursday is slightly better. Who wants to really go out on a Monday night especially parents with kids. And if you’re trying to attract a younger early 20s audience, generally they’ve spent out over the weekend. The majority of our meetings should be on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and if that means we have to lose the ‘stars’ then so be it, the sport is or needs to be bigger than any individual rider.

Both lads have jobs and do speedway with help of their amazing parents and friends, they ain’t full time riders they combine both like most of the NDL, it’s bloody hard work and I know that personally because we’re doing it, not one rider expects anything except a fair crack and believe me or not if we all said stuff it some people on the forums would be even more stuffed because they wouldn’t have a platform to tell us what they thought of our concerns for our sport

Got to disagree there regarding race nights. I only live 15min away from the afa or saddlebow road but I absolutely hate Monday race nights, especially when I'm normally home about 18.30 and very often out at 4.30 in the morning. It means I'm nackered Tuesday and that doesn't start the week off very well. At least with a Thursday race night there's only Friday at work to get through!

The difference is, you know what time it's going to start and finish, you know (unless there are freak circumstances) that it's going to be on when you get there and you know who the player are lining up for both teams.

By saying it’s a dreadful idea, you’re actually saying what we currently have is ok (ish). It isn’t, it is not viable. Great to have the GP stars but we need enough people to come through the turnstiles and enough sponsors to pay for them. It clearly doesn’t happen for 95% of the clubs and the 5% bet everything on getting to the Grand Final and getting five times their normal attendance to pay for the season and a bit of the following season. It is a crap business model. Monday is a rubbish night to watch Speedway, the diehards will come but attracting a new audience to come on a Monday night is nigh on impossible, if it was working we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Those who say yeah well football is played on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, well yes that’s true but it’s not every Tuesday or Wednesday and the majority of a clubs midweek games coincide with school holidays.

I agree with you, physical media and the real thing is always the best - put it this way, I wouldn't buy the digital version of the Speedway Star, but I will buy the physical copy. I am just trying to think of ways to make the sport easier to follow and understand for new and existing fans. If you could see all the scores, news, tables, rider profiles, etc in one space, it makes it easier to learn about the sport.

I would like to see each club have an app which would be identical in format. I would like the match day programme to be available and be able to compile my programme during the meeting digitally. maybe a couple of cameras fixed in each pit area so during breaks I can see the action in the pits rather than tractor racing. id like the presenter to interview team managers and riders during the meeting as normally over the pa you cannot hear properly. id like to vote for my rider of the night and maybe have competitions to enter. Guess the final score and two top scorers would win a pit tour the following week I’d like information during the week of future meetings and news. Promotions for app users this in my view would give my race day experience a much better value for money without the clubs spending a fortune.

This isn’t true, Max is still racing next season

Meanwhile... if true, there's riders in the PL on guarantees who don't care one jot about British Speedway. While Trigger and Perry may not have been the next Bartosz Zmarzlik they could well have been the next Simon Lambert's and without them the sport is dead.

I'd like to see Promoters and the sport as a whole introduce some more flexible ticketing options in the future. I have a Glamorgan membership for 8 days play+ a free ticket for a guest for 1 day & free entrance at other county grounds (When Glamorgan aren't playing). This encourages me and commits me to going. Next year is £100, based on current season prices it would be £120 on the day. I've failed to use it to it's full potential every season (Think i've typically done 6 days play, never used it anywhere else). So they probably make a small upside on me. I think with modern fans being more likely to pick and choose, more could be done to get people to go maybe not to a full season but to a significant part of it. And i think for fans who travel away. There's a lot of fans who have lost there team, who still go and typically travel around to different tracks. I think the sport could be doing so much more in this area.

And they say Ipswich buys the league 😂 Fair play to Thompson if that’s the case he has been awesome for us these last 3 years. Equally Louis stands his ground & won’t bust the budget so fair play to him too.

He literally said he’s looking for sponsors for 2026 yesterday evening, so what is this nonsense?

Personally think Perry and hodder at reserve makes perfect sense. Wouldn’t have such a weak number 2 though, but if both stayed at reserve all year they could both really kick on

I don't see it that way. When the SGP was at Cardiff, it was a special occasion. Even then though crowds were decreasing. Now we have two GPS in two days at the NSS. Smaller than Cardiff and doesn't hold as many people. Perhaps interest is waning in this Country. Perhaps we should return Speedway to it's roots. Do away with GPs and have a genuine Word Final, as was - a much more spectacular occasion. There is a reason folk are not attending, the powers that be have changed everything and people are voting with their feet.

It’s such a shame others don’t have that same attitude and drive. There’s a lot out there that will do the absolute bare minimum to get by each year. People don’t realise that Louis also paid out of his own pocket, for someone to go canvassing across local areas to every local business big and small, to garner any interest in sponsoring the club. That eventually bore fruit. People inaccurately claim Ipswich are “lucky” because they have a “rich” sponsor who does all the leg work but that simply isn’t true. It’s the hard work of Chris Louis bringing in several partner sponsors, along with the title sponsor, that enables the club to be run efficiently. The consistently healthy crowds (by today’s standards) also obviously help. They’re all contributing factors combined.

Much bigger crowds in the Boyce, Rosco, Schofield, Langdon, Allan days!! ( The old National League too!!)

Think a lot of the lesser riders, and some bigger ones ( like josh Pickering) are now giving Poland a wide berth due to several cases of non payments. Several polish clubs are in deep financial doo doo

I would like to see each club have an app which would be identical in format. I believe the app is setup for this and the developer has reached out to all of the UK clubs individually for their consideration. I would like the match day programme to be available and be able to compile my programme during the meeting digitally. Even better imo, this app does the filling in for you in fantastic speed and accuracy. maybe a couple of cameras fixed in each pit area so during breaks I can see the action in the pits rather than tractor racing. Most clubs now offer live streams, where this footage is covered. The streams bring in a much needed positive additional income arm for those clubs. id like to vote for my rider of the night and maybe have competitions to enter. Guess the final score and two top scorers would win a pit tour the following week As the app has only recently gone live, and many great additions already been implemented, these ideas are most welcome and will be carefully considered. I’d like information during the week of future meetings and news. Promotions for app users The app has a fully up to date news section, taken from both the official clubs Facebook feed and from it's website which has all of that information. this in my view would give my race day experience a much better value for money without the clubs spending a fortune. The only thing I personally would add as a comment is whilst you would want to limit the amount of spending out on these ideas, some ideas have the potential to take away much needed revenue that the club is already bringing in from other areas providing these ideas.

I’m afraid I can’t agree with you on once the Prem goes the Champ goes with it.

Has it not occurred to you that the life of the owner of Glasgow might not be reliant on speedway and if push comes to shove, he will just say I’m out of here. How would that sit with British speedway? You cannot hold a club owner to ransom relying on their passion for a sport where the most successful clubs do well to break even.

It’s not the first time he’s done it. He’ll be back….unfortunately. A bigger attention seeker than Phil Morris and Vinnie Foord’s family combined.

There’s the rub. Plenty of people know about the sport including many speedway fans and they cannot be bothered to come out and watch aside from BH or big ticket events. We need to change the racenight experience to increase interest. I’m a lapsed speedway nut with another track less than 30 miles away as the crow flies. I use to visit this track every meeting as they were my second division track. I stopped going as I got fed up with the entertainment on offer and the journey plus admission didn’t feel worth it. This thinking then gravitated over to Aces away meetings with my final one being mid 2022. The thing is if the sport cannot appeal to a speedway nut previously happy to take in 100plus meetings a season anymore, apart from a few at the NSS what chance has the current product got of attracting and KEEPING new customers?

If you say so haha.

I wouldn’t worry about that situation

now and again lol

I still say Bewley @ No.1. I think the One Rider Over 8.00 Rule will come into play in the PREM as well to ensure that Northampton are competitive.

Pollestad - top talent.

100% correct. There are many hard yards to success, off the track.

Going on averages, Lions would lose the best No.1 in the league and be left with the worst (no disrespect to Dougy) going by the rumours of a five team league. This is of course assuming that each of the other teams (except Lynn) will be able to retain a current big hitter. Still too many unknowns at the moment.

I don't see any adverts... do you use an ad blocker?

Boughen has sold all his speedway equipment apparently, can't see him making a return to the sport

Agreed, but I was referring solely to its implementation in British Speedway.

To be honest I’ve never totally understood the argument about weekend racing being the answer. If the overall product was decent & people wanted to see it live race night to a certain point doesn’t make any difference. League football outside the premiership runs on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. My experience of that is the place is full of kids watching and the game doesn’t finish until at least 9:30. Also Ipswich seem to attract plenty of youngsters on Thursday. Race nights, GPs Poland etc etc have all been blamed for British speedways problems . GPs & Poland were not an issue 40 years ago when the the problems began to take hold. Make the sport something that people can buy into & want to attend.

Lots of good stuff in here and all stuff that could be linked in one main British speedway app. Thanks for the ideas.

Does this signal a move to the Premiership? Just saying

1. King 8.59 2. Tobias Thomsen 4.81 3. Ben Barker 6.12 4. Joe Thompson 5.87 5. Scott Nicholls 7.88 6. Daniel Klima 4.00 7. Darryl Ritchings 2.29 = 39.56 That's a good team right there.

Award collected by Middlo and Will Cairns.

Max Perry is not retiring. At least not according to his Facebook message today. Max Perry Racing.

Perry isn't retiring. His racing page on Facebook half hour ago put a post out looking for sponsors and looking forward to next season

Would have walked if he could have found a buyer pitgate

They are not going to make them rebuild it unfortunately. A big fine for the already bankrupt city council would serve the corrupt councillors right.

Halcyon days indeed Gulf, Daily Mirror and the amount of money poured in by Sunbrite in the 80's

That's 3 definitely signed already then with Rowe & Cairns already signed prior to 2025 season started on 2 year deals as informed by Danny Ford when he signed both. Also on Beau Bailey I see he announced he has signed in POL for 2026 for GKM Grudiadz in POL EXL as their U21 foreign rider plus also in their U24 team. That's some Tuesdays tied up for certain but no different to Cairns who did 8 matches for Z.Gora after he turned 16 end of June. Of course Bailey needs to qualify from one of the several State Champs or from Aussie U21 or Aussie main Champ to ride UK.

Harrison (4.97) replacing Grahn would allow a stronger number 6. I would expect Sedgmen to be first choice ahead of Palovaara for number 5

Caveat that win with Dan Thompson crashing out of that meeting, and in the final Joe Thompson was unlucky that both Hagon and Harrison were on his back wheel right from the start. He did well to hang on to first as long as he did given he was riding defensively to block 2 riders. Had only 1 of the 2 been on his back wheel then I think Joe would have won. That being said, sometimes a change of scenery works wonders for a rider. And Hagon spent most of last year as a second string, but in that line up he's a reserve which could make a difference. Most British riders develop slightly later in their career so there is still time for Hagon to become a top rider. However in 2 visits to Ashfield with Berwick last year Hagon got 3 from 3 rides and 0 from 3 rides. I'm not sure those performances will convince Tigers to go for him

Exactly. If the Russians dropped a bomb on Poland this winter and wiped-out the whole country's tracks, it would benefit British Speedway, but It's not going to happen any more than the SGP are going to cancel all the GPs. Like you say, this thread is just garbage,

Seems the demolition of Perry Barr stadium is being investigated because it didn’t have permission to knock it down

Speaking as a former sponsor rider's start off grateful end up demanding , maybe just my bad luck but it happened almost everytime

Landlords will want the same money for the year, so less meetings means the rent for each one will be higher. Fanbase will be smaller because people will get out of the habit of going if they're less frequent. Can't make one as you're on holiday and the next one is not for a month it's easy to think oh well I won't bother as you've probably found an alternative routine/thing to do.

Everybody is welcome to their own views and to be fair it seems pretty much 50/50 from contributors on here about the way forward. Personally, I struggle to understand how removing the GP/top/expensive riders and equally sharing out the remainder will attract more spectators. The cost argument holds more water. The quality would be Championship + at best. I can only speak from personal experience, which is that the crowd numbers at Foxhall in the Doyle/Sayfutdinov era have been substantially higher than the Championship days and even the early Premiership days pre their signing. Of course, you can get some good races between any riders but give me a Heat 13/15 involving Doyle, Sayfutdinov, Bewley and Kurtz any day over one involving lesser quality riders.