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The riders can ask for more money but they most likely won't get it... They will then have four options... Give up speedway and get another job.. Keep riding and get more sponsors.. Keep riding and ride in other countries.. Get a job alongside riding Speedway.. I would suggest giving up Speedway would be very much the last option for the vast majority.. There clearly isn't any "best option" for the sport given the state it has been allowed to end up in, just the "least worst"... Having a top league of so few teams won't engage too many to keep turning up In reality, what do they have to offer? At least a six figure increase in costs? Restricted race nights which most likely will actually reduce crowd levels given the change of nights? An increase in admission fees for the fans to pay the higher costs?.. A chance to put an uncompetitive team together as other teams have already sewn up the most wanted "top riders"... "Top riders" who, after any novelty wears off, won't make much of a difference (if any), to the crowd numbers anyway.... Not exactly a "winning formula" is it? There is a perfect example of which level is more suitable for the current UK issues... Oxford.. They had plenty of World Class riders in attendance last season. but have decided to drop the top tier and keep their second tier position...

And be 100% correct to do so..? A business is only successful when you meet what your customers want.... And isn't, when you don't listen to them and ride rough shod over their wishes... A sport is only successful when built on crowd sizes and atmosphere... So run it when the most people want to be there..

I suggested on here, (what seems a lifetime ago now), that the BSB model was "perfect" for UK Speedway.. I think It was around the time that Poland basically "took over".. I worked with Cadbury at the time, promoting their products in my stores, and got free passes to Oulton Park to watch the BSB and could see how professional and slick it was ran.. Shane Byrne and Leon Haslam were among the main men at the time and both went on to "bigger things" but left with the blessing of the BSB as they "knew their place" in the hierarchy of motorbike racing.. And ensured that they had plenty of "Shane Byrne's and Leon Haslam's" lined up to replace them... With both having good careers elsewhere before coming back to end their careers with the BSB... The UK promoters need to accept their place in the hierarchy and stop wasting "huge" resources for such a small sport, paying out up to £5k a night to a "World Star" and instead pay a grand a night to five young UK lads who just may come through and progress to a level on the World Stage, and then ensure they have another five to replace them when they move on... They "brought back" "World Stars" to "Bring the crowds back", without, (as far as I can see and know), any market research at all as to why crowds had dropped... And, once again, used a large chunk of TV money to do it... And all to deliver the current situation.. Truly. Incredible...

I'm confused. You state that the Premiership isn't a failure, then list lots of failures. Essentially all are that clubs cannot afford to run in the Premiership. The other big issue is that the top teams won't share out the top riders and never have so no one wants to risk bankruptcy to be the new whipping boys. What the Championship have done for 2026 in helping the weaker teams should have been done in the Premiership at least a year ago (and probably before that). Your only proposed solutions to date are to force another team to join the failing Premiership against their will.

At the end of the day, whatever options are decided, they have to be affordable for all clubs - and fans! Unfortunately not all Clubs have the same cost base - some own their own Stadia, some rent from supportive landlords, some rent from reluctant stadium owners. Some (a few) have supportive corporate main sponsors, many do not! Clubs must be allowed to operate at their preferred level (financially) otherwise more Clubs will be lost. To be 'forced' into one league or another just to suit the few would be wrong imo. If every club operated from the same costbase it might be different, but they don't and it isn't!

Sorry but i think rather than moan we should be thankful. If ticket prices and Hotels prices are sensibly priced both night’s will sell out and provide superb entertainment.

Don't disagree with any of that Mike I'm really assuming that Peterborough and Wolves would have kept the basis of the riders they had from memory poles and russians who rode for Lynn and Peterborough 3-4 seasons back. I agree Championship is the UK's level now , if the top league survives for 2-3 years I would be trying to get a championship style top league of maybe 12 teams and start scouring the globe for young aussies and young yanks (if there are any) who would be committed to UK racing. I still think the biggest success story of last 12 months is Plymouth who are trying to do everything they can righ, running on best night for fans and it looks like they are trying to build a team of mainly UK based riders so barring injury you should see the same 1-7 at most home meetings.

Absolutely agree with you. There's no point in any club having a presence at this collectors' fayre. I'm in no way knocking the show. Quite the opposite. It's a great idea, lovingly organised at huge time and energy by some ultra-devoted fans. If you want to pick up that missing 1969 Nelson v Crayford programme, or buy a vintage "Happiness is 40-38" badge to sew on your anorak, then it's perfect. I love the history of the sport, and I fully recommend taking the grandkids to see a restored 1930s Rudge, or the leathers Ole Olsen wore in the 1972 World Final. But it has no value to a 2026 speedway promoter. The audience are speedway fans, and highly-devoted fans who know everything about the sport already. There will be zero members of the general public paying £10 to go into a Speedway collectors' fayre. So no potential new punters to sell the sport to. If it were a motorcycle show in general, with a chance to reach out to others from different bikesport disciplines,or some kind of Business expo with a chance to network with potential new sponsors, it might have some value. But it isn't. So enjoy the show if you go, but don't think it's a place for clubs to promote their businesses. It isn't.

Only in British Speedway would having a truly professional outlook, the best sponsors, the largest crowds and access to the world's very best riders be considered as having nothing to offer!!

"Big League Clubs"....??? There in those three words is the issue.... There simply isn't a "Big League"... Hardly anyone cares.... If every track rode one home meeting in the same week last year in "The Big League", there would barely be 10,000 there collectively watching all the meetings... It is finished... Not enough fans will pay circa £25 a pop to watch it...

No! No! No!.... Danny must stop being so selfish and "move up".. (If indeed that is an accurate description)... Father Christmas, The Tooth Fairy, and The Easter Bunny will cover his losses...

Their fans dont want Monday or Thursday Speedway... Simple as... Maybe Ipswich and fhe other Prem teams could ride Wednesdays? Just dont sign any Danes... The top tier is finished at the level it wants to run at... It simply does not work to deliver enough teams in its current guise...

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But where would the 21 riders needed have come from for those teams? Add Coventry and Birmingham and that would be 35 needed... The 2nd tier currently is the "perfect" model for UK Speedway... Like the BSB in Bike Racing... Lots of UK "old heads", who are either "BSB lifers", or riders who have had careers at a higher level and are now happy to just ride in a competitive environment... Some overseas riders wanting to progress up the bike racing level, and plenty of UK young riders wanting to do the same.. With several lower level championships to encourage a pathway for those needed to replace those who retire or organically move upwards into other higher level competitions.. What the BSB never did was to think they were anywhere near on a par with WSB or the MotoGp... And, certainly didn't need their "permission" on when to run their meetings... UK should have ploughed its own furrow when the GP riders pretty much all cleared off after taking the Sky money... Or even when Poland started to take over and impacted directly how the UK should run its own operating and business model.. Or even, even, Post Covid.... Maybe it is finally sinking in that they seem to have at least one league "that can work", and just run on the nights that you get your best crowds... I notice the BSB don't run on Mondays (unless a BH), or on a Thursday.... Missing a trick there aren't they?

The novelty value wore off with Cardiff. It was originally a showpiece event, it just became the same thing year on year. Particularly off the track. It’s an overexposure issue, similar to what we get in league Speedway now with the same riders having multiple teams and multiple meetings against the same opponents making up the calendar. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. People miss things when they’re not constantly there, they take them for granted when they are.

I rest my case, this is a sport like F1, football, rugby it’s played out in the public sector and decision or lack of them are discussed. I’m sure people wouldn’t give 2 hoots about my company’s agm but happy to help, or other private owned companies. We are talking about a sport that has an AGM every second week of November and that hasn’t happened with no update. Fail to plan, plan to fail comes to mind. Forward planning is massively important in any business, but time and again British speedway lets its self down.

Sounds like they must seriously have thought that TNT would renew, the writing was on the wall as soon as Eurosport was amalgamated within TNT, they'd already elected to not renew previously. At that point plans for the 2026 should have been made, at least a contingency plan to run with no TV contract.

British speedway currently isn’t even preaching to the converted, it’s preaching to nobody at all, last month I went to the Stafford motorcycle show, thousands of motorbike fans over 2 days, there was one Indian guy selling curtains and another selling mobile phones, now it’s about £350 for a stall there, did they sell a curtain or a mobile phone case ? Probably not but they are out there trying and it was just 2 stalls out of place but it was 2 more stalls than the whole of speedway had, we and I mean collectively and that includes every club have got to push our sport at every opportunity and every event possible, even if it’s preaching to the converted or even outside of our comfort zone, this is not a brag but with the different shows I’ve done I’ve done more to promote speedway than British speedway itself

It could if you stop the tail wagging the dog. Riders who want to double up can ride in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. If you had one league of five rider clubs with two home and two away meetings surely that would see riders pay broadly unchanged. That may also ensure that the youngsters come up through the ranks getting second half rides. Where do today’s supporters think riders came from in yesteryears. They came from the second halves, eventually rode at 6 and 7 in the second division, then the main team then progressed to the top division. Without that support at the lowest level, the pipeline of riders dries up and the sport is dead in the water. The talent is out there it just needs nurturing and that includes backing from each and every supporter.

As it doesn't revolve around Mondays and Thursdays...

Two teams moving up will be like two Turkeys voting for Christmas...

Plymouth truly is a "blueprint" to follow... As is Poole who used to have Jack Holder and Brady Kurtz riding for them... With the crowd levels today, I would suggest, not any different (and maybe even more), than when those excellent riders rode for them... Now. It would mean many, many thousands of pounds to pay them for the home and away meetings... With their fans paying, at least, a fiver more to watch them... You can also add Glasgow... Riding on their "best night" with a promotional idea that let's people try/go back to Speedway, for a few times free of charge, and then, hopefully, getting engaged, either for the first time, or once again.. There is a "sweet spot" for the sport that can see it grow... They just need to use it more...

100%.... I stopped attending regularly about five years ago as by Monday I had watched so much Speedway on TV over weekend!!! I can see GP riders riding Friday, Saturday and Sunday if a GP weekend... Dozens of times a season... Therefore, when they appear over here "in the flesh" then the "wow factor" simply doesn't exist... BZ will 100% get me to the two GP's at the NSS as he doesn't appear over here too often.. In the halcyon days of the sport, the likes of PC, Ivan Mauger, Ole Olsen, Anders Michanek, etc etc may only appear once or twice at your track, hence they pulled in a crowd of several hundred more than average... Nowadays that "mystique" doesn't exist...

Your were absolutely right with your prediction..... it was indeed "garbage" Hope you continue to have fun in your make believe world.

So ! We would love to hear again from you following today’s announcement of 10 rounds. Hopefully you will agree that my post on November 6th was spot on.

Don't know why you are infatuated about Poole and Glasgow.You seem to think because they are successful they should move up and probably lose money.No mention of any other Clubs. Fans at Championship Clubs know their Clubs are just surviving in the Championship.Tells us all the incentives for Championship Clubs moving up apart from saving Premiership. The Leagues should have been merged years ago.Perhaps sharing money was the problem. iMO

Complete farce, don't care about keeping fans updated. No wonder it's a dying sport in this country. Odd though that Scunthorpe, Plymouth and Poole have made major signings, so they must know something

The Speedway Show is happening this coming Saturday 15th November 2025, more information here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550576383947 The consortium aiming to preserve Speedway in Peterborough in a joint initiative with the Peterborough Panthers Supporters Club have a stall at the event and we will be delighted to welcome members from the BSF for a chat and to ask us anything about our campaign and its progress. As an added attraction, we have some items on display that will very much not only interest supporters of Peterborough, but also specifically, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Reading and Swindon. We look forward to meeting as many Speedway Supporters as possible, irrespective of which team you support.

Essentially as of course with the haves and have nots. British Speedway simply doesn't have enough people to participate in it, and whilst the powers that be have turned a blind eye. The chickens have now come home to roost. As I see it the only way ahead IS 1 league and blood the youngsters (wherever they are from). Otherwise those that propose that a top league is a must may not have anything to support next season.

Far too expensive. They need to start nicking sachets from hotel rooms together with the sugars, tea bags and the occasional hot chocolate for those special and memorable decision days. They could also take the biscuits.😂

Maybe they could but without the others Chris Louis is as unsuccessful as the rest, we need to flourish as a sport not one or two, I was in Manchester at the weekend for a gig and in the town center there is a sports memorabilia shop and they had everything from football to F1, bet you can’t guess what they didn't have ?

I agree... Using riders, and paying them circa six figures, who can earn £400/500k in Poland, is nothing more than an ego trip for promoters in my opinion... And adds pretty much zero to the attendances at tracks, zero to wider media coverage, and zero to public awareness... The bottom line is ... Millions have been spent to regress .. When will the coffee be smelt?

The thing is,(as many others have pointed out), there will be no one there to promote the club to. It's an enthusiasts collectors fair, and a bloody good one. But no member of the general public is going to pay £10 to go and look at old speedway programmes, books and leathers. It's entirely for existing speedway fans, and very devoted ones at that! There will be no one there who has never been to speedway, and no one who doesn't know of the existence of Workington Comets. In fact, I'd wager that the vast majority will have been to Workington as, like me, they are the kind of people who set out to visit every track in the country, and will have had Derwent Park and Northside ticked off their list already. Preaching to the converted in November is neither "thinking out of the box" nor "promoting the club". Just go along and enjoy the nostalgia and the lovingly crafted collections.

it should revolve around whatever day best suits the club and its customer base. Many on here are advocating that clubs should do this or that for the good of the sport as a whole but in fairness it is not their money being put on the line. I certainly do not agree with many things those in charge do and those who are the custodians of the sport have brought it to where some clubs find themselves now, but until you have an independent body running the sport including central rider contracts and riders payments coming from the governing body (funded by contributions from each club) so as to get rider costs under control and get some stability to that element of the financial side the sport is going to continue to be unmanageable and will eventually price itself out of business. Speedway U K needs to get a grip and reinvent itself and stop staggering from one annual crisis to the next. One final point slightly off the subject but the speedway website still shows TNT as broadcast partners.

I understand the frustrations that clubs are not falling over each other to smash down the door to get a premium pitch at this show. But in all honesty it's not really about the clubs, It's aimed at the supporters & collectors & gives a chance for those that have collections of club based items that are not normally seen outside their own homes to be shown off. I have been the last two years & will attend again tomorrow, it's amazing to see what has been put together over many years from clubs all over the country by dedicated people that should be applauded for their efforts to put their collections together & allow others to enjoy them on one Saturday of the year. This is not about the BSPL, SCB or FIM it's about us, the regular folk that just enjoy speedway & everything that goes with it

That's the thing PL clubs have no assets, unless you count the tractors... and I can't see anybody wanting Ippo's tractor, the flashing light doesn't even work 😉😂

which is? it definitely isnt forcing two teams up for a start...

I cannot see the point of individual clubs attending such a show. Even if they were given the space they would still incur costs putting together banners, dressing the space etc. Then who do you get to staff the stand? The Owner, Promoter, Team Manager, Riders or volunteers? I would rather clubs focus on well coded social media posts aimed at potential new spectators. O know of one club that ran a small Facebook campaign aimed at men aged 25-40 in specific locations who were members of non speedway motor bike interest groups. This would appear a better use of any marketing money.

So you haven’t got an answer then, and your answer is nonsensical . I have actually been to the show and very good it was but I can fully understand why the majority of clubs don’t officially attend as it makes no commercial sense. Why would they attend ?…..come on, your the one demanding they attend , why ?

Well now we know the AGM, is NEXT YEAR.There must be a massive problems with the Premiership that they need to wait until January to sort this mess out. Championship teams seems to know what they want and riders they want ,but we have to wait on the Prem Promoters to finalise any discussions on the table. Are they considering NORTHAMPTON , If they can sort out the Stadium,Accessabilty and Funding for the Air Fence etc I believe that Peterborough will be running in 2027, thats if we ever have enough teams in 2027 Will Mildenhall and Buxton be in the league in the near future ??? Why dont the Promoters just come out and say we have a problem, and let the fans know that the hell is going on. and then we can understand why we are waiting until January.

Excellent post Mike,(will be ordering bsb tickets next wk for 2026) BSB is a fantastic model of how to run a motorbike championship,with no "superstars "the very top riders will race in this country once a year in a wsb or motogp round,but the crowds at every bsb are fantastic,pay £47 for 3day weekend ticket

You should get a job at the bspl with that train of thinking 🙃

The points and observations you make are good ones re concerns with the formation of one league My feedback for what its worth. - One league will indeed throw up serious issues and nobody should hold the view that currently anything is Rosy in UK speedway - There would be no Championship or Premier leagues as we know them - only a new league. - All agreements previously made i.e. one rider over eight points and riders signed for 2026 will be null and void - There would not be fourteen teams. Only a maximum of nine, as doubling up not being possible sees to that. - There could be a feeder/development league - semi pro/ amateur basis. - Some existing promoters are devoid of a willingness to agree to a way forward (blocking) that is best for the medium and longer term development of the sport because their short term situation is for them OK. All we can hope for is that the blockers see sense and a way forward can be found.

Apart from Torun & Warsaw, every track has a double header. Only Belle Vue hosting 2 GPs, others hosting SGP2, SGP3, SGP4, SON2 or SWC meetings. Fans wanting a weekend of racing have plenty of options. SWC qualifiers & SON2 on GP weekends will probably help the organisers make money / lose less money than this year.

Can't believe none of you remember the absolute awful tracks which were presented at world finals in the 70s and 80s. Wembley was never good but didn't stop the crowds did it. Need to look elsewhere for reasons for the decline in fan numbers and you mention some of the things here.

Łódź was indeed a nice surprise! Hopefully there will be decent Ekstraliga fixtures nearby on the Friday & Saturday. Łódź is fairly northern I think... I'll have a look on maps later.

This is the only way forward, as you say the premier clubs have nothing to offer

Will have to go to Łódź GP, one track I’ve never been and will go to Toruń again as I’ve not been since 2019 but the rest I will watch on tv, ticket prices will be interesting now it’s been took over by a new company and so has the ticket distribution service

Big weekends in Landshut and Riga with SWC semi’s on the Friday and GP on the Saturday. 5 Sprint races again in 2026 at Manchester( Friday) Wroclaw, Lodz , Vojens and Torun.- they were so successful in 2025 they have been retained !!

It's an absolute disgrace and shows the regard the BSPA (Clubs) have for their fans and complete lack of respect. Speedway star announced it was obviously 12th November then changed to the 6th of January via the speedway star. Nothing on the official BSPA website, which is poor and before the goody lot start coming back with 'its delicate and confidential' and that's why nothing can be said. Come on! they don't need to give details just give the supporters some basic information instead of radio silent and hope! Lets face it, Oxford and Birmingham didn't close yesterday! We have known since August (promoters knew longer than that) have they sat around for 8 weeks hoping someone will wave a magic wand and hope everything will be sorted, get real! It's a poor show and the fans deserve better.