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As in a patchwork quilt of different racesuits with race jackets? Would be a massive backward step IMO.

There’s a Facebook page now for Northampton foxes speedway team

Down in Plymouth at the start of 2025, they forged a partnership with Marjon University in Plymouth, and that has grown in 2026. Many students are now a part of the club's media team and have lots of hands on experience working in many different areas at the club.

Any chance you can tell us how Northampton's first season went?

A nasty surprise.

Good for him. He take flak on here but I think he's a great commentator & enjoyable to listen to, better than a monotone nerd/dullard🙂

And so cheap to do as well.... So many platforms to put it on also... That's another area where an independent leadership model would help, as such things should become compulsory to do.... I am sure every track would have a local college or university doing media and marketing courses that would jump at the chance of giving students a chance at such "work experience"... The populace doesnt have time now for watching hours of programmes, yet can be hugely engaged to watch 15 mins or so of "content".... Speedway enthusiasts will be happy to sit there for two hours lapping up every comment and interview, but it isn't them that needs targeting, as they already attend meetings... It's the 79,980,000 who don't attend each week who need to be engaged... (What an opportunity though!)...

Surely ‘Foxes’ is heavily associated with Leicester and Leicestershire???

If you like a trier with plenty of bottle, Luke Killeen fits the bill perfectly.

That's a week away and the BBC forecast is usually pessimistic.

I’ve now had chance to listen to the chat with FB with his explanations. It was good that he had an opportunity to put his point of view. I guess we’ll never really know one way or the other who was right and wrong. Thought he seemed quite an intense character. Think the Poole management will need to work closely with him to maximise his potential however being uk based should help. As with every Pirates rider, if they don’t fulfil their allocated role, Matt won’t hesitate to take action - even more so now that he’s back on the scene full time.

Could well be the main challenger to Bartosz this season.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02362212/filing-history Updated today.

79,980,032......

And growing by the day! 🙄 But.......that's another discussion! 😉

It was first suggested on here about ten years ago to link with the local uni's and colleges... Given (UK) Speedway's continued lack of investment in marketing it was seen as a potential perfect solution at that time to get tracks noticed and get "younger" people involved, but without the hefty fees paid to "professional" companies... The same lack of focus and investment on marketing still exists today, and there are far many less tracks than then, so the need for tracks to "get your name out there" has never been greater... Good to see Plymouth engaging with those who possess the required skill set, and, hopefully, it will reflect in both crowd growth and a lowering of the age demographic of that crowd...

Yes it is, very much so. He’s tried to make out he wasnt in the wrong. The information I have is the complete opposite as to what he’s said. Left out some derogatory language aswell.

Press and Practice moved to Good Friday now and same times etc.

The sport is really missing a trick in not getting involved in “vlogger” culture. Imagine having dedicated vlogs to drum up interest and offer a behind the scenes look at what it takes to prepare for a season. Insight into a rider’s daily life etc. It would enhance the interest incredibly.

batchelor is a surprise to me.

80mph is the speed they are going when they clear the Safety Fence going into that 3rd turn.

Yes, who'd have thought it. Straits of Hormuz and Northampton Speedway. Keep topping up that glass of positivity, folks, keep sending out the POSITIVE VIBES!! Got that feeling in my bones both are going to work out fine. No half-full glasses allowed

My comments were directed towards the promotion, not TB. He's one of the most professional in the game over here, socials and the way he presents himself is always top notch. As I said, that Polish date would have been in the diary for months so to organise PnP as new owners on the day your no1 isn't there is just poor.

I couldn’t attend last nights meet the riders due to other commitments, it would be interesting to know what was said by the new owners. I did however get up to Foxhall in the afternoon. Hellstrom Bangs looked quick & I think he is going to be entertaining great style. Tobias seemed very relaxed & happy. We all know what he can do when he feels settled. The others have all done more than enough laps around Foxhall so we know what they are about. I am optimistic about the season ahead especially given how late this all came together. The noise around Brennan not being there is amazing. The guy signed a contract in September for his polish club & their dates would have been in the diary months ago. Our press day would normally have been last week but again with the late completion of the take over there probably wasn’t a lot of choice. Lets get behind the club enjoy the speedway & hopefully this time next year we’ll have seen the fruits of Mayfields labour starting to pay off both locally & nationally.

Somerset was about 4-5 miles away from Burnham on sea. Your going even more loopy in your old age.

Read this and they dont need to announce any official club information, Just teasers on social media would be a simple way of building engagement. Putting up fixtures , different kevlars, team names etc Announcing at the same time could still be done but a feeder campaign to generate interest,tags and trending. Even a two week warning and countdown. Seems like a wasted opportunity to generate interest.

I have downloaded it on my iPhone, sky box and Apple TV box today. basically it is a replatformed sports element from discovery + platform. Looks like a lift and shift of content. you have to continue paying for tnt sports with your existing subscription provider. For me that is BT / EEtv.

But in life you only get fined if your naughty and break the rules 🤔. If he got some large fines he must have broken some rules big style 😁

Disappointing no Brennan I agree. But they are all new suits for all riders just very similar design. You can tell by the 75 years anniversary logo on left chest on all not just the new guys. You can see it clearly on one of the pics of king. Mayfield wording also on arms.

I think "panic-merchant" is a bit of a stretch. As far as I can tell, nobody on here is actually from Northampton, so technically it isn’t "our" club and I suppose, in that retrospect, none of us should care. But we do care, and that is the point. It isn't about panicking; it’s about genuine concern from people who have a lifelong investment in this sport. The Star article might have made perfect sense to some, but for others, it still leaves a lot of silence where there should be activity. If pointing out a total lack of engagement or questioning a "wait and see" approach is considered demanding, then so be it. But most of us aren't looking for excuses to moan, we’re looking for signs of life in a sport we want to see succeed. There is a massive difference between being a "forum merchant" and being a concerned fan who understands how a modern business should actually communicate with its customers.

The Star article made perfect sense to me. Without naming names, it answers enough questions to satisfy all but the most-demanding of forum panic-merchants.

You would think it's a common sense thing to do, considering all use the same riders... To be fair to Poland though, they do put fixtures out well in advance, and yet the UK will still plan in meetings knowing riders are missing as they can happily just bring a guest in.... Or even sign riders knowing 100% that their already planned in calendar will mean they will be missing... Meaning so many guests end up being used which are not for injury cover... The British Final being arranged on a night when three meetings are already planned in is a perfect example that whatever "common sense" agreements exist, there will always be something the UK can end up doing which rolls eyes...

Stop talking sense! The chat about how amateur the Northampton stuff has been is only compounded by a brand new promotion not being able to arrange their PnP when all their riders can be there. I don't blame TB he was signed before last season ended in Poland but surely dates were shared upon signing to make sure everyone was available for the official launch of their new business/team. Doesn't install a great deal of confidence.

I would like to see a rule implemented where riders have to prioritise the own country as part of their licence requirements and that includes riding in British final and the governing body’s from each country work together for the good of world speedway to avoid clashes

Did Bomber not guest for him instead?

This forum only represents a very small percentage of the overall fanbase, but I’m certain we have people on here and in the stadiums with some terrific ideas. Imagine if the clubs actually reached out and asked their entire supporter base to put suggestions forward via a dedicated email address. There might just be some real nuggets in the postbag that could help the sport move forward. Whether it’s a fresh marketing angle, a community link, or a better way to handle the meeting experience, the fans are the ones seeing it from the outside. Beyond just ideas, many fans have professional contacts and networks that could be a huge asset to a club. You simply don't know what’s available to you unless you actually try things and open the door. It costs nothing to ask, and it might just uncover the exact help or innovation a club has been looking for.

Northampton's catchy slogan is more likely to be , "Can you tell what it is yet ?" and hope they are more popular than the last bloke who used that catch phrase ?

I spoke to my sports mad brother in law yesterday to ask if he was likely to go to Northampton for the new speedway team and he had no idea what I was on about and he lives in Oakley, 17 miles away from the sports arena. He follows all different sports and tells me that he has seen nothing in or on any local media outlets. if this is the way Northampton intend to open a new business and make a go of it I wish them all the luck in the world as they are going to need it. They are not helping them selves at all, assuming that they do intend to run. I suspect that they have hit major issues and are not going to run this year. Does anyone know if work has started on the track/stadium?

I couldn’t agree more with this. In my professional life, we do exactly the same thing. In fact, we had a monthly meeting just yesterday where part of that is sharing "best practice" across different departments. We look at who is innovating, what’s working in one area, and then we roll those successful ideas out across the rest of the operation to ensure everyone benefits. It’s common sense in any other industry. If clubs like Glasgow and Poole have cracked it, why on earth isn't that being formalised into a national "Operating Model" for the sport? Work together. As you say, the on-track product is usually decent. The racing isn't the problem; it’s the lack of off-track leadership and professional marketing that’s holding everything back. There are individual clubs doing "good things", whether it’s social media, sponsorship packages, or community outreach. On that note, I genuinely can't understand why the British Speedway Podcast has been cancelled, along with the national media day. Surely the sport can manage to put on a media day somewhere. And as for the podcast what is the actual cost of production? It can't be that prohibitive. I stand corrected if it is. I listen to "That Cov Pod", run by three Coventry City fans. They put out an excellent show after every single game, and they’ve even managed to attract a couple of sponsors. I can’t imagine it costs them much more than their own time to record, edit, and post it. If three fans can produce a quality show for football, why can’t a national sport manage one? Who is taking these decisions to strip away the few pieces of media we have left? If one club finds a way to increase gates by 20% through a specific digital campaign, that blueprint should be shared immediately across the league. There is no excuse for the rest of the sport to be lagging behind when a few clubs have already demonstrated how to do it well.

When it comes to social media exposure Northampton and the rest of the premier league could learn a lot from the Buxton promotion, even using catchy slogans like get your backside trackside and tales from the dales

Listened to some of Fraser Bowes interview on the Poole 15 heats later videocast on Youtube Someone asked about the van incident late in the season that ended with him downing tools 😂 Knowing the story, it just shows how much of an entitled bloke the guy is, didn't come across very well at all, probably will fit in perfectly at Poole 😀 Him and Tate/Jacob for example are night and day in terms of personal character.

Yes Bill is looking after him til Matt is back in his Broadstone home permanently. Good to hear he's only committed to 2 leagues this season, is to be based in UK rather than Poland and has 3 engines here for use in British speedway!

Robs splashed the bank account on Picko no money left to do the PA system. 😁

QUANTUM CLONING… 😂 lovely stuff.. and well written. 👍🏻

Delighted the U21 Champion gets entree to the GPs -- not least 'cos he's Ukrainian! Meanwhile, the Russians have to pay the penalty for being, er, Russian.......

Slight update, with Ekstraliga announcing today the days on which each meeting of each round will take place, throughout the whole season. Slight caveat though, as mentioned previously, Canal Sport reserve the right to swap meetings between Friday and Sunday, until no later than 6 weeks before each round. I've also updated my own Teams and Fixtures blog to include the few changes I spotted. It's here: https://speedwayteams2026.blogspot.com/p/calendar-of-meetings-in-2026.html