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Congratulations to Mark and the whole team at Plymouth who obtained a notable achievement on Saturday by having a record attendance for over 10 years in the defeat against the Pirates. Fantastic for a sport that needs positive news stories to see a club going in the right direction and the swell of momentum behind the club within Plymouth. It's fantastic to see and long may it continue.

Indeed - at Foxhall when some of us starting using horns, cow bells and a megaphone a few moved and one poor old dear dropped a stitch on her knitting

Today I, a lifelong cricket fan, have learned that county cricket is streamed on YouTube, from a speedway forum. Glad to see the ECB spend that £40million budget just as badly as others do.

Yes a plan was put into place to broadcast one meeting Live for free on You Tube on Monday evenings to try and raise the appeal of the sport and could sell some sponsorship as well. This was decided against as clubs would have had to pay for this so as usual looked at the negatives instead of thinking let’s try it cost wise probably less for a full season than £25,00

I'm hundreds of miles from Plymouth, but I always make a point of getting there at least once a season, great little set up there 👍 last year me and my dad went, he loved it too. For that reason, Plymouth are now my team in a sport I've honestly not got much interest in anymore, but I'll still try to get there at some point this year.

Phil Morris has the sport at heart and wasn't allowed to do what he wanted with British Speedway by the clowns who run the sport , mainly that w anchor Godfrey at Scunthorpe. How the hell he got into such a high up position is anybodys guess.

If indeed it turns out that the role of CEO (incumbent Phil Morris) has been made redundant due to a lack of money then it’s difficult to see how an “independent body/person” that is often raised as a solution on this forum, could be funded to run the sport. That said, the sport is already “run” by a (supposedly) independent body - the SCB - which by and large get their objectives done and funded by license & similar fees. Which brings the conversation back to the BSPL & the intransigent hobbyist majority within. Their actions continue to block progress of the sport (to now include the removal of a CEO) simply because they have little or no intention or capability of implementing change which may (would) disrupt their hobby. Until, somehow, there is sufficient momentum by a group of well funded vested promoters to bring about long term change, then worryingly, we fans need to understand that whilst they remain in situ the hobbyist will continue to rule.

Last week, they stopped further along, so I guess they will stop in a slightly different place each week.

Any business needs a vision, and a plan to deliver that vision... UK Speedway, basically, runs season to season with no one knowing who will run the next year, or which league some teams may decide to compete in, or what the team strengths there will be, or what competitions will take place, or what formats these competitions will follow.. You cannot keep "hoping for the best", by living season to season, and doing the same old thing that you always do that prevents you from ever having any vision, never mind a plan to deliver that vision... Millions and Millions of pounds of TV money has gone up in smoke over two and a half decades... Money which seemed to have bailed out a fair few issues which never got resolved... That money isn't there any more....

The reach of YT is literally billions, with tens of millions in the UK... And you even can make money out of views and subscribers... With their algorithm sending you into similar type of videos.... A perfect media for UK Speedway to "piggy back" off other more popular sports, either two wheel, four wheel, or local professional teams in football... "How much?" No chance, we have to pay our riders (who hardly anyone in the UK have heard of, and will never hear of), around three million quid a season between them"... An absolute crackers business model...

The realty was that Sky needed subscribers and from their knowledge of the mutually successful relationship between TV & the NFL they knew that Uk football was the answer. Sky played a pivotal role in the formation of the Premiership alongside the then big five of Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs & Everton. From its inception, clubs have never had the need to fund any part of the running of the league itself as those costs are met from commercial income including TV deals. Each club as shareholders own one share with one vote which they lose if they are relegated. Speedway had a similar opportunity with Sky but the promoters and their central body failed to invest the money correctly to future proof the sport and eventually rather than build a strong relationship with their broadcasting partner the promoters as a body actually alienated Sky.

Just isn’t the money for the role but hopefully Phil will still be involved in a more advisory role and possibly on a pay as you go basis . If the TV deal had come off he would have been very involved. i still do not agree that clubs didn’t take the initiative of broadcasting one meeting a week free on You Tube to satisfy sponsors and try to attract more new fans all they had to do was pay the production costs which were minimal compared to the full tv production costs. The best way would have been to pay BSN to produce one meeting a week for free YT broadcast as that would then give them the opportunity to upsell their subscription service of people want to see more and could have sold race sponsorship for the season

He made the clubs adhere to a schedule to speed meetings up with set grading breaks. Introduced the centre green clocks. Had the sponsors banners made up in the pits so every club looked the same. Brokered deals with riders to ride in the premiership. For the grand final he had a magnificent looking stage not made of three pallets. Pyrotechnics and flames. Spoke to save Coventry stadium and offered to buy Ipswich with his own money. Introduced the media day. but apart from that not much. now the sport is imploding and going backwards under the current regime

Even for 2026, Phil has been a great advocate for British Speedway Premiership and has done lots of work behind the scenes which most people simply do not see. Always knowing that his role of Chief executive wasn’t to continue this year due to lack of money He was instrumental in keeping Ipswich going including being part of a consortium that made an offer to keep it going if Mayfield deal had fallen through. Has also had a a lot to do with the opening of Northampton giving guidance of what was required to get Speedway running along with being involved in the negotiations with stadium owners and management . There has been some failures previously maybe the loss of TV deal being the greatest but he did explore various options but none could be got over the line for various reasons. It has not been helped by some promotions not backing him fully. He wanted to modernise the product to try to get in new fans and sponsors some of which cost money like for tv meetings having a set presentation team and DJ, Lights and fire cannons on centre field but certain promotions wouldn’t back this and could even be objective like refusing to move advertising A boards for tv meetings and not even keeping the league sponsorship ones clean. Phil was also key to a number of top names returning to the UK like Woofy , Janowski and Lindgren along with brokering deals for Lambert and Dudek to ride for clubs to then back down on the deals

I bet the football and rugby players who have ended up with dementia would have appreciated 'snowflakes' with their concession protocols. Know better, do better.

As a Cricket & Glamorgan fan. We are one of the lowest supported counties in the domestic game. County Championship cricket gets somewhere between 200-300 people on a normal day. I don't think the ECB really do anything to promote the Youtube Streams, and i don't think Glamorgan do any real marketing or promotion that incurs costs. It's listed on there Website, mentioned in Match announcements on Socials and by Commentators. The stream, uses 2 fixed cameras (manned), with existing commentary from BBC Radio Wales. They make use of the Youtube Algorithms, that ensure it's the first thing that will appear when a game is on. Almost certain that it pays for itself through advertising exposure. I don't think it's done any damage to any county, rather it has ensured that counties have exposure to a wider and growing audience.

I'm sure you had no issues after, but surely our rules are correct really just to be safe, you see so many sports people from all sports suffer long term with concussion.

witchestv.co.uk is livestreaming this meeting

Its just difficult to comprehend why the BSPL fail to grasp modern streaming media and the benefits available to UK speedway for a modest investment. Clubs working independently of each other at the local level is just plainly inefficient from a marketing and promotional standpoint. Hopefully (maybe) the more recent promoters to the sport may bring something different to the table and in doing so, not let the hobbyist "take" without "first putting in".

Canal + have announced that the Wroclaw v Zielona Gora match on Friday is being shown free to the world live on You tube

Line ups:

Typical short-sighted view. County cricket continue to stream every game for free on YouTube, last week's first round of the season getting just under 1.4 million views across the four days. Speedway is similar in terms of having regular natural breaks in play, it would be a perfect opportunity to sell sponsorship for between races.

Looks like Doyley's forgotten his Kevlars

She's also listed on Mayfields website together with Kelvin Tatum and Olly Allen.

stop pinching whitelinehuggers jokes.

getting cash out of the bank..🤣

definitely worth watching now

Open the track, hold the meeting, hopefully win closely, then lock up the track when the last one is out... Rinse and Repeat two weeks later, (maybe), with pretty much exactly the same fans in attendance... Find a guest for someone missing in Poland or Denmark, or is injured/banned over here but not anywhere else.... Aim to win at home to keep your own crowd attending, with all your riders in attendance... Agree to ride away on nights you know your No1 can't be there and book a guest instead... Don't be too successful as it can close you down... UK Speedway...

The post above has it nailed. If there is no real reward for winning, and nothing really missed by losing, there is no incentive to invest more time and energy, so most don’t. This is meant to be (and is) the pinnacle of the sport in the U.K., but it looks more like Sunday league football in a dead-end division. The idea of paying BSN to stream for free on YouTube sounds nice, but I see two issues. One, would they have the capacity to stream more? Two, it would present a risk to their business model, and given they are probably the most sustainable entity in British Speedway right now, why would they want to take the risk? I don’t see the incentive for them. The Premiership clubs barely bothered to support a media day, so why volunteer to compromise a working model? I think the promoters need to show a lot more before you do that.

Sadly, the operating model has been allowed to evolve into what it currently is... Meaning neither league runs with any real prestige or financial rewards... Win your league? Yay!... Finish bottom of your league? Oh well, there's always next year... Many meetings are ran with almost zero jeopardy or consequence, which is "perfect" for those promoters who don't want any pressure... "Having to win" to keep a crowd level, costs money, time and brings with it some anxiety... The result of the meeting being, for a good number of promoters, "perfection" if it is a 46-44 win.... And, given that lack of prestige, and financial gain available, I 100% get their outlook... Sadly, it appears only us fans that want to see the sport grow, however, to get that growth means a completely new operating model, but, to bring in a "proper" operating model costs money.... A proper vicious circle... You cannot have jeopardy, consequence, credibility, integrity and prestige in victory, without having some serious financial rewards for success, which in turn delivers big publicity... However. You will never get those serious financial rewards, and big publicity, and prestige for victory, by running meetings without jeopardy, consequence, credibility, and integrity... A real race to the bottom currently...

Don't think this is about Berwick. No matter what club had been logged in for that date for a Championship match would have been bumped to get the BSN match on, and complete the section.

My first visit on sunday with my lad and he loved it even though he fell a couple of times and was very rusty but all round great effort from the team and owen was made very welcome Thanks so much for giving my lad much needed track time Paul

Let me guess the fan was 60 plus and wanted speedway to go back to the good old days

No chance with that score Glasgow win will be a bonus for them. IMO

Really concerning you think they are only one rider away from competing with anyone. They’re another 3/4 away from competing with half the league more like.

Mmm, pretty much. Just fancied watching some speedway but obviously chose the wrong match. Feel sorry for the Scunthorpe fans with this team.

you need to ask some of these people who were badly injured if they wished they had never done the sport they loved..

They’ve done fantastic to bring in a Top number 1, possibly the best in the league. They are probably a number 5 away from competing with anyone and everyone. I hope they find one

If I was Zach, I'd be offended by their comments, thinking "is that the best they think I can do" lol!

Think both clubs might get similar results against Northampton so the aggregate point over the next few days could be crucial. Could be very tight for that extra point.

Forecast now looks good Baggy, nice warm spring day so all systems go 👍🏻

Its the right decision but way too late after advertising tickets etc for the last 3 days

This site is a a microcosm of the running of the sport as a whole. Anyone who brings up an issue by a club whether that be poor racing/track prep, running outside the rule book or poaching riders, to give a few examples, immediately gets berated by home fans who’s desire to back their team trumps the greater needs of the sport as a whole. The most irritating thing is the very issue they are defending soon becomes wrong when another team do it. This yo yoing of morals is indefensible in my eyes and renders any point of view they have, moot due the biased nature from where it is comes from. “It’s ok for me and my mates to do these things but not you, especially if it gives us an edge.”This is not only where we are now but also where we have been for years and the reason good people have walked away from the sport. We don’t aspire to match the best but prefer to pull the rug from under them. The current pushback has already started and I fully expect it to succeed.

... and Workington... and Scunny who had doubts surrounding their return... and Edinburgh who seemed set to lose their stadium a couple of years back (and who knows whether that one has well and truly gone away). And if you count going quite well, a league of just 9 teams and having lost Somerset, Newcastle, Rye House, Birmingham, Stoke, Sheffield, Leicester, King's Lynn & Ipswich over the years as "doing quite well" that's a very strange measurement. Poole & Glasgow are "going quite well", I'd say the rest are clinging on by their finger tips! Mr Morris also engaged with the fans, I personally spoke with him on the phone after the play off semi debacle a couple of years back. He set up the fans forum with fan representatives and I know of others who he has reached out to when they have been ignored by individual clubs. You may reply "what actual good did that do?" but as @mikebv said he picked and addressed all of the low hanging fruit, anything more radical he was never going to be allowed to do with no stake in the sport financially.

BSN breaking down on route to Leicester just about sums up British speedway this season

With the ultimate irony being that "the hobbyists" get their hobby subsidised by "the professionals".... Many of "the hobbyists" crowds would only support a much weaker product without tier one clubs using the same riders, thus sharing the costs.. As said before, nothing will change as too many don't see any reason to do so..

Unfortunately for UK speedway we are exposed to two types of promoter. 1. The professional. 2. The hobbyist. And let’s be clear, some regard themselves as professionals because they run businesses elsewhere but are in realty stuck in the mud hobbyists. What makes the matter worse is that there are more hobbyists promoters than professionals and thus they get to say what goes and what doesn’t. I live in (faint) hope that the time will come when the professionals get together and gain sufficient momentum/influence & money to go it alone. Because make no mistake the hobbyist are not (as they would like us to believe) keeping the sport going on a thriving basis, they are holding it to ransom and actively leading it to an eventual demise.

Yes he did a lot to improve things in the sport, especially the race night experience and the appearance of the sport on TV. He was never going to be allowed to make it into a proper sport as the powers that be just aren't interested in doing that. I think he may have had a hand in introducing some new riders to the UK. He did make the massive bottom burp of interfering with the play offs the season before last though but he did fess up to that understood it was wrong and owned it. Couldn't see him staying on as soon as the TV cleared off.

I see Shovvy still thinks Dan Gilkes is available.

Paul Hunsdon and Tony Gaul are Promoters. Chris Adams is the team Manager. There is no secrecy. https://britishspeedway.co.uk/rowe-motor-oil-premiership/introducing-the-foxes/