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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! 🤣

I'll play devil's advocate As you and your team have no interest in being a part of it what the f@c£ has your opinion got to do with it

Let's take one of the best ran clubs and make them completely change their operating model and business plan, and make them follow an operating model and business plan that has shown it clearly isn't fit for purpose, nor sustainable... What a great idea....

You won the double had a chance of a treble, but you Poole fans want a big shake up. I really can't work out what more do you guys want from the riders? They gave it their all. It's sport, sometimes you lose and in most cases you won.

British Speedway has two options. A) make sure it is the one other league that riders choose or B ) strike out on its own. Remove the fixed race day and rebuild its own product. Short term the big names will stay in Poland but if we focus on developing our own riders in the long term we won’t be as reliant on Poland propping the sport up as it apparently (according to Poland) does right now. The bubble could always burst in Poland. It did here after all. It is in our best interests to have our own sustainable model here in the event of that happening.

According to one promoter... "The No 1's".... Who all then pretty much effed off to Poland and Sweden as soon as the UK gravy train ended for them.. Personally I wasnt ever convinced bringing "the top stars" back a few years ago was going to be a "Golden Ticket" given the fact that when pretty much every single top rider (maybe apart from Tomaz Gollob), rode over here week in, week out, during the "Sky years", the crowds didn't grow, in fact, they kept declining overall... Which suggested the "top names" were not deal breakers as to whether fans were attending or not... Plymouth is a perfect example of where "the cast of the production" hasn't changed, yet the number of people now watching them has increased considerably, just by changing their "opening hours", which are now obviously more aligned to people's leisure time...

So what? Only one team can win a title -- real success is having an entertaining team providing excitement for fans, getting enough bums on seats to pay the bills.

Why should Glasgow prop up the top league. The top league over the years have pocketed fortunes from the TV deals. Now because they haven't got a TV deal you expect 2nd division clubs to throw them a rope. I would tell them to get stuffed. The only reason the top league might only run with 5/4 teams is down to them. They stood by and watched Tolly skint himself last season and now you think other clubs should follow suit?. They made their bed. Let them lie in it.

The current business model is clearly unsustainable. Premiership club dies so a Championship club has to step up to keep the Premiership afloat. Rinse and repeat. This Groundhog Day can only repeat itself a finite number of times, before long there will be no teams left. It’s concerning the number of fans who think things should carry on this way, let alone that the people running the sport seem to agree.

With Phil Morris in charge of track prep, boats wouldn't be out of place...

5 teams won’t work, surely they know this, at this rate by 2027 we will have the equivalent of the Oxford/Cambridge boat race

Fantastic interview with Gerry Facenna in the (ever excellent), Speedway Star... He mentions how successful the "Trust The Fans" mechanic has been in driving up crowds... Many years ago I mentioned to a promoter the very same idea of letting his fans bring someone in for free for three matches to see if they could be enticed to keep attending, with my rationale being "these people are not there now", so "no loss".... Never mind spitting his tea out, he nearly spit his dentures out!!!! His answer was "some will just take the p**s and come in for nothing"... I said that that was obviously a distinct possibility but if you explained it well enough, given the loyalty of Speedway fans, not that many would, and the possible long term rewards far outweighed any short term risk... It didn't happen and his crowds continued to drop....... Nice to see some promoters actually promoting... Best of luck to Glasgow...

Plymouth finished 2nd from bottom, crowds increased very good meetings plenty to enjoy, if we did well and won something that would be a bonus but you can still have a successful season without any tin.

They have two solutions.. 1. Run a "Super League" with (five or maybe six?) teams at last years tier one level and hope they get some TV coverage. With those teams then running a 2nd team in a league that matches a cross between last years Championship and NDL levels, with rider/average controls in place to share out the HL's. Or 2. No GP or Polish contracted riders at all and just running one league at a Championship/NDL level running on any nights the clubs want to, to maximise crowds, with some kind of average/rider control to share around the HL's... Let's face facts. . Bringing back the GP/Top stars simply hasn't worked across the league, as fans are now able to watch them ride in Sweden on Tuesday, Poland on Friday and Sunday, and in the GP's, Euro Championships, SON, SWC etc virtually every week of the season... With several visits to your own track during the year, any "novelty" has now long gone and their presence simply hasn't added the numbers to the atrendances that was obviously hoped for, and intended, to do.. Ipswich fans may say different, however, when they travelled away "huge crowds" didn't pay to watch Emil and Doyle and even at home in the many POQ "dead rubbers" their crowds, whilst better than anyone elses, were hardly "bumper". Contrast and compare Emil's first season to his last away from home. It became just another Speedway meeting, where, in his first year there was some "box office" to his arrival at your track.. The Aces had some very low crowds with two of the top 3 riders in the world, (being two of the most exciting riders too), riding for them... I would say the lack of jeopardy and repetition of visitors, in so many meetings, keep more fans away than the GP riders can attract, especially as they are only "big names" in a tiny, tiny pond, so hardly anyone outside the small number of followers of the sport, in fhe UK, could even name them.. One league will at least bring some different teams to tracks, which may stimulate some "novelty value" at least.... Granted, it's a low bar, but the current operating model clearly doesn't work...

If that's the point of the league there should be team building rules to allow that but there isn't and we built a team to the rules that didn't even end up winning a trophy so obviously we're not the only ones who can sign the best riders, does our 2024 team look like something a team with infinite money bags would put together? Why should Glasgow take the risk into a top league that is killing every other team that goes into it, giving up our Friday race night and isolating ourselves from our local clubs? Glasgow owners also sponsor the championship, will they stop that to save money in turn starting the championship on a downward spiral? Glasgow's closest club in the top league is Belle Vue, between those two clubs you have not just Berwick and Edinburgh but Redcar and Workington with Scunthorpe around equal distance. Glasgow is trying to get families coming with their kids to enjoy speedway, a Friday night works well since parents don't have to worry about kids getting home too late on a school night. Finally Glasgow isn't a speedway city, the owners have mentioned it before but no one cares if Tai Woffinden of Emil Sayfutdinov are in town, most people who you'd tell would look at you like you're insane. You wouldn't get a big draw of new fans flooding in for these top league names, maybe a couple fans from Edinburgh/Berwick but not enough to balance the increased wages. I understand being a premiership team fan wanting a competitive exciting league, despite all the above points I'd love for us to give the top league a go as long as it means the club won't die in a year but what are the actual benefits to moving up from a business perspective? From your posts it just sounds like you want to punish Glasgow for doing a good job .

You can’t force a business into spending money they don’t want to or operating in a way that’s not profitable just because it would benefit others. If Glasgow were given the ultimatum you suggest it would end up in court very quickly. The club is run by very successful business owners who I can’t imagine will be easy to push around. If the premiership want more clubs they need to make it an attractive prospect not try and force more clubs in.

100% agree with you as I said no good/easy answers, personally I think the top league is done either now or within the next 3 years the championship is a much more sustainable business model particuarly when they can run on the best night for their business Plymouth being a rare success this year.

If Jack Holder comes. I promise I’ll support Kings Lynn 😂

What I expect is a post AGM press release, stating... "It was the most harmonious AGM ever"... "The plans for next year, and beyond, are the most exciting ever put together, and were delivered with total collaboration by everyone in attendance".. "All the promoters have come away from the AGM in agreement as to how the sport should move forward, and all share the same vision for it"... "There are challenges, but with the plans put together, we will be able to meet those challenges head on and build a very bright future for Speedway in the UK"... "We have put together a fantastic plan for youth development to build on the magnificent work done over the past few years in particular"... "We are sure the loyal fans of the sport will be delighted with the decisions made, and continue to attend next season in their thousands".... "And hopefully bring a friend" (Sorry, made that one up)... "It was the most harmonious AGM ever.... "(S**t, we've had that one)"

I agree 100% with that. I had a long gap in my speedway watching and in that time, the sport had become fully professional. I recall an interview with a very young rider, only just NDL standard who said “I can’t wait until I’m making a living from the sport” and thought then he had his priorities right. Name me another sport that guarantees every participant who earns money as soon as they get into a league. More specifically, name me a motor sport that pays riders to learn their trade. Then name me another business that pays its “employees” more than they earn for their employer. It’s like paying a brickie £30,000 a year to build a wall that’s only worth £20,000. But we can all talk about the negatives but what’s the solution? Has the appointment of a CEO in the premiership brought in new supporters, new sponsors, a new TV deal? What will Harry be able to do? I have no answers, just frustration

2027 though, It's time for non-Poland Speedway nations to get their retaliation in first. It's clear what they're trying to do playing us off against Sweden & Denmark both with failing leagues if the vibe I get off of here is true. It's time for SVEMO, the DMU and whoever it is that runs Speedway in the UK to work together and put it back to Poland by saying if you ride in Poland you cannot ride in Swedish, Danish or British Leagues. A few riders would have some decisions to make then, let Poland have the tier 1 riders and the rest can ride in the other 3 leagues. Denmark on a Wednesday, Sweden Tuesday & Thursday and UK the rest of the week. If they could also get Motorcycling Australia involved they'd be more than enough riders to sustain the 3 countries leagues.

For me as a worky fan, very similar to Plymouth A good season is watching entertaining racing with the majority of home wins, if we get beat by a better team so be it 😄 Then if our team survives and runs the following season that is a success and hopefully the guys that run the speedway have broken even

Fresh hope for talks over Speedway returning to Showground https://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/people/peterborough-panthers-speedway-looking-to-reopen-talks-over-showground-return-5377739

Bee in your bonnet about Glasgow.Their Promotion are successful business men, I’m sure they can make their own decisions regarding their finances.

Not wanting to move up because it isn’t financially viable isn’t sense of entitlement, it’s sensible. The overall standard of the sport here has dropped. The GP riders and Sayfutdinovs in the Premiership only mask the fact that the rest of the riders are Championship standard at best. That’s why they are racing in both leagues (that and the suggestion they’re owed a living from the sport so should be allowed to race for multiple teams in Britain). The sport here can’t justify the level it tries and wants to present. The fact that landlords want their rent so admission prices will only rise regardless of what’s on show doesn’t help. This spiral will only continue. There’s no overnight fix. Those running the sport need to publicly acknowledge that and put a long term plan in place. Smoke and mirrors breeds rumours and discontent. Tell the fans what is happening and why and most of them will be a lot more understanding.

Agree can’t see hardly anyone being there to be honest. Strange time when people are at work and seems hastily arranged too. Not enough time for people to even book the day off work as not enough notice given. At least the groups of Romanian’s will be there to see it! Gathered around the cornhill on a daily basis making everyone else feel uncomfortable 🙄

I struggle to think of many who he won't beat? Masters and Lawson maybe, possibly Harris & Wright at a push, not much else. This is a rider who put 1.5 points on his average this year, I'd back him to comfortably beat the likes of Kemp, Worrall (if he rides), Batchelor, etc. Tom Brennan improved in a similar way at Glasgow and then averaged 9+ the season after. I think Thompson is a relatively slow burner but is going to be a very, very good rider.

Apparently Toby is out of hospital. Nothing broken just a bit battered and bruised.

The sport is in a real mess at the moment

What a ridiculous comment. Just because Poland aren't particularly great at the majority of sports we focus on in the UK, you think they are useless at every other sport going? Go and educate yourself on what sports Poland regularly play, such as volleyball, basketball, handball, etc. and you'll soon see they are far better than us and compete at the highest levels. Not to mention individual sports such as, athletics, winter sports, etc. as well. For instance, an all-time combined Summer and Winter Olympics table sees Poland inside of the 20 countries in the world.

Take a look at your number 1

Is it time the authorities bite the bullet and create a single league without trying to entice GP riders? Would it impact crowds that much if the highest average riders were essentially the top Championship guys now? I’m not so sure.

In light of the announcement from Poland that 2026 is the last season that their top 2 leagues will "allow" their riders to race in more than one extra league, surely bspl should have a massive re think and put plans in place NOW rather than a knee jerk next season?So much for the 'deal'giving some Thursdays to Poland in exchange for them allowing international riders to race elsewhere. Looks like we won't have gp stars after next season so might as well start planning now.Surely this must push us towards restructuring, as all the arguments about 1 league meaning the end of the big stars is surely irrelevant

A two team Premiership made up of Belle Vue and Ipswich. They will race each other home and away 15 times. Top two reach the play-offs to decide the winner.

With only a passing interest in speedway nowadays, I just read online that another season of slow decay had been completed. I took in the SoN online and frankly that reminded me of why I packed in attending speedway. What dross. I thought Polish tracks were maent to produce good racing ??? News of another club closing (Birmingham) and huge uncertainty over the future of another (Sheffield) There is an ever growing "ghost league" of defunct clubs, all with decaying tracks and with dreams of reopening, but none look even remotely likely for 2026. Patching up the situation will no doubt take place with tweaks to "points limits", but making a silk purse out of a sows ear will tax the bunch of speedway promoters even with thier best rose tinted specs. No idea what attendances were like in 2025 (its always been a closely guarded secret) but aside from a few historically well supported clubs would be surprised if anything but holding even was the norm. Fixtures becoming more irregular with gaps in the summer, then a mad scramble in early winter really cannot help. Some non P.off clubs finishing fixtures by late August doesnt help. Same old same old 15 heat format across all meetings. The ever decreasing band of ageing "hard core" supporters will probably be served up something for a few more seasons until the sports 100th anniversary in 2028, but i wouldn't hold my breath for any dramatic changes of direction ....... .

Nice as many of these ideas are, we're still just kicking the can down the road. Without a grassroots plan to develop more riders and secure more venues, there is no team speedway. There are already nowhere near enough riders, and that's utilising many expensive imports. There needs to be a separation of the sport and the competition. Clubs are (rightly) just trying to do enough to get them to the end of next week. I don't see anyone doing any wider development of the sport. I just can't see a future for speedway as a team sport, or as a professional sport, but I would hope that the base sport can survive and find an appropriate level for the early 21st century.

You can understand if the teams with "top level riders" are reluctant to part with them... Their rents won't drop yet their admission costs will need to, to reflect the significant drop in standard of the riders on view, and crowds wont increase to cover the reduction in admission charge, riders costs may drop but would crowds match the ones delivered with the top riders there? Sponsors also may only want to be involved with the "top riders" and could either pull their money completely or reduce it due to, again, the drop in levels.. So many teams need so many different scenarios... A proper self inflicted cluster eff...

Half the championship heat leaders ride because they can afford it due to the championship, I’m not telling people they have to jump up, it’s their decision. I’m simply stating is the premiership doesn’t run then watch speedway further fall.

Why do people criticise promoters for going abroad for the AGM, they don't usually have a holiday mid season? People moan about cost of living but jet off to Spain on holiday.

As a dad of a NDL rider who actually rode on Sunday conditions were not brilliant but because Redcar is such a good track it was rideable and racing was good imho, my biggest concern is what you pointed out, there is not a endless supply of riders at this level, no consistency with meetings is a massive concern because lads lose interest etc, hopefully they will look at this at the agm and realise it requires some serious thought

Spot on... "Let's find another way to fudge through another season"... Without the TV six figure sum per team, you cannot see how the GP lads can be afforded anyway... Even if presently a significant part of their salaries is paid by sponsors, the TV money then paid for either rent and other meeting costs, or assisted towards the salaries of other riders.. That £100k leaves a huge black hole to be filled if no TV deal bears fruition...

Bosses need to grow a backbone and refuse starting permission for Glasgow in the Championship imo. It's a club with a Premiership business model in place on all fronts. Under no circumstances can the Premiership take place with 5 Teams.

Some Sunday League, and Semi Pro football teams, have tens of thousands of followers due to their own in house coverage and editing... With the YT algorithms taking you to them after you have watched one... It has been a perfect media for Speedway for at least five years since these type of programmes started... People eating loads of food quickly, get millions of followers!!!! Nearly a quarter of a million has watched the Wright/Allen fight, and over 400,000 have watched the final of the 2025 British Championship.. Imagine if just a tenth of those numbers attended a track each week?! The template to follow is out there due to what other sports teams do, so just follow it... Plenty of money can be made if you get the views and subscribers, and you don't need to spend loads to earn it, nor do a lengthy video... 15 to 20 mins featuring riders arriving, pre match team talk, some action, some during the meeting conversations between team and manager, post match team talk, and the riders post match thoughts, is sufficient... Fast paced, small soundbites, and race snippets from the best races, and not lengthy conversations and full races (unless a cracker)... People don't sit and watch two hours of sport like they used to, they now often just watch the fifteen to twenty minute highlights on YT... I have got into Baseball by watching 20 mins highlights, but wouldn't sit and watch three to four hours of the sport, watching pitch after pitch not getting hit... Speedway desperately needs some modern thinkers involved rather than those who have led the sport with the mantra "we have done it this way for decades"..

They have had almost 30 years of coverage and the fanbase is probably (at best), half what it was 30 years sgo... Promoters have had hundreds of two hour advertisements for their businesses and done nothing to make the sport look "popular" via the optics... I am always impressed the way the directors can focus in on thirty or forty people stood, or sat, together to make it look like a "crowd" is in attendance... Unfortunately, they then have to show the racing using a wider angle and the swathes of empty spaces and seats become clearly evident... When Sky first covered the sport, kids got in for free and they had face painters there, bouncy castles etc, and a "roving camera" that focused on the face painted groups of kids waving and shouting into the camera. This then often led into the adverts, and was the first thing you saw when they came back for the break. Giving the impression I presume that Speedway is great to take your kids to, and "fun".... Nowadays nothing appears to be done to create a "fun" atmosphere when on TV... A 2 hour advert that others in the entertainment industry would kill for and use to create interest. Imagine several restaurants being filmed for two hours, several times a year, with just four people eating in them each time they were on TV? They would ensure the place was packed, even if they all didn't pay!!! Sports that can only half fill their stadiums often close parts down to squeeze the crowd together and use the closed sections for large banner advertising of their sponsors... I always think the NSS, as an example, there are many others, that could benefit from that when on TV, ie fill the grandstand so the camera inside the circuit covering the start makes the place look full, (rather than it looks now due to hardly anyone sitting in the sections at the start of the home straight), and advertise your sponsors on the back straight... Just charge standing prices for one night in the grandstand, and credit the ST holders with any difference. (If they moan about it)... Put simply, Speedway, uniquely when measured against other "niche" sports, hasn't progressed one iota via the huge amount of TV coverage it has had... And you have to question why?.. So not sure what positive difference any other satellite or streaming service would make to it now.. The real issue without the TV coverage will be the lack of the six figure payment that the teams got rather than if it grew the sport or not...

British Pathe News????? 😲

Its stands to reason, as in most other sports, that the best teams last longer in competitions and therefore will play against each other more times. It amuses me that people say why are we seeing Poole / Glasgow / Redcar / Oxford / Sheffield / Ipswich / Belle Vue again. It's because they keep winning..!

The big stars can bring crowds in, but I’d suggest the repetition somewhat knocks that on the head. If Emil Sayfutdinov (for example) was coming to my track once a season and I absolutely had to be there on that night to see him I’d get it. But last season he went to some away tracks three, maybe four times. It’s not so much of a novelty when the big name is back in town again in a few weeks. This is one of the benefits of a larger league, you don’t race the same teams two to three times at home a season. The damage is done and probably too hard to rectify in the short term but seeing the same old faces week in, week out in both divisions is a contributing (one of many) factor to the decline of the sport on the whole.

Still no update from the club about Toby, sure we shall hear today, hope all is ok. Watched the meeting back, great watch with some good racing, Jody was fantastic. Still disappointed that Richard couldn't make the effort to come out for his medal in front of his fans! seems to be a trait at times in the past for him (press days) when he thinks he is bigger than our club, be professional at all times, if we won gold he would have been on the centre green. Will asked 'where is Rich' with Danny and Middlo on the stage and all looked back at the pits, I hope Matt has a quiet word in his ear as not good enough in my opinion. Again well done to Redcar you deserved the trophy.

Just got back. Well done to Redcar no complaints from the Poole fans. Such very very fine margins. If poor Tobias had made it over the line Pirates would have been celebrating the treble. Just one of those nights but I feel the team were complacent. Special mention for Jody Scott who put it all out there, an inch from the fence. Certainly a rider on an upward trajectory. Redcar got a very warm reception from all the Poole fans when they went over to their fans after heat 14. Poole fans really are the best out there.