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There is a lot of talk about teams like Belle Vue and Ipswich (if they run) having to "drop down" next season, but, of course, if the Premier League as it currently exists is no longer, the new single league will, de facto, be the top league, so, actually, it is a matter of the other teams moving up! It's just that the standard won't be so good.

It was literally three or so weeks ago that Chris Louis and Ritchie Hawkins were on local radio stating the hard work was already underway to build another top challenging team for next year. So this isn’t something that has been brewing for a while, something has happened at the BSPL meetings very recently that has made him throw in the towel. Fans of other clubs have been very quick to stick the boot in on the bloke. But in Louis’ defence, he has stated quite clearly that he’ll be working “tirelessly” over the coming weeks and months to make sure the club is left in safe hands. After everything he’s done, he deserves that time, and the benefit of the doubt to see what exactly these “safe hands” the club has been left in, are. If we end up with no speedway at Foxhall in 2026 and the club left in limbo, then he’ll have tarnished the whole Louis legacy and I’ll be the first to criticise.

I, personally, cannot wait for one league... Loads of new tracks to visit, several weekends away... My concern is we end up with two leagues of Mickey Mouse, contrived, same old/same old, bollox.. Like we have had for 20 Years and more... What an opportunity for the sport to reset itself, relaunch itself, and make a UK Speedway Brand...

I personally have nothing but respect for CL he has been a wonderful servant to s/way as a rider and promoter ,I am certain in real terms owners /promoters in s/way do it for the love of the sport . I tried in the 70's to persuade my father to buy a speedway team (he was a massive fan of the sport) his reply was it is thankless and profitless passtime at best. Chris L has made a huge decision I would image it is one of the hardest things he's had to do in his entire s/way career .

Dont waste your time mate.... The last time I went to see him I asked for a real 12ft Dragon, one that flew as high as the clouds, and could breatlhe fire... He told me that there were certain things that even Father Christmas couldn't promise to deliver so, just in case he couldn't get me a real, flying, fire breathing Dragon, he asked me what my second wish was... So I asked him if he could make UK Speedway affordable, popular, exciting, ran with integrity and credibility and relevant as a sport in the 21st Century... He pondered this for a while, looked away, and thought intensely for a few moments, then looked me straight in the eye and said... "What colour would you like that Dragon lad?"...

Re-brand it as the 'British Super League' for national media attention and 'Bob's your Uncle', job's a good'un !!

we would rather have a premiership with all the top riders, i am going to ask father Christmas if he can sort it.

It’s been brought about by decades of self-interest and mismanagement across the board. The top league wasn’t sustainable, it was a money pit and that has been evident for longer than the last month or so. It’s not a knee jerk implosion. Let’s not kid ourselves that it is.

I just love all these business experts popping up on here, and giving 'advice' on something they have absolutely no clue about. Hilarious...😂

Humans Of Speedway podcast has been off for a couple of years, but coming back. Got Bruce Penhall first up hopefully in the next week, it’s almost finished but will also be with video on Spotify and YouTube. But there’s nearly 60 previous episodes

I didn't say he had, I said that's what you don't do as a business owner... not if you want to realise it's full value. All we know at the moment is that he's "stepped down" from the club, whatever that means? He's perfectly entitled to put his business up for sale, continue running or close it down, that's his decision. But it's not just a business is it, it's a sporting club with a long and rich tradition that many people have a strong emotional attachment to and they've not really had a mention. ... So stick that in your "pipe" and smoke it

Don’t think Guy Nicholls needs any tractors he has plenty of his own

Well this would be an interesting time for the fans to come good and buy the club 😉 In another sport - AFC Wimbledon announced recently that a fan owned model isn't sustainable in football at the level they operate at, I rather suspect it wouldn't in top tier speedway speedway either!

Finding out he's worky bound 😄

Possible disappointment

A K-Tel Hits of the 70's Album?

A shredding machine to put your hard earned cash straight into and what you have left the bspl will send their special magician round to mysteriously make it all disappear in to the pockets of the few, just incase some think I’m posting an in the know post, it’s just a bit of fun, you don’t get a shredding machine

One league it is then. Let’s just hope that meets Glasgow’s and Poole’s requirements.

You can’t change your birthplace mate . I used to live in North Yorkshire but I’m definitely not posh 😁

So Chris is criticised for doing what is best for him as the result of the decisions made by the others that are doing that as it is best for them (no one moving up, blocking entry requests, rejecting one big league etc) All those others have been praised (in the main) for sticking to their guns......

and not the real artists.

Really??? Its basic business economics! If you are buying an ongoing business you would pay market value for it. If the buyer knows that the seller is not going to continue the business beyond a certain date then the closer it gets to that date the less a buyer would offer for the club because they no that there is no value to the seller after that date. In this case there will be a date by which Ipswich speedway (whoever owns it) will have to declare whether or not they are running in 2026. If Louis hasn't sold and follows through and says I'm not running in 2026 the club begins almost worthless as any buyer could not operate the business until at least 2027.

Very much with you there, Prague is a favourite SGP of mine, but Easyjet are currently quoting £306.98 to fly out fly out of Edinburgh Friday and back Monday. Unless that changes, which is unlikely, I will be giving Prague a miss in 2026.

Haha you are on form!

There is a cheaper alternative……..it’s called cycle speedway😀

As we have a chance for a major reset in UK speedway, I’d like to ask any mechanical boffins how easy is it to make the kit massively cheaper? You can’t just change regs overnight in a big way as that sees riders with expensive & unusable out of date parts but can costs be driven down with minor tweaks as time goes on? A speedway bike will always be a speedway bike but it would be nice to have a cheaper alternative to the highly tuned rocket ships currently blighting the domestic scene.

Buster was looking at buying the club a couple of years ago to keep the league going .. problem is, if it's someone new coming in they don't get any say in what happens at the BSPL

Four ex promoters, all fighting back the tears whilst describing their own tales of woe regarding the loss of their teams. Developers, said the first. I couldn’t make it pay said the second, I really tried. My landlord kicked us out, said the third, they didn’t want us, it was so sad. They look to the fourth as they all hold hands united in sadness and ask, what about you? He replies, sobbing, I didn’t get my own way this time.

And he hasn’t done that has he Iain? You haven’t got the first clue what is going on so pipe down. It’s not your money or business at stake here. If Louis feels what is currently on the table isn’t something he wants any part with, he’s perfectly entitled to make that decision. His money, his business.

There's been better clubs than Ipswich that have failed to sell, what you don't do as a business owner is close that business down to sell it, you sell it as a going concern to realise the full value. Emotions are obviously running high down Suffolk way at the moment and I hope Mr Louis can find a way of collecting his toys up, putting them back in his pram and start acting like a true custodian of a Speedway club with a strong and loyal fan base.

Fair play if he can afford to buy Poland just by pulling his sponsorship of Sheffield.

What Chris has single handedly done at the moment is seemingly closed his own club down, with no "assurance" that they'll be running next season.

The value of any club is questionable and depends who owns the track and stadia. To categorise what may be for sale, firstly you may have the assignment of the lease where a club rents the track but the landlord is unlikely to agree where the terms of which do not match the current lessee’s obligations. if you overcome the assignment issue then a sale in terms of assetS will be determined by a fair valuation of what is on the balance This will include the security deposit paid to the BSP, and a few other fixed assets and I suspect that rider contracts are not binding on transfer of the business ownership and the renewal thereof will be based on a number of factors. After the foregoing it is reality what is left in terms of fixed assets such as graders, air fence, track prep machinery and anything which one could consider as a fixed asset. Who really knows the value of a club/team/track but is a lot less that most sane people are willing to pay and notwithstanding the good will based partly on the supporters etc, no one would pay more than a £1.00. It is not a sound business proposition as it stands as the return on equity is nearly non existent. Maybe ideal for profitable corporations as an offsetting tax opportunity exercise but basically you would need to be as mad as Mar h hare to put money into a sport the way speedway is currently run

I suspect there are very few clubs these days that are worth much at all. A would be investor will usually need deep pockets as many have found out over the years.

I would if the play off four weren't set in stone by the end of March...... Your promoter has thrown his toys right out of the pram by the looks of things.. I had huge respect for him but he has shown he is as inward looking as the rest of them, when I had high hopes for him to lead the sport... Cometh the hour. Cometh the man... He, seemingly, has "ran off".... Which. Is a huge shame for the sport, given that Chris was genuinely one of the few who could see the potential of it, if it could be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century... A sad loss...

And you still wouldn’t turn out for the “qualifiers” 😂

I agree. I get the whole game is up in the air but I think a congratulations to PK and thank you toJeppesen would be appropriate. It doesn’t need to be much but something would be nice.

That's just not true. All sports have good and bad matches. Speedway can be incredible and mediocre, like every sport.

From Edinburgh/Glasgow, down to Poole/Plymouth, the league would cover a fair few conurbations, with several million people living in them, and look like it fully covered the country, pretty much from top to bottom.. "Northern Tours" for all last seasons Premiership teams' fans on Friday and Saturday may even get coaches and hotels booked and "supporter's clubs" could maybe rear their head again... Sheffield on a Thursday, the NSS on a Friday and "further up north" on Saturday would give the more southern based clubs' fans, even more of a "Northern Tour".. With the clubs in the further north all riding Friday and Saturday it would be perfect in getting a fair few away fans there from teams who haven't even been there in some cases, and not been there for a good while in others... Who knows, maybe clubs could package special offer reduced price deals to the away fans to encourage their attendance..? Ipswich on a Thursday and maybe KIngs Lynn on a Friday could also deliver some "East Anglian Tours"... Sheffield/Scunthorpe on Thursday and Friday could also get some away fan traction... And there will be many other "mixing" which could take place to "get an away crowd" there... There would be a big novelty factor which should be rode to the max, until it came to its inevitable end.. By which time, you would hope that the sport was on a clear upturn and big momentum was in place to keep it growing...

Yeah British Speedway is as dead in the water as Arne Slot's career at Liverpool. Klopp will save Liverpool.......Nobody will save British Speedway though.

These days what do speedway clubs own if they are for sale. It appears due to rules the clubs don't own any rider assets they are just employed from march to October, most clubs only rent a stadium from a 3rd party. The only asset I can work out is the licence from the BSPL to run speedway, and as it stands unfortunately that won't be worth much the way them in charge are carrying on

The fans that Mr Louis neglected to thank while just about name checking everybody else in his self absorbed statement?

It’s all very quiet on the bandits front. Nothing on social media, the last post on the website was “part one” then nothing. “The dirt extra” which I really enjoy hasn’t had a new post since before the start of this past season. Oxford congratulated PK on his wedding, nothing from Berwick. I’m not expecting groundbreaking news but maybe a little interaction with fans wouldn’t go a miss.

Pride of the East - Unofficial King's Lynn Speedway Podcast

The 3 meetings he turns up.

Two leagues made up of riders available following the demise of the Premier League and loss of the very best riders seems the most sensible, especially since only one of the leagues will need to support full time riders. Don't forget, this situation has been brought about because the majority of the BSPL promoters of whom the majority are Championship club owners didnt want the existing league set-up to continue (exit Mr. Louis) Also, given the BSPL/ACU/FIM structure, such a move will not be acceptable to a good number of those remaining riders given that Nora meetings would be the only ones they could ride in anywhere in the world speedway/long track nor grass-track including GP2/world under 21 and other junior championship. All those folk who wanted one league may not be getting their wish, but they are getting the best solution to providing speedway with the less number of riders available - We should always be careful on what we wish for!

He has said he isn’t running in 2026 & the club is for sale 100% clear as day. If someone buys the club it runs if no one does then no speedway at Ipswich. Simples

Just to think 3 weeks ago we were all heartbroken because Emil wasn't coming back 💔 Have to say I'm absolutely devastated about this news, can't process it tbh. So if we can't sell and Sheffield can't sell what is the future for "top" speedway in 2026?