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Just been listening to Talksport and 'Arry was on (for a change!).... Very disappointing... He spent his whole time on there discussing Spurs and Thomas Frank, with the end of his conversation mentioning the sad passing of Billy Bonds.... I thought he may have at least mentioned his thoughts on how the Berwick team were shaping up, or maybe what he felt about Peterborough potentially coming back, but running at Oxford, or even his views on whether opening a track at Northampton would be good for Speedway.. Nothing... Just Football.... Maybe his life long love for the sport has ended?

... meanwhile in North Lincolnshire

Glasgow aren’t just being smart business wise for their own benefit either, losing them would affect all the northern clubs. Glasgow bring a big following to Berwick for sure and I’m sure they take it to the other northern venues too, they’d also lose virtually all the away support they get at Ashfield. It would be a lose lose situation for those with the most at stake. There is nothing “brave” about what the teams in the Premiership are doing, it’s business suicide for most, you just need to look at recent history.

Entertainment wise? I would suggest with Glasgow, Scunthorpe, Redcar, and Workington, the second tier, overall, delivers better racing... With, the NSS being the only top tier track that consistently delivers a similar standard...

How about a little respect for keeping speedway going for nearly 60 years in their remote outpost?

As much I praise my club for putting out a statement committing themselves to the premiership, I really struggle to see what actually is the premiership. As it stands it's Leicester, Belle Vue, Kings Lynn. Being commited to that is something I am not looking forward to. If we can add Ipswich and Sheffield to the mix we're getting somewhere, but as of now we have no idea what's going on. I'm just so frustrated that every single fan has seen this coming, for years in fact. We all knew Birmingham would shut soon, we all knew that Oxford would drop the premiership but it's almost like the powers at be are surprised! The idiots that run this sport have clearly been living in fantasy world and haven't been prepared for this situation at all. It's embarrassing and complete chaos.

A few years ago, somewhere in the UK, when they had ten teams down from eleven the previous year... "Great, one less team this year, I could maybe get some of their riders and make my team better".. Then, the next year when they had nine, down from ten.. "Great, one less team this year, I could maybe get some of their riders and make my team better"... Then, the next year when they had eight, down from nine.. "Great, one less team this year, I could maybe get some of their riders and make my team better".. Then the next year when they had seven, down from eight... "Great, one less team this year, I could maybe get some of their riders and make my team better".. Then the next year when they had five, down two, from seven.. "This is absolutely ridiculous, we cannot run the sport like this, something should be done about all these tracks closing, there isn't enough teams for my team to race against now. Some of the second tier teams need to come up to my league. Some promoters are so selfish, and just look after themselves, they should all be like me, a proper team player"...

Sorry to say that I am not one of the parties mentioned in attempting to buy Ipswich - I do hope they find a buyer however and manage to make it to tapes for 2026!

It might be a case that we just have to accept the sport in the UK at the level we have known it previously is now over. I mentioned before i stopped going in my late teens in the early 90's when I discovered nightclubs , fast forward 33 years and nightclubs that pulled in thousands of people on a Saturday night then are all gone. The nearest city to me had 10 night clubs in the early 90's now it has one tiny one, and loads of pubs have closed over that time frame also, places that from 1990 -2005 if you had said to me one day all these will be gone you would have thought never going to happen but it did. Its accelerated since then with social media really taking off a lot of the youth of today have near zero interest in going out, online gaming, dating app's so you don't physically have to trawl out rounds pubs any more looking for a likely partner. Why bother with restaurants get Deliveroo to drop off a pizza to your door, Blockbusters video gone the way of the Dodo when streaming caught on. I occasionally look back at threads on here from 10 years or so back, and there's loads of names I come across who are no longer posting, I would guess there is maybe 50 of us die hards on here now posting and hoping a miracle happens so even this forum is probably on last knockings. Really sad how its ended up all be it the sport has actually limped on for far longer than i thought it would but these days its a struggle to attract punters even when you are offering a professional leisure opportunity let alone when you are trying to attract people to a sport where the riders all ride for different teams every other week and after the first month in you can pretty much guarantee every week from the two teams on show there will most likely be at least 2-4 of the combined 14 riders missing. It really does look like checkmate is nearing I would say one big league but the argument that there has to be some form of even dire top league to subsidise the bottom league as far as rider earnings goes does have merit as an argument, so it really is a case of least bad outcome. I would imagine it will be a five team top league in 2026 with a view to finding a sacraficial lamb to get it up to six in 2027 unless someone with a load of money and no business sense can be shoe horned into getting Northampton running in 2027.

Heard plenty saying it is a good side and should be up there. Not only Glasgow fans saying this. I haven’t seen one saying we will win the treble have you or did you just make that up.

No way would any proper speedway fan not care if another team had to close……but I can certainly understand why no Championship supporter would want their league or team compromised to protect a league that was failing through no fault of theirs.

Glasgow certainly could be in the premiership, but business wise it isn’t smart. Oxford and Birmingham prove that. Poole could be but financially would be a silly idea. If for example belle Vue decided to drop down like Poole did. They’d never want to move back up. The only difference between the leagues are the big names. Entertainment wise there’s not a huge amount in it.

Then don't run the top division at such a level... A five, or even a six team league doesn't look good if you are trying to sell the sport to sponsors, TV, and fans.. Whether reality or not, the top league in any sport is seen as almost defining it... Something to aspire to get into... Something that delivers decent financial rewards.. Something that gains the maximum publicity for the sport.. Instead, we could end up with a five team league that more resembles an "Invitational Tournament", rather than a bona fide "National Competition"... 14 teams collectively actually do make the sport look like it is "National", and not almost irrelevant, and does, geographically, cover a large part of the country... Finding a way to get them into one league further down the line, (before more tracks are lost), has to be the way forwards.. You would hope that the next 12 months are, in the background, spent putting together that one league structure and the sport then relaunches itself in 2027 with a new operating model, a collective marketing plan, and a financially sound business plan that keeps all teams profitable... There have been far too many years of "let's, once again, make do and mend", so they should make this the last one, running with whatever they can come up with... And use the next 12 months to work out a strong plan which will deliver progress and growth from 2027 onwards...

It is pretty clear / likely that no fixtures will be announced until after anything is confirmed. In the meantime, yes BSN "is a thing" and for a Christmas treat why wait till March, we're going to Australia for the Aussie champs and the FIM Oceana championship. £44.99 for 6 meetings. Fun for all the family and high possibility of Greg Blair fighting a kangaroo/snake/spider. You don't get that on TNT.

Well I think it’s a solid team, the 5 younger lads in the team are all on the up so should be worth watching. Hell even I might go and watch occasionally!

I was saddened to hear the news of the passing of Brian. I have known him since he rode at Workington in the 1970s and he was always exciting to watch. But I got to know him better in Redcar days, through my "gangs" road trips there over recent years. And Brian ALWAYS treated the Comets fans like myself with great respect. He always made a huge fuss with us from the moment we entered the arena, right down to ensuring the Comets fans got priority in the bar over any leftovers from the sponsors buffet ! Despite some of my gang asking him some very direct questions, he would always give them an honest answer. Not many non Redcar fans knew, but his involvement with Redcar even stretched as far as he personally emptying the bins after every meeting ! Rest in peace Brian me old mate. The Workington "gang" will miss you lots.

I'd rather have socks 😚

Agree 100% Speedway in this country as we know it is in a state of collapse, high wages, high stadium rents and dwindling supporters are the norm these days. GP standard riders wages are expensive AND if no team will meet there demands they take there ability elsewhere in Europe to ride which is fair enough. How many races have we seen in the past couple of seasons where there are two races in one? Top riders a straight length ahead of second strings or reserves battling it out together So as more teams fall by the wayside so will the GP riders. The way things are going at present within 5 years any teams that are left will have to have riders that are semi-professional racing mainly at weekends again, maybe back to the 13 heats and a second half once more where the supporters can watch the juniors improve week on week like we used to. This is the only way I can see speedway completely surviving in this country starting from the grass roots again and rebuilding.

Speedway is mental isn’t it. Punished for improving.

Give it a rest, Shovvy! Glasgow clearly living rent free in your brain for the past three years.

It’s the same company that leases Foxhall stadium off the owners. You only have to look at the work done on the heath to see that Spedeworth under Dean Wood is a decent promotion to do business with. It does show the major issues the sport has when for years a speedway stadium Eastbourne won’t allow speedway to be ran there even the the owners are a speedway family. Couple that with Louis a guy who bleeds speedway getting out tells you all you need to know.

The NPPF isn’t a statute in itself, but it is a material consideration in planning decisions and carries real weight. Local Plans sit underneath it, and the Local Plan is legally binding policy once adopted. In Peterborough’s case, Speedway/Showground protection exists in both national policy and the adopted Local Plan, which is a very different position to somewhere like Coventry. Coventry’s situation was complicated because of the long period without activity, gaps in their local policy wording, and the way the stadium and land were allowed to deteriorate while decisions dragged on. It wasn’t a simple case of “the NPPF was ignored” – it was a mix of timing, inactivity and local circumstances. It’s true that the draft new Local Plan is expected to remove the Speedway/Showground protections, but the current plan remains legally binding until a new one is formally adopted. A draft plan doesn’t override anything. Even if the new plan proposes removing the protections, that isn’t automatic — it still has to go through consultation, objections and an independent Planning Inspector, who can (and often does) reinstate policies if the council can’t justify removing them. And even looking ahead to 2026, it’s not a hard deadline. Protections don’t suddenly disappear — the existing Local Plan remains in force until the new one is actually adopted, and the examination process can run well beyond 2026. So the current policies remain usable for far longer than the headline dates suggest. Whether anything ends up in court is impossible to predict, but the core point remains: the protections exist, they carry weight, and they haven’t disappeared simply because the landowner or a headline prefers another outcome.

Competitiveness comes from teams of equal(ish) strength of course, not having a smattering of "world class" riders in the league. There's a "not enough riders" agenda whenever anyone mentions one league. The reality is that there are not enough riders of a suitable quality. It's not the same as there not being enough full stop. There are also not enough of these "world class" names to go around the top league in its current form. Hence having whipping boys like Birmingham and Oxford last season. The sport here wants to operate at a standard it can't sustain ultimately. A five team league is a horrible idea. It would be far, far too repetitive if the sides were to race a meaningful number of fixtures and then they'd probably still want to have play offs. Regardless of the quality of riders who might compete it would still be over exposure. Variety versus competitiveness has a sweet spot that it is probably impossible for British Speedway to meet in 2026, for me variety is more likely to make me go to meetings than seeing slightly better opposition but knowing they'll be coming to town again in a couple of weeks. And then again a couple of weeks after that. I suspect I'm not in the minority by having that opinion.

Think Glasgow are being smart rather than”brave”.Thats why they are successful business men. They have worked hard to get Tigers to this position ,no need to throw it all away.IMO

Unfortunately speedway has too many mercenary’s and hangers on for its own good, we missed a trick in 2020 to reset the sport onto a different better path and it looks like we are going to miss another chance and plod our way into 2026

Radio silence has been broken by Leicester! LIONS 2026 UPDATE LEICESTER Speedway wish to provide an update for our supporters on plans for the 2026 season. The club is fully committed to racing at Premiership level once again, and although the full structure and team composition of that league has yet to be finalised, normal winter work is taking place including discussions with potential team members. British Speedway’s AGM, where regulations are ratified, was recently postponed but several league meetings between club promoters have taken place. It is known that the league will take on a different look in 2026 due to the sad closure of Birmingham and the fact that Oxford have elected to scale back to Championship and NDL racing having previously operated at all three levels of the sport. Elsewhere, champions Ipswich – who defeated the Watling JCB Lions in the Grand Final – were put up for sale recently, as were Sheffield prior to the end of the season. But Leicester wish to dispel any rumours as to their own involvement, as they seek to build on the last two seasons which have seen them finish as league runners-up on both occasions as well as winning this year’s KO Cup. Co-promoter and team manager Stewart Dickson said: “I can only speak from a Leicester perspective, but obviously I know our fans are keen to hear what’s happening, and we hope things can be finalised soon. “We are having regular Zoom calls with the other Premiership clubs, and there is very much a will to continue with this league. “Leicester are committed to the Premiership, along with the other clubs which remain from last season, and obviously we’re hopeful of satisfactory outcomes at Ipswich and Sheffield, hopefully the sooner the better for all concerned. “We still envisage there will be a Premiership next season although we do recognise time is moving on, and ideally we’d like to have our team finalised and announced, and to be getting season tickets on sale by now. “What I can say is that we do know what the likely structure will be in terms of team building, and therefore tentative talks have been taking place with riders. “There are plenty of riders who have expressed a desire to be with Leicester next season, and I’m very confident we will be able to put a competitive side together once again. “So at the moment, and on behalf of myself, Paul (Cairns) and Jen (Crossland), we thank everyone for their patience and we hope to have some more news in the near future.”

Plenty of winter activities planned, how teams announce there lineup is down to them. Personally I don’t think there is a wrong or right way it’s solely down to what way suits them.

You make some very good points, I agree with a lot of your ideas. What the BSPL need to do now, is change all the negatives into a positive and have a total reset. Own up for once, say the structure is not working but we will go with what we have in 26 but the structure will change in 27. Now, if that's two leagues with the NDL included or if they want 3 with top riders then they will need to make it financially viable I would go with one top league followed up with a National league to bring the youth on. if clubs can't affford the GP stars or they won't ride for what is offered, then so be it. The sport needs a total reset in the UK, step back to move forward.

I’m fairly confident no Poole fans will be on this thread saying we should be favourites for anything. Disappointing signing, Edinburgh got the best of him last season bringing him in on a low average. If my maths is correct he averaged 5.91 after moving to number one last season so is on an inflated average due to his fantastic form whilst riding at reserve.

In terms of what I'd prefer, definitely an exciting team. Winning is nice, but entertain me first. An exciting team is usually competitive at least.

It was okay but they had to get the races completed before the sequence went back to red again at which point the race was stopped 🚦😜😂

And Scunthorpe!!

Great work from Glasgow as ever. They're in a different stratosphere to the rest. You know they'll completely maximise the angle of Hausl/Seychelles too, and rightly so.

To be fair if your taking a newbie to speedway Workington Redcar Glasgow Belle Vue are about the only tracks you know are a safe bet for a great meeting.

Great bit of publicity from Glasgow, showing the sport a way forward, meanwhile in the premiership they still can’t decide which bus to catch

Tomorrow full team announcement

Just a gentle reminder Iain, Brian was a fine rider for the Sunderland 'Stars' for roughly three years in the early 70's. This is very sad news. Brian was a very good rider who put 100% effort in to everything he did. Riding, managing and promoting. He was a very tough Yorkshire man who was a regular attendee at our Sunderland Speedway Reunions. I got to chat to him a number of times, both at Redcar and at our Reunions. I respected him. My condolences go to his family and friends. R.I.P. + Brian.

I haven’t ruled it out infact I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen but I don’t want it, I want 1 league, I want variety and as last year proved to me even 7 teams is not enough

It’s difficult to quantify exactly what the current position is. The current Championship clubs are continuing to announce signings which seems to point to: Premiership A potential league of five teams: Belle Vue Kings Lynn Leicester Sheffield Ipswich The obvious elephant in the room is that two of these need to find new owners and we are in December. Even if new owners are found, the still major secondary problem is that a five team league is borderline unviable and potentially value destroying. Is there really going to be a new ‘unicorn’ club conjured up from somewhere? Championship Everything is pointing to this continuing in the existing format with the existing clubs. If you believe some of the rumours, there is an active position that if any of the existing Premiership clubs wanted to join, then they would be turned down. Outcomes If there is a scenario where either one or both of Ipswich and Sheffield do not find a new owner, then the Premiership is toast. This would mean that either: - The Championship is prepared to expand and accept the rump of the Premiership clubs. - Three, maybe four (whatever is left) of the Premiership clubs do not come to the tapes for the 2026 season. One League for 2026 Arguably, with the number of signings already made by Championship clubs, the boat has already sailed on this. Either, the Premiership clubs joining the one league would have to build teams from a very shallow pool both in terms of numbers and talent or the existing Championship clubs agree to wipe the board and each participant club in the one league starts to team build from scratch. I really cannot see the latter option being accepted by those who would need to. Worst Case A number of Belle Vue, Kings Lynn, Leicester, Ipswich and Sheffield do not come to the tapes for the 2026 season. Four of those clubs do not have any current issues with landlords, potential eviction, housing developments, etc. If this happens, then it has to be the absolute definition of insanity on the part of those who bring it about.

I heard he fancied a home track with shale on it.

P!$$ing off the management possibly came into it!?😉

I agree. Top marks for wanting to make an effort to solve the problems, but sadly zero out of ten for execution. I'm afraid it's all a terrible contradictory nonsense. It would take too long to show everything that is wrong, but just to highlight some points: 1. OK, you want 1 league (we'll come back to the problems with that). But then you want just 8 teams in the KO Cup. So what do the other 6 teams do for those 2 months? That doesn't work. 2. You want a 42-point CL level for 14 teams. What's your calculation for this? The CL limit was 40 with just 9 teams. It would have to be much lower than this to staff 14 teams (even if there were enough riders available... which there aren't). You want a "GP or top-level rider at every team". So that's a Monday/Thursday league? Even then, where are you getting 14 GP or top riders from? And how do you fit all the fixtures in on Monday/Thursday only? No chance. 3. You seem to want a 16-heat format, with 3 nominated races. OK. But what about the other 13 heats? You say who you'd like riders to be paired with, but it just doesn't work. It's mathematically impossible. Are you wanting them riding against the same rider every time? It just doesn't work in any way. If you think you can make it work, please provide the heat-by-heat race format. (You can't because it doesn't work). - Then we have one point for a win and one point for a draw. Well, obviously that doesn't work, but it's ideal if you're trying to encourage race-fixing! 4. Well, we haven't got a workable race-format. But let's just assume you have everyone racing the same rider every race. Your GP stars would see their averages brought down to around 6-7. The best reserve would gain an average of around 8 -9 points. I'm sure you see all the problems with riding positions and bringing in injury replacement riders after the first green sheets. 5. Now, you're asking for a 7-days-a-week league instead. So if you're not sticking to the Monday/Thursday league with "top stars", you have just made about 25 "top star" riders unavailable. You now have no chance of filling 14 teams. (You talk about R/R, but this no longer works with your impossible race format, so you need a rethink on that too). 6. No disrespect to Connor King, Arran Butcher, Jack Kingston and Kai Ward, but your teams are an uneven joke. And you've only listed 4 "Example teams". Presumably this is because you have realised that it's impossible to fill 14 teams with a 42 point CL limit. (In fact it's impossible to fill 14 teams at all, as it would need 98 riders, and there aren't that many available). 7. A G.P. style British Championship would be a nice idea, but not economically viable without a big sponsor. A British Championship would need Bewley, Lambert, Woffinden etc, but they wouldn't commit to more than a one-off British Final (But it is the least impossible of your 7 items).

Until the sport reinvents itself, I don’t see how anything changes. You need salaried riders, a squad and no averages (for team building purposes) but you can’t do that, as no money, not enough riders or interest in the Sport, it’s not football where all you need is a ball. If riders can/do manipulate their average then you’re essentially watching a bent product, which was probably part of the *sports undoing back in the day. This is before modern stadia, all weather surface or preventable measures to minimise rain offs, then you may have some credibility, which is a starting point…but that is all it is.

He said he used to go and watch the Glasgow Tigers and Edinburrow Monarchs in the 70's when staying at one of his properties in the Scottish part of England... His favourite riders were Bernie Hawkins and Brian Collings, plus, of course, Barry Briggs, who he used to go out to dinner with regularly... He used to take his sons too, and they adored Bryce Penhall... He is quoted as saying... "We love Speedway, we really do. Speedway is great, and everyone should go to Speedway and Make Speedway Great Again".. He then adapted that slogan to base his Presidential campaign on...

It'll be good to see the European Ice Speedway final at Varkaus. Big respect to the Mustonen family and all the other volunteers at Varkaus.

Worky / Northside have been chosen to host the FIM European 125 championship in August. Maybe a minor FIM meeting, but if things go well and the bigwigs are impressed, may lead to bigger FIM meetings being held at Workington in the future ?

It's quite unfathomable that something that has been proven over the years to not work (and that was with a TV deal) and gotten us to the place that we are today... is something that they're striving (to ridiculous fantasy proportions) to keep!

But the idea that Chris '15 teams' Harris is 'faithful' was the funniest bit

You’re not that stupid that I need to explain,but here goes it’s doubling up, it 2 teams in the same sport,it’s conflict of interest, it’s a joke in a team sport that this is even a thing, sport teams are supposed to be territorial,it has no credibility whatsoever to the outside world looking in on our sport, is that good enough for you ?

5 team league. 6 , 4 or 3. It’s all the same really. A shambles that can’t be taken seriously.