Hawk127

Just reading the local Ipswich Star and Louis is quoted as saying “the club is being sold” This could mean that someone is already in negotiations to buy the club otherwise you would probably say “and the club is to be sold or up for sale” Hopefully someone is already interested and this has been on the cards for a while and only because it is get near closing a deal the announcement has been made. I know it is anyone’s guess but fingers crossed the witches come to the tapes in 2026.

As an aside, I see Swaffham raceway is for sale at £1.6m so if someone has deep pockets you have a ready made arena and probably a better chance of gaining punters rather than Northampton albeit I guess Kings Lynn would not be happy but hey, it could be for the good of the sport so some sacrifices need to be made. No one really complained when you had several tracks operating in London at the same time. It says the current owners would consider leasing it.

Grasping at straws, are they saying farewell to Chris and Ritchie or to the club?

If anyone wants some lightness from the gloom and doom, tickets for the 2026 World Cup in Poland go on sale next Tuesday with prices starting from PLN 69.00. Tai has signed for Dackrana, Prague, Riga and Voyens GP tickets are also on sale. At least the entire world of speedway has not collapsed yet!!

The sport in the UK can no longer command the participation of the top riders in the world and I would rather see the sport reinvent itself and have a five to ten year plan to get back to its halcyon days of having riders who can really compete at GP level rather than see any more tracks fail. I If buying that time means bringing other disciplines into the equation before the sport shrinks into oblivion then that is what needs to happen. Meetings need to be events and the likes of short track could/would form part of the show. Stop being so superior, short track is and could be the saviour of speedway with another option to the two wheeled sport discipline that is speedway. Even speedway riders could compete which takes the pressure off the income potential from speedway. Kings Lynn appear to be leading the way next year and more tracks should get in on the act.

I suspect no one on here knows why the decision has been made but with a number of the staff at Ipswich stepping down clearly all is not well on a wider scale. Someone may well step in and take over the club but the Louis connection is a hard act to follow. The main hope is that the club and sport survives in Suffolk and I think that must be the hope for the sport as a whole. Speedway cannot afford to see tracks close and at whatever level the sport ends up racing a Foxhall, it is important that speedway continues. Fingers crossed.

Is that because he simply does not share your view about the sport and the wider view of those gullible fools who run other clubs and the sport. It is his money and investment and if he feels that the investment is a waste of time and to have put a lot of effort into building a sound business proposition and having tried to draw in news sponsors to the sport simply to be shafted by events beyond his control who is anyone on here to criticise when it’s not their money on the line. I really don’t get the view that if you don’t do what someone else wants then they are being selfish. As I have said, everyone is entitled to to opinion but the investment in the club is not yours or mine and if it is time to call it a day than who on here has the right to criticise that business decision and say it is wrong.

Just maybe he has had enough of the way the sport is run by amateurs and if you knew anything about the sport in Suffolk and was a local you might well have a different view but you are entitled to your opinion.

So sad given that the supporters and many others fought to save the club back in the 90’s. Whoever takes over, if it happens, will have lost that true Suffolk/Ipswich bond of Louis family at its heart with a club that has, on many occasions plied its trade with the local riders over the years and as such a speedway tradition may well be lost forever. Heartfelt thanks to Chris and his family for what they have done for speedway in Suffolk and beyond and hopefully his experience is not lost entirely to the sport. Now all that is needed is to find sufficient local folk with the wherewithal to take over the club to keep the sport alive at whatever level in Ipswich so that the proud tradition of speedway at Foxhall continues.

For the vulnerable/gullible on here is he still riding? I’m sure I heard he was now plying his trade Bahia Blanca.

It’s a joke.

Perhaps riders at 6 and 7 would be allocated to a club based on the day of a week that a team is riding. For example you have a pool of 6 and 7s and you pick the ones that ride best on a wet Wednesday evening on the south coast. That policy would in part overcome the shortage riders with the top five making up the regular team and then race two home and two away and bobs you uncle, no need to double up and riders would broadly earn the same as they currently do riding for two clubs. It just takes thinking outside the circle👍

It seems a few are blaming Ipswich for the current impasse yet no one on here or in the wider speedway fraternity knows that for a fact. It reasonable to assume that if you have fought to build a business to a certain level that sells a product to a local audience who buy in to what is on offer you would fight to protect that format and opportunity. Each club can do the same but regional cost factors and marketing determine where a club sits in selling what is on offer to a local audience. If the current top tier want to throw money at another team to protect the format then why not take the sport back to Swindon with a track in place and underwrite the costs but that is not going to happen. As to rider availability to fill one league or two look at a mix of young up and coming British riders and those plying the trade on the European circuit (excluding Polish riders) and riders further afield where the regulations permit them to ride in the UK. It does not have to be all gloom and doom but as it stands the arguments on here as to the right or wrong way to go forward are nothing more than personal opinions from those who have no financial investment in the sport. It is always easy to tell others how to spend money. Few people know about speedway and frankly Joe Public who are outside the limited number of followers of the sport really could not give a fig about it and far too many in the UK have any knowledge about speedway or who the top riders. They are not household names. Accept that the sport in this country is a pastime that no one really cares about and it does not register on the social scale of things one must view/follow. It has had its day in the current format and needs to reinvent itself to get recognition amongst a wider audience and that is not going to happen with the current set up of club owners or the body that runs the sport.

Whilst many advocate keeping today’s top riders gainfully employed in the UK at a cost that no club can afford without generous sponsorship, that is a questionable position hold in the overall scheme of things. All who dismiss the lesser known riders and those coming through the ranks at NDL level as not being worthy, please explain where tomorrow’s top star riders are going to come from. Doyle, Lambert, Bewley etc. will not go on forever so where are the stars of the future coming from in the UK. The sport in this country does not have the facilities that the likes of Poland have who are able to have a conveyor belt of talent. Something has to give as the sport means diddly squat to all but a few thousand punters, it does not make good live TV and from an investment aspect you have to be a raving lunatic to put money into a business model where the terms of running are dictated by people and factors over which you as the club owner rarely have control. The sport can survive and rebuild itself but it will never attract a mass audience in the UK to warrant big pay days for the top riders in the world so it needs to cut its cloth accordingly and all the banging on about the need to keep the top tier and top riders and TV deals are just topics that can be debated to death but the reality is that outside the loyal followers no one is interested or listening and while many ideas put forward on here have some merit it is it is not going to influence the way the sport is run now or in the future.

Agree and last year they had a flurry of announcements in early November with Tom Brennan being the final one on the 12th November. Not a peep from anyone involved in the top tier. It is not looking good. Perhaps having some Championship clubs announcing signings is a way to divide a conquer the one league idea and a shot across the bow of the Premiership. Who knows but one thing is for sure, those on the top table will let the punters know what is going on when they are good and ready and not before. The war of words between various supporters on here can continue unabated until such time something is revealed. One thing that is certain, whatever the outcome, you will see speedway at Foxhall in 2026. Chris and co would not walk away after all the hard work that has been put into the club and the loyal support from folk across East Anglia. A parting thought, should we read too much into the signings by the Danish sides with the likes of Doyle and Bewley pretty quick off the mark. Could it be a sign of a reduced number of rides in the UK?

Best not tell Starmer about his other job. How come Rachel from accounts has not found out about the gold mine that is known as speedway? Riders doubling up and earning twice as much as they declare, promoters taking cash at the turnstiles, overseas riders popping into the UK for some extra cash without paying tax and meetings taking place under the guise of an amateur sport. Need to get a grip and deal with all the tax avoidance going on. Alas a non dom status is but a pipe dream and then reality hits home. Then you realise the majority of clubs hide the true financial state and without an undisclosed cache of funds the sport would be dead in the water. Is speedway run by the Masons. Why else is it such a cloak and dagger arrangement with a failure to be open. Only joking but why do those in charge hide so much and keep the supporters in the dark

Is that the latest version of the Good the bad and the Ugly starring David Lammy ?

Don’t know but I am sure they have a few old farts running around.

Banger racing?

Far too expensive. They need to start nicking sachets from hotel rooms together with the sugars, tea bags and the occasional hot chocolate for those special and memorable decision days. They could also take the biscuits.😂

Don’t be silly they cannot afford coffee😄

It could if you stop the tail wagging the dog. Riders who want to double up can ride in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. If you had one league of five rider clubs with two home and two away meetings surely that would see riders pay broadly unchanged. That may also ensure that the youngsters come up through the ranks getting second half rides. Where do today’s supporters think riders came from in yesteryears. They came from the second halves, eventually rode at 6 and 7 in the second division, then the main team then progressed to the top division. Without that support at the lowest level, the pipeline of riders dries up and the sport is dead in the water. The talent is out there it just needs nurturing and that includes backing from each and every supporter.

it should revolve around whatever day best suits the club and its customer base. Many on here are advocating that clubs should do this or that for the good of the sport as a whole but in fairness it is not their money being put on the line. I certainly do not agree with many things those in charge do and those who are the custodians of the sport have brought it to where some clubs find themselves now, but until you have an independent body running the sport including central rider contracts and riders payments coming from the governing body (funded by contributions from each club) so as to get rider costs under control and get some stability to that element of the financial side the sport is going to continue to be unmanageable and will eventually price itself out of business. Speedway U K needs to get a grip and reinvent itself and stop staggering from one annual crisis to the next. One final point slightly off the subject but the speedway website still shows TNT as broadcast partners.

I think everyone needs to wait and see what unfolds. Unless you are on the top table it is just here say and talk of the likes of Ipswich being put up for sale is rumour mongering with no real concrete evidence. The only thing that is nailed on is that speedways top tier in the UK is facing a crisis that it has not been seen in many a year. However as a sport it will survive given who is left even without the top tier and just maybe speedway UK needs to reinvent itself and come back with a completely different business model that provides some form of entertainment to a wider audience who are not the fickle diehards like those who currently turn up week in week out for league meetings and want nothing else. How are second strings suppose to make it if they do not get track time because no one on the terraces is interested. To see how far behind the media coverage is in the UK You only have to look at the current news on the Ekstraliga.pl website and the FIM website to get a feel for what is happening in Europe and realise that the sport in this country is so far up its own backside the rest of the world does not exist and it is being left behind. Logistically it must be a nightmare for riders to have equipment in various locations, employ mechanics etc and then ask yourself why would any contemplate the commute to the UK when travel around the rest of Europe is far easier. Speedway in the UK needs to adopt a domestic policy for the local fans and participate at international level at the various competitions on offer and try and attract international meetings with test matches against those competitors willing to travel over here. Stop pretending speedway has something to offer Joe Public, it does not and unless you get back to grass roots and pursue the hard sell involving various disciplines not just 15 heats of borefest and riders dictating when and if they will get out on track, the same old same old does not work. You might just as well have team racing in any other two wheeled sport. Speedway needs to be an event each week, not just a match between fourteen riders.