Steve Irving

I think it’s pretty evident that to a fair few Ipswich supporters, Chris Louis walks on water and can’t do a thing wrong. They’re going to back him no matter what. Which of course is their prerogative. As a neutral, he’s rightly being criticised by others because he’s treated his own supporters appallingly here.

Your point would carry far more weight if he wasn’t alone and others were doing the same. But they’re not are they? There’s four other clubs in that division, all four are not as well backed as Ipswich, and all four don’t get the numbers through the gate that Ipswich do either. And yet all four are prepared to battle on to save Speedway in the top flight while Louis has bailed. Louis has seriously let down the people of Ipswich and the amount of people coming on here and defending him is bonkers!

As far as I’m aware, he had no other job outside of speedway? So unless he made enough money out of his riding career to never work again (obviously not), then he simply MUST be earning a living out of Ipswich Speedway. Just like his Father John did before him. Id also bet that the 5k+ attendance at 24? Quid a pop (no season ticket admission remember) for the play off final has nicely paid for his little Holibobs to the other side of the world!

Yes, really. We’ll agree to disagree.

So Sheffield now join Belle Vue, Leicester, and Kings Lynn in confirming their place in the Premiership in 2026. Complete radio silence from Ipswich way leaving their supporters completely in the dark as to whether they’ll see any speedway next year. Meanwhile, the clubs owner has buggered off to Australia, at the most crucial time in the clubs history. Louis has treated the Ipswich supporters abysmally here I’m afraid.

Why are you believing anyone on here? You, or anyone else on here haven’t got a clue as to the genuine reasons why Louis has put Ipswich up for sale. @RoundTheBoards This time last year by the way, was telling everyone on here that Keynan Rew was definitely in the 2025 Ipswich side when the reality was, he’d long since done a lucrative deal with Birmingham! That’s the problem with this forum. You get an awful lot pretending to be “in the know” when the reality is 99.9% don’t know their @rse from their elbow. Another classic from last year was someone claiming to have been with Ellis at a certain weekend, until his father came on and said Adam wasn’t even in the Country, he was having dinner with him in France! LOL.

Jack Holder also fits Flagrag’s description of “great new number 1 who if can master the track, could push him on in the GP’s”. Fits Bewley also to be fair.

Which one?

Another one hooked. Don’t take the bait Iain, you surely know what he’s all about by now.

That was my initial thought reading Flagrag’s post too but just looking at the averages, Belle Vue finished on 39.77 (Although not the final GSA’s). So if it’s 37 for top six, they could keep the top two, and replace Lidsey with a five pointer and drop below the limit. PHB maybe?

Yes unlike Emil, he hardly screamed “commitment” did he.

Buster did complain after he left that the team was left “over budget” but I’ve no idea what financial input Brady had whilst he was there. Perhaps it was affordable to HIM, but after he left, not affordable to others?

Anyone know the real reason Brady walked out on Lynn? The “official” line I seem to remember was that he needed to spend more time with family and his other business, but there was all sorts of rumours that all wasn’t well between him and others behind the scenes. Brady seemed to be the ambitious one at Lynn, personally doing the Laguta deal himself by all accounts.

Well if he’s sold it, it no longer IS his problem is it? I’m sorry, I’m not really following your point here.

Nobody really knows do they? And to be honest, it’s nobody else’s business. He’ll have his reasons and to walk away from a club he’s spent all of his life associated with, wouldn’t have been easy for him. Everyone needs to respect his decision.

No longer his problem is it? It’s someone else’s. Almost certainly I’d say. He was interviewed during the season and publicly said he’d like to stay in the sport and he has himself a golden opportunity here. He was on a hiding to nothing at Birmingham, but he’d be starting from a much stronger base at Ipswich with a far bigger fan base, sponsors and set up.

There it is. You’re making assumptions on something you know absolutely nothing about. You haven’t got a clue what is going on Phil.

Could be the four I mentioned and one from the Championship or a.n other if Ipswich don’t get sold. If it IS a five team league, they’re simply going to have to change the rules and do away with play offs for next year at least. Top team wins the title. It’s the only way.

Belle Vue, Sheffield, Leicester, Kings Lynn, and??

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.

Judging by the attendance when Ipswich staged the “Tiger’s academy open” meeting a few weeks ago, including the latest Great British hope Cooper Rushen, I’d say you’re wrong and spectacularly wrong. Look, people on this forum are obviously die hard fans of the sport where any level of speedway is seen as great. But they’re in a tiny tiny minority. I’ve seen someone say on here recently that we don’t need the “GP Stars” because riders of a far lesser ability can provide “just as good racing”. But that isn’t reflected in the attendance the further you go down the Speedway pyramid. The NDL is pitifully attended. You can literally stand there and count the supporters in between races. So not many actually want to see “Johnny Local” making his way to better things at all. The hugely successful Championship that has their “house in order”, is also embarrassingly attended. You’ll get the odd anomaly such as Poole and Glasgow who get decent crowds by Championship standards, but they are an exception to the rule. The majority in that league have pitiful attendance figures. Any Poole fan by the way that comes on here and try’s to convince people that the crowd levels they’re seeing in the Championship aren’t that much different to the crowds they got when they had Holder and Ward ruling the roost, or Trick and Leigh Adams before them, are lying. Simple as that. The fact of the matter is, that attendances has steadily declined in this Country over the last 10-20 years, and that has coincided with an ever dwindling number of world class riders that ride over here to the point we now have only a small handful left. There are other factors as to why attendances have dwindled of course there are, but let’s please stop pretending that having or not having, the best riders in the world riding here doesn’t make a difference! Of course it bloody well does. Rider costs have spiralled out of control for the very top riders and any increase in attendance at tracks that manage to sign them, wouldn’t in all likelihood cover the financial outlay to get them over and that is the problem. It’s a catch22 situation unfortunately but getting shot of the ones we do still have, water the product down even further, and the death of the sport in this Country will gather pace at a rate of knots. You can forget any meaningful sponsorship or TV deal! Nobody will be interested. There’s a reason nobody, even back to the Sky Sports days, were remotely interested in showing anything below the top tier.

You bring in “rider control” and you then run the risk of pi$$ing off a large number of riders who are forced to either ride somewhere they don’t want to and for less money than they could have gotten elsewhere, or knock it on the head completely. The whole thing is a sh!tshow and there really are no easy and obvious solutions. No wonder the AGM has been delayed.

I have no idea why “Poole Keith” is laughing at your post. He (or she. You never know these days 🙄) knows damn well what you’re saying is true.

Question marks over Sheffield granted, but they’ve always managed to have a good sponsor, and they’ll pick up another one after tru7 I’ve no doubt about that. There’s reportedly “plenty of interest” in the purchase of the club, so remains to be seen how this one ends up. I stand by my point, Ipswich, Belle Vue and Lynn in particular would be plum clubs to ride for and clubs in the Championship that have already “signed” riders, would inevitably lose some of them. IF (and I’m confident there won’t be) it went to one league, everything done so far would have to be ripped up and everyone starting again from scratch. Pickering won’t be riding for Scunny for example and you can take that to the bank!

It’s not going to happen for many many reasons, but talking hypothetically if they went with one league then any deals currently done would be null and void. There is absolutely no way you could have all the current Championship clubs practically sorted, and then five clubs joining them having basically nothing to pick up. That just won’t happen and anyone thinking it would, are completely delusional.