1 valve

Gone but not forgotten. Fortunately there is a new breed of promoter who recognises the opportunity and the “how” to stop and reverse the current death spiral the sport is in. As in business the solution resides in an approach based on running a profitable enterprise not an affordable hobby. Big changes required, quite a few feathers to be ruffled and quite a few home truths to be learned. I hope it happens.

Back in the 70’s, a time in history when football hooliganism at matches was rife and speedway was the “family sport” (a phrase coined because of the nature of the fans behaviour which meant folk could attend meetings without fear) on track rivalry was fierce and indeed fans were tribal. Lots of chanting, massive amounts of loud cheering for both individual riders and respective teams. Rivalry was fierce and the anticipation of respective number ones going against each other raised both the tension and the noise in the stadium. And yes the racing was every bit a good as today. Coleman is absolutely right, rivalry & tribalism should absolutely be part of the experience, something that will add to the means of attracting returning or new supporters. Something the current sterile situation evidentially fails to do.

If Leicester had Kept Fricke, and was their choice not to, then make up of the main body of the team would not have been the same as what it is now. It would have had to be a lot weaker…..want to know how weak, look no further than Kings Lynn.

At least The FA own Wembley. So yes it is the home of football in England. Maybe the BSPL could buy Coventry in due course?

Maybe the engine, but not the whole bike as they are already in Poland

Lions have been very poor away from home recently and it’s difficult to see things being any different this time around.

The Ipswich promoter and rights holder for the GP’s has recently said the track must be greatly improved (altered?) to hold a GP. Maybe he is talking to the owners to see if that is possible?

He’s still number one for Lynne in terms of average . Yes, he’s down on his 2025 Leicester average but nobody is near to that number in 2026. The problem for the Stars this season hasn’t been Max.

Many think that. No doubt. There’s also a few who see UK speedway as an opportunity to grow something from the current mess it’s in into something, bigger and better. Lots of hurdles to clear along the way and the principal of “less is more” will need to be understood as a first step.

There’s plenty of Uk based riders who aspire to achieve the highest levels possible. Just that to do so they need to ride in Poland. It’s more the promoters who over the past decades have failed to aspire to “be the best” which is dragging the sport down.

What a lovely coincidence that the article is written by Phil Lanning, the son of Dave who for many was the voice of speedway on TV and who introduced darts to the TV world and now is son, is the Suns dart correspondent the very same newspaper for whom his dad was the speedway correspondent. Great to see speedway back on terrestrial TV.

Sadly, Matchroom Sport have previously looked at and are not interested in UK speedway. First and foremost because of the outdated and self serving corporate governance in situ.

A highlights show, broadcast at a reasonable time and not when everybody has gone to bed would be a good idea. However, the question I have is where would the consistent quality footage come from? All other sporting highlight shows are made up of recent events that have been shown live, or purposely recoded for the show. so unless BSN can be persuaded to license their footage it is difficult to see where its going to come from, nevermind whos actually going to edit and present the show. But as I said, good idea and I hope it can be made to work.

Only if they are in business. 🤞

The Polish clubs get significant support from their local authorities some of whom actually own the stadium. TV income works hand in hand with major advertisers and the clubs sponsors which enables the teams to fund the promotion at a profit (but sometimes not all of the time) the big factor re income and success is gate receipts. If teams do well and or the table toppers are in town then gates remain good. Not so if the club is having a poor season v another struggling team.