Arthur73

Did anyone find out what the viewing figures were for the British Final on ITV4?

I was under the impression that Ekstraliga riders could only compete in 3 leagues (including Poland) prior to 2027 anyway. Surely that new rule would just be exactly what we already have?

Honestly Poole does make a lot of sense. With the new Poland + 1 league rule coming in there is no reason that we can't race on Wednesdays (and Tuesdays) in the Premiership. So there is no fear of switching days and they have increased their attendances recently. The question is how much more do they need to charge to balance the books if the Holders want to come back there? Also, it seems the management are not interested.

I'd love to see him back, he's a proper servant to British speedway better than some riders actually from the UK! Could Slater Lightcap from Poole slot in nicely at number 6? He might struggle a bit at the start of the season but he will be great by the end and has a fantastic future!

I don't really understand the idea of just pushing teams up into the Premiership, Workington and the previously mentioned Mildenhall don't have a big town or city within 45 minutes. How are they going to get the fans who will in the long run keep the team going? Make the gap between the championship and premiership bigger. Only riders with under 5.00 average can double up in the premier league. Also, all that money you wanted to invest in Workington, put some of it as a prize pot for the 2027 champions. Then Poole and Glasgow (and everyone else in the championship) will want to move up to get better riders and more money.

We should be supporting all clubs at this time not wishing that the championship is "finished". Poole and Glasgow didn't move up quite rightly because the 2 clubs who has done it the year before it had gone very badly for. When we get a Premiership that is attractive enough that teams want to move up they will. This could happen in 2027 but most likely if clubs see 2027 as a success they will move up in 2028. Poole and Glasgow are great clubs but they need to survive themselves. If both had been forced to go up last year and then gone bust we would be in a much worse position now.

I absolutely agree that the prices at belle Vue are good. I just think this needs to be reflected at other venues. When you turn 18 at Sheffield you go from paying £5 to £25. Students also only get a £2 discount there. I just think we're losing lots of younger fans from ages 18-25.

British speedway has been rather lucky with the Swedish tyre rule, new Polish ruling and Mayfield at Ipswich simultaneously. If we get a higher level of riders it will initially increase the crowd numbers. We need to maintain those numbers! So, the presentation needs to be much improved. We need better introductions to the meetings and more interest in the grading breaks to keep people coming back. Discussions with Plymouth and Poole who have increased their attendances recently would be useful. Student/young person pricing, better social media or generally local advertisement. This could be great for British speedway but we need good advertisement and presentation to go with it!

The BSPA need to pull their finger out and put some tighter rules on doubling up for Poole to consider coming up. Maybe you can't double up in the championship if your average is over 5.00 in the premiership. Also, changing the fixed race nights to add in Wednesday as we no longer have to worry about top riders also riding in Sweden/Denmark leagues. Poole should never be forced into the Premiership. We should have a system where it is attractive to be in the top league (like every other team sport!). If Poole think they will have Will Cairns at number 1 next season with a bunch of national league riders at reserve maybe they will move up so they can have a Jack Holder in the team. If the 2 leagues remain close there is no benefit of moving up. Poole continue to make money, get to the playoffs and have fruitful meetings at the end of the season in the championship while charging the fans £5 less. The Premiership is a risk with no reward at the moment.

The British Final being not as competitive is not a failure of creating riders now, it was a failure of creating riders 15 or so years ago. Charles Wright was the only rider aged between 31-39! 11/16 riders were aged under 26. Most grand prix riders are around 30. British Speedway actually has a decent future. Brennan and Flint ride in the 2nd and 3rd polish leagues regularly. Rushen and Cairns are some of the best U19 riders in the world. Maybe ITV will see the youth of the riders as a positive. Although, likely the viewing figures are the decider

I understand that there will be a drop off in talent that is true. With the polish league + 1 league rule coming in this will happen to a smaller extent anyway. We will likely still retain Jason Doyle, Tom Brennan, Chris Holder, Ryan Douglas, Tobiasz Musielak who all race on Saturdays or Sundays in the 2nd polish league. I don't accept that the premier league will become poor quality enough that it will be full of national league riders

I do think changing the racing nights could in the long run lead to more meaningful meetings and seasons. Glasgow and Poole may be more inclined to move up as their race nights match Premiership ones. Also, if this is paired with new reduced doubling up rules the championship will reduce in quality so both teams may want to move up to keep higher quality riders. 8 teams in the prem is already increases legitimacy. For relegation and promotion you then need all championship sides to want to move up. If Glasgow and Poole see a good increase in sales or return of results that will help massively. Edinburgh, Scunthorpe, Redcar and Oxford all race Monday-Friday so that's a good start. The other 3 teams race Saturday so might need more convincing however saying do you want to switch to Friday is much better than do you want to switch to Monday!

That is a fair point, therefore we just sacrifice the Polish 1st league riders for being able to ride on Fridays, it is worth a shot to potentially increase crowd numbers. Ben Cook, Max Fricke, Jack Holder, Jaimon Lidsey, Dan Bewley, Brady Kurtz and Norick Bloedorn are the riders we would lose currently. However there are a number of top polish league 2 riders we would retain. If it doesn't work then scrap it for 2028 and at least something was tried.

I personally would like to keep 2 leagues as I think one big league would cause a gulf in talent between riders and teams. I would like to make 2 simple changes for next season: 1. Premiership teams can race on any day apart from Saturday and Sunday. Championship sides ride on any day. - Riders can still compete in the Polish 2nd + 3rd division - More favorable nights for Poole, Glasgow and many other current championship teams - Polish 1st division riders would miss very few meetings if they joined a team without Friday as their race night 2. Only 2 riders per championship team can double up: - Aim to stop doubling up by 2029 - Allow a bigger gap between the championship and premiership as the products are way too close

I listened to the SGP interview with Richard Coleman in which he discusses similar and it did change my perspective a bit. We definitely can change the race nights to Monday - Thursday without trouble which would be ideal for Poole. However, if Glasgow want to keep Fridays it could present a problem. Every team that goes away to Glasgow will not be able to field a full team if one (or more) of their riders is in the Polish Ekstraliga meaning Glasgow are at an advantage. His comments about doubling up being a problem are good to hear as I think it undermines the integrity of the Premiership. I think it might take the death of the national league and the lowering of the age limit in the Championship to do it but I like the idea. Maybe to set the ball rolling new rules can be put in place to slowly see the change over multiple seasons (max 2 premiership riders in a champ team?).

Could the crowds also improve if Ipswich raced on a Friday night or on a Sunday afternoon? What the audience really lacks in my opinion is jeopardy in the league. The problem now is the playoff system means that the majority of fans don't need to bother much until September. If your team is last don't worry as there is no relegation. Also, you will see the same teams time after time as there are only 5 other teams. If we move all teams to the weekend then yes the teams will get worse but likely championship teams will be interested in stepping up. The riders are more affordable so the league will be more competitive, meetings closer and much more difficult to make the playoffs (if we keep that format). If we keep trying to bring in a few 'big hitters' it is more of the same. Why don't we try something and if it doesn't work at least speedway goes out with people trying to fix it instead of it's current wimper.

The reason fewer people came is because the event was advertised as a youth/academy event. In all sports fewer people will go to youth events with football being the major example! World Cup final tickets were £10,000+ but the U20 World Cup 2025 final tickets were £3. Anyway, my best example is I have brought a number of my friends from Uni to Poole Pirates on a few occasions. For all of them they had never heard of speedway before they met me. The favourite riders were Cooper Rushen because of his tassles and Tobias Thomsen because of his celebrations. The meetings most people have enjoyed have been those which are close and competitive in terms of points. It's just anecdotal but I think the general public don't know who Dan Bewley is!

I think your first point of comparing youth and senior racing has already been covered. I actually agree with you on the 2nd point we actually have a good talent pool and we will lose some of them initially. In the long term though young riders will only go to Poland when they are confident they will start. This might not happen until they're 25 as Poland's U21 system (rising star) is ruthless riders are pulled from the team meeting to meeting. The transfer from U21 to senior is also really hard in Poland, only the top riders can do it and they often struggle for multiple seasons (miskowiak). Britain is a much better place to develop from 18-25 than Poland. Therefore Britain can instead build up its own talent pool with only the top few going to Poland.

At this stage why don't we just allow the premiership to race over the weekend? Yes we will loose some top riders but this is a price we might have to pay. The general public don't know who Dan Bewley and Jack Holder are, they just want an enjoyable night out at a reasonable price. If clubs don't have to pay for the top riders then the meeting might be more affordable. Also, the racing is likely to be closer as more clubs can compete at a similar level. We always compare ourselves to ice hockey but they don't spend all their money trying to get players from the NHL over so why should we?

I've read so many of the comments on here and the more I read the more I think that going to one big league would be a disaster but maintaining the current structure but racing over the weekend works. I still think there needs to be selected race nights so that riders can still race in UK and poland 2nd division or Sweden. I think a deal with Poland where the UK races on Friday and Saturday nights, 1st division and 3rd division Poland stays the same, 2nd division runs on Thursday (they wanted to do this a couple years ago) could work. Thursday - Poland 2nd Division Friday - Polish 1st Division, UK 1st Division Saturday - UK 1st Division, Speedway GP Sunday - Poland 3rd Division, Poland 1st Division Riders who look to be racing in Poland 1st Division in 2026: Kurtz, Bewley, Blodorn, Lidsey, Sayfutdinov, Rew, Ben Cook, Kvech, Fricke, Janowski, Jack Holder The riders become cheaper therefore clubs find it easier to run and can slightly lower ticket prices and fans are more willing to come as the meetings are on favorable nights? Maybe I'm delusional?

If Chris Louis is saying this team is exciting I wonder if he's bringing in another 4.00 international rider, maybe then with Ellis at no.4 as well as the other usual suspects? Jonas Seifert-Salk (ideally) Francis Gusts Philip Hellstrom Bangs Dimitri Berge (on his old UK average) Am I being too optimistic!?!

1. Emil Sayfutdinov 10.10 2. Simon Lambert 4.66 [4.78] 3. Danny KIng 7.05 [7.23] 4. Patryk Wojdylo 5.00 5. Jason Doyle 9.12 6. Keynan Rew 4.00 7. Dan Thompson RS With Lambert definetly not at King's Lynn next year I feel this is possible

This is the best I could do with Doyle and Sayfutdinov and Rew at reserve: 1. Sayfutinov 10.10 2. Riss 4.84 3. Brennan 5.87 (6.02) 4. Wojdylo 5.00 5. Doyle 9.12 6. Rew 4.00 7. Dan Thompson RS Total: 38.97 Brennan has been very good at Foxhall in his last few outings so I think will cope at number 3 at home

I will say it was a very entertaining season, obviously Doyle and Sayfutdinov being the highlights, while I think this will be Hume's last season in the premiership for a while his determination and occasionally beating a big name was also great. The Ipswich management will have to wonder why a team with 2 of the best riders in the world has failed to make the playoffs. I think the main reason is still the rising stars. Failing to sign Kemp ( or Rowe) when the had 2 clear opportunities to do so has cost them and it was Kemp who scored 11+1 last night who has got the Lions into the playoffs. In the end we should be thankful we have a team to support and they have won a good number of meetings this season.

Are Ipswich's playoff hopes still alive with Leicester's loss today and Peterbrough getting Laguta?