TigerIain

I was meaning for speedway, rugby and ice hockey. Partly because it avoids clashes with football which seems to be on every other night of the week and all day Saturday and Sunday (although normally lunch time on a Sunday for Scottish teams). It also allows a lot more parents to attend, and to bring kids (no school tomorrow and no clashes with weekends kids sports fixtures). Plus for people like me, you finish your working week, relax whilst watching live sport on the Friday night and still have the full weekend. I find that Saturday night or Sunday afternoon/ evening and to take up a lot more time as you can waste the day waiting for start time to come around. Monday and Thursday nights would just not be anywhere near as well supported in Glasgow.

I sincerely hope that you're source is the wrongest source that there has been! Tigers fought hard to get Friday night racing. Which is the preferred sports watching night in Glasgow. The promotion has done a lot of good, and hard, work to get lots of kids along which would be affected by going midweek. Plus they'd lose the fixtures that you look for in the calendar...Edinburgh, Berwick and Poole, and replace them with a lot of teams that aren't anything special (no offence intended) I know that the Facennas have plans for top level speedway in Glasgow but I don't think that the time is right. IF Glasgow were going to go Premiership, only Redcar and Oxford haven't announced their 8+ rider and Harris, Wright & Masters haven't been announced. Almost certain that Redcar have signed Wright & Masters is at Oxford. So would Bomber really be the rider to miss out at Championship level? And, where would Glasgow get a number 1 to rival Bewley, Fricke, Doyle, Kurtz & Holder? It's not like GP starts are queuing up to ride in the failing Premiership

He'd love Ashfield

Unlikely to bring masses of entertainment on a gate and go track like you have at Poole. In last seasons playoff final Bomber got nowhere near passing anyone, and he is currently the best rider in Britain at overtaking. If Bailey is as good as the hype (I've never seen him race) then his talents would be better displayed elsewhere. Hopefully he does get a Championship spot somewhere next year though as I'd like a chance to watch him round Ashfield.

Only Oxford, Glasgow and Redcar still to announce their number 1 (8+ rider), and it would be a major shock if the 3 didn't retain Masters, Harris & Wright respectively. Outside of Masters, I expect Kileen, & McDiarmid will have interest from elsewhere but will stay. I think it will be one of those 3 that are announced. Outside bet would be former Spire Victor Palovaara who might not be back at Edinburgh

Kerr, Rowe, Beau Bailey and Cooper Rushen were rumoured to be the other 4. Last 2 seem more doubtful now, and if they don't sign Rowe (who now seems to want more than Poole are willing to pay) there isn't an obvious straight replacement, so line up might need to be changed if it was Bailey and Rushen as they would start way under the points limit if you replace Rowe with a 5 point newcomer.

There hasn't been any info/leak/story about what actually happens in that scenario. Presumably that will be discussed as part of the overall talks. Can't imagine it would be straightforward as the 1 rider over 8.00 was to even out all the Championship teams. Whilst no one had been announced at Premiership level, I expect contracts have been agreed/signed subject to the league going ahead. Big crossover in riders though so would not be easy to solve! For example, allegedly Dan Thompson has been offered a large sponsorship deal to move from Ipswich to Leicester in the Premiership (before Chris Louis & Ipswich quit). Rumoured that he has also signed for Edinburgh in the Championship. Presumably then if its one big league he will want to ride for Leicester to get the sponsorship (which is based on him riding at Leicester). Edinburgh will possibly already have signed 6 other riders to fit just under 40 with Dan Thompson at number 1. If they lose him, then they would likely want to change other riders. Partly for that reason I hope it stays as 2 leagues. If Redcar are going to announce all 7, then they must be reasonably confident of being able to track that 7 next year. Hopefully it's a good sign if they go ahead with the announcement.

If that's the team, it looks solid. Hard to judge without seeing the other line ups, but it should go OK. My only thought is that it would really need someone to step up at number 5 as back up to Wright. Although if one of Allen, Jenkins or Edwards is on top form every match and the other 2 ride to average then i don't think that they'd be far away from any silverware.

I hope it's not Glasgow. I'm sure it's just coincidence, but his scoring and riding dropped off noticeably just before the end of 2024. It also happened that Rowe mentioned on a podcast that he signed a 2025 contract with Poole before the end of the 2024 season. With Harris, Howarth, and Flint in the team, Rowe would not leave a lot of points for the bottom 3. And if the rumours/speculation about Luke Harrison are true then Rowe does not fit in under 40 points as that top 5 would be over 36. Rowe also got his average on a gaters track that suits him better than Ashfield does. He didn't show anything last year that made us think that Glasgow should bring him back. Of the 5 I've mentioned, Rowe would be the one I would leave out. Maybe he fancies a season at Armadale? (11+1 from 5 there last season)

Is it just Bowes that they've signed? Or have they signed his attitude problem as well?

He's not 16 for a few months yet, so not is enough to sign for a Championship or Premiership team yet. Likely to be a NDL/NDT team, so probably Chargers, unless the pen is deliberately misleading

Pretty sure their only requirement is that next season is financially viable. So let's hope it meets that. For ALL clubs

Really??? Its basic business economics! If you are buying an ongoing business you would pay market value for it. If the buyer knows that the seller is not going to continue the business beyond a certain date then the closer it gets to that date the less a buyer would offer for the club because they no that there is no value to the seller after that date. In this case there will be a date by which Ipswich speedway (whoever owns it) will have to declare whether or not they are running in 2026. If Louis hasn't sold and follows through and says I'm not running in 2026 the club begins almost worthless as any buyer could not operate the business until at least 2027.

The uncertainty over Ipswich running may have left all the other clubs in limbo though. Fans don't know yet if it will be 1 division or 2, and if it's 1 surely that was relying on Ipswich running. Just because Chris Louis says he will work hard to find a buyer doesn't mean that he will find one, or find one quickly. Where does that leave the new Ipswich owner in terms of team building for next season? Would a rider take a chance on signing for a club that might not run or might not want them on their old promoters contract? Does the new owner just get left with the riders that didn't fit elsewhere? It's too early to know the answers to these questions, and it's Chris' money and business to do what he likes with but it has created more uncertainty in a winter that's not been lacking in that at all. Has he just undone all the work that was done to get to the slightly cryptic potentially good news from Rob Godfrey last week? Again time will tell, but at the moment it looks like Chris Louis has thrown a spanner in the works hence the negative reaction to his announcement

TruPlant pulled out of Sheffield what feels like a long time before Louis put Ipswich up for sale. It would seem strange then that Chris Louis announces that he is pulling out, and in such a way that questions the future is the Witches, if he is selling it to the main sponsor of the Witches. Anyway, if there is a potential buyer for Ipswich then lots hope it happens as the sport needs all the well supported clubs it can get.

I think/presume that there was a proposed solution prior to Chris Louis quitting. Today's plan was probably to go shopping with the family and hope someone else buys a speedway club (Ipswich). That would depend on whether Louis quit because he wasn't happy with what was agreed, or did he quit because they couldn't find up with a plan (for the sake of the sport I hope it is the former but I don't have any insider info)

Says it all about the Premiership when all of the posts about magicing up a 6th team were ALL talking about absorbing 6 figure losses. No one even dared to suggest that it would be a viable venture.

And the new Sheffield owners were going to be made to soak up the 6 figure losses of the magic 6th club. Strange that they aren't demanding the same from any new Ipswich owners.

The Facennas aren't trying to sell Glasgow

I think something needed to be done. At the start of last year Glasgow, Poole and Redcar looked to have significantly more top end strength and so it proved with those 3 clearly a level above the rest. There is no ideal solution, but better this than the way the Premiership went with the strong teams killing off the weak and possibly not having a league left. Speedway does not have the in built blind loyalty that football has. It needs all teams to be competitive (even if only at home) to keep the crowds that it has. Presumably the rule was written so that the top 9 averaged riders were split between the 9 teams and no one missed out, but the signing of Pickering put a spanner in that. Although, it could be that no one wanted Klindt after the number of times he seemingly chose not to ride last season.

FIM have announced that Ashfield will hold a SGP Challenge Qualifier on 30th May

Speedway had that before (1991-1994) and in those 4 seasons, 3 of the league winners refused promotion. It went to 1 big league in 1995 but the 94 winners had refused promotion in 93 and also would have refused in 94 for the same reasons. Those same reasons still exist in 2025 so I can't see it working

I assume you're referring to Dan Thompson? Someone with inside knowledge of Edinburgh has already said in a couple of threads that he has signed for Edinburgh Monarchs for next year. Big step up as good average comes from riding at 3 for the last couple of seasons, however he was brilliant round Armadale for the Tigers last year so he should be fine.

Are you Thomsen's Mum? Every time a Glasgow fan says that we don't want to sign him because he doesn't ride our track well and we think his average would go down, you whinge that we "don't like" him. It's nothing to do with liking or not liking him, we just want our club to sign racers that might increase their average and score a lot of points on our track, and hopefully on away tracks. Based on past performance Tobias Thomsen would not be a good signing for Glasgow.

I wouldn't say disliked, don't know him at all. There is no issue with his effort, the issue is that he doesn't ride our track well and is likely to lower his average. It would be a bit like Poole signing Bomber to ride your gaters paradise. I hope he goes to a track that he does ride well and has a good season there