YeOldPitGate

Doesn't Tomalin have deep pockets assuming he's willing to dig into them ?

i don't think anyone expects the ship to be turned around in one go, but harking back to the plymouth example they have made the wise move of running on best night for their punters and this year they have learned from the Klindt issue and signed two english based riders and i would imagine they will try and do likewise with the other five. So they should have a situation where they are running on the best night, the seven riders barring injury should be present fo 80-90% of home meetings they can then move onto getting sponsorship and improving track and stadium facilities. Its lots of small wins built on top of each other that win the day we just need to see even a handful of small wins to start things off that's the issue at present.

Like him or loathe Matt Ford is a shrewd businessman, I think he saw this coming several years back hence his decision to drop down and lower his annual costs by 30-40% and it sounds like Poole's fan base numbers have held up well even allowing for the drop in rider standard on show. It would also appear from the article they are generally making a profit on most meetings which is unusual for most clubs these days. I think as I've mentioned before Ford now realises he made a mistake not unloading the club when he had Holder and Ward in their prime and Sky were involved I've no inside knowledge but some on here who may have, indicated he wanted to much for the pirates. I guess now he's happy to take a draw of profits from the club as most meetings appear to make money without him having to put any major investment in on his behalf and let things tick along at a sustainable level.

Could he still do a middle order job ?

Don't disagree with any of that Mike I'm really assuming that Peterborough and Wolves would have kept the basis of the riders they had from memory poles and russians who rode for Lynn and Peterborough 3-4 seasons back. I agree Championship is the UK's level now , if the top league survives for 2-3 years I would be trying to get a championship style top league of maybe 12 teams and start scouring the globe for young aussies and young yanks (if there are any) who would be committed to UK racing. I still think the biggest success story of last 12 months is Plymouth who are trying to do everything they can righ, running on best night for fans and it looks like they are trying to build a team of mainly UK based riders so barring injury you should see the same 1-7 at most home meetings.

' Didn't he want more than Woffy last time someone enquired about him.

Great looking team strong reserve all year.

I think it will survive at championship level for another ten years possibly, but I think at the top level its done in the next three years, real shame as you have Chris Louis showing what can be done, forty years of bad decisions have finally done for the top league. For some balance Wolves, Swindon and Peterborough would have likely have still been operating if they hadn't been kicked out by landlords so if that hadn't of happened we would have had a top eight premier league which would have given a fighting chance of having something to sell to fans, tv , sponsors.

Sounds like they have the type of deep pockets required Flagrag.

The lad looked a racer in his first season but didn't he look like he was still struggling with the injury/s when he came back to Berwick this year

Sadly as many on here have said this has been coming since I went in the mid 80's to early 90's with the gradual drop off of clubs, more competition these days for your pound than in 1985, Poland taking over as the main speedway hotbed, ageing fanbase also now catching up. Its taken a lot longer than I thought to arrive here and I'm not really sure how things can continue other than some other team being given a six figure sum to come up for maybe one season to get six teams for the Prem league to limp on for one more year. Even the above is difficult to see given most teams losing money and rumors of no tv deal to pay for the number one's, the arguments about a lot of riders probably leaving if no doubling up available also has merit so no easy fixes. I think the top league will be finished in 2-3 years if we had 8 Chris Louis promoters with some money to plough in we would be in a good place, i still think Buster loves speedway so keeps Lynn going but his aim is to not risk massive losses and to be fair being close to retirement you can't blame him. It could be in 3-4 years team speedway in the UK is over and it will just be various individual meetings 10-12 times a year if punters are interested. Even on here there's only maybe 50 odd of us knocking about praying that something turns up to save this once great sport.

Would love you to be correct 1 valve but bookies would probably quote 100-1 on the above scenario bearing fruit.

Again huge risk it would most likely have to be midweek and Peterborough to Lynn is roughly an hour each way without traffic hold up's , plus loads of boro fans not happy with Buster due to how it all ended at Peterborough, I can't realistically see more than 300-400 people turning up best case so whoever took it is most likely looking at six figure loss .

Come on Noaksey give us a few more hints ? lol

Yes I think that's the fella

Is the chap who used to sponsor them through the double glazing firm still involved ? could he be persuaded to step in again ?

Is that for top 5 or top 6 ?

Good looking side if Hagon can get his confidence back at reserve, Pederson looked good over here but was against weak opposition they would be the two question marks for me but think both would be worth the gamble.

Agreed and there's some really good youngsters in SGP2

Agreed Cardiff started out well as did much of the Grand Prix when it was created but post covid the crowds at Cardiff were well down and the year Dan Bewley won it on a dreadful track killed it stone dead in my opinion it was so bad like going into a Michelin starred restaurant and being served up a cold back street kebab most would never be going back. I would prefer the old one off world finals back but can't see it happening so long as Poland pulls in the crowds and they have monster on board they will carry on for a while yet.

Ha ha good old R87 straight in with the boot.

Always thought he might be good as an auctioneer.

I think Woffy has dropped UK this year to foucs on GP's

So long as he's guided right and avoids injury Steve, Bailey will be one of the biggest names in Speedway in the next 5-10 years from what I have sen of the lad. Rushden looks really good also but personally I think Bailey is slightly ahead of him at the current stage.

Quite a few have other business that make money and they can offset some of the losses they make at the speedway end of things against tax at the successful business.