YeOldPitGate

The signs were there when I went in the mid 80's after Penhall quit, the time Penhall was at his peak 80-85 was probably the peak time for speedway and Mike Lee who was another huge name started having his problems and declined massively mid 80's onwards. I had stopped going by the time Sky got involved and that slowed down the decline of the sport , the grand prix in my opinion hasn't helped and Poland taking advantage of the UK's long term poor planning and being asleep at the wheel for years didn't help either. You also have so much more to do these day than back in the 80's multi plex cinema's didn't exist outside huge cities, online gaming and dating wasn't a thing, Sky tv wasn't an issue, nor streaming services, youngsters live more indoors these days looking at screens for most of their leisure time. There have undoutably been some dreadful decisions over the years but given the changes in society I'm beginning to think the decline was probably inevitable the british pub industry is collapsing , nightclubs are virtually gone as a lot of the younger generation have no interest in face to face interaction.

Will was the biggest shoe in though since Mike Tyson beat up poor old terrified Frank Bruno in their second encounter.

True given an average age north of 65 might want to get a lorry load of camping chairs in to sell on opening night.

Your normally on the money with your sources Phil but hopefully this time its heresey

You only have to look at Oxford running two teams for their own fans to see how it would likely end, thankfully Oxford have survived and retrenched to a hopefully affordable level moving forward.

Sadly shows the state of play, the very best wishes to Mick and Co in their battle to get the panthers back but the fact the prem league is hammering on their door when they don't even have a track yet shows the level of desperation to find the sixth team.

Imagine Rob going up he can do with a fiver what Jesus did with a fish and a loaf feeding the thousands on the beech.

But if you were the Fords you would want the underwriting cash up front or held in a bank account outside of the bspa , plus could the other five promoters afford to pony up £100k- £150k upfront to cover off the possible losses.

Will be interesting to see i they manage to get a sixth club, it seems to between Peterborough who as far as I'm aware haven't yet had the green light to even return to the showground let alone rebuild a track and stadium, someone to pony up most likely 100k minimum to run a nomad team at Oxford which baring divine intervention will lead to a thumping loss, or arm up the back for a championship club to move up, I'm not sure many see either of these three options as a sound long term business plan.

I do get the argument for two leagues as things stand but I think on a 3-5 year plan they need to get a top league of 8 somewhere between the current two standards if doable , or maybe it is a case of the decline just can't be reversed as people are no longer interested in the sport in sufficient numbers. I was thinking today how nightclubs are almost a bygone era also I live near a decent sized city that used to have about ten clubs around the millenium i think there's now one (which is smalll), loads of pubs have gone also, my son's have near zero interest in pubs and same goes for most of their mates everything is online shooting zombies now adays it seems.

But if its six grand per premiership club per season Iain in the grand scheme of things its bugger all and I can't believe the likes of Gerrys chip shop as a sponsor will walk away given most sponsors are local and global reach really has zero effect on their sales.

If thats the case then maybe the loss of the tv deal is a nothing burger given its buttons.

Yes from memory Ian it used to be on a Sunday around midday, place was packed to the rafters, air horns, Tatum the villan to most, Havelock and Silver just starting to get up the rungs the top ladder , PC & Mort on the way down but still a handful. Great days.

Seriously as low as that or are you on a wind up ? and is that per meeting shown on tv or the entire season payout ?

I'm not in the know by any stretch Steve but plenty on here who are reasonably well connected hinted last deal was roughly 100k per club.

Sad to read that re British Final doesn't seem that long ago when it was held at Coventry with Wiggy, Tatum, Morton, Havelock, Silver, Thorpe, Cox, PC when you would regularly have 10k plus turn up.

Sounds like the name of Frank Spencers best mate

it could but with what we know so far if its two leagues they are trying to do all the right things to get foundations in place for a decent season.

Would be great but Rick was only prepared to underwrite things for a couple of seasons.

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.