YeOldPitGate

80's were brilliant 90's pretty good also my night clubbing hey days early to mid twenties great times.

Think there was 48 thou there the year I went to the world final in 86 when Gundo won it.

Boy those lads have put a shift in this winter .

The general impression is the number one's at the time hoovered up most of it and once the trough was empty most decamped to new troughs in Poland.

As we all know there are no easy answers we are probably now at the stage of least worst choices, another big issue with doubling up is given the acute shortage of riders in the UK when someone like Lawson or Wright for example retire its not one but two teams that then have a problem of being a rider short for the next year.

The difference when I started going in the early/mid 80's was vast Joe Owen was the king of the national league but really struggled even at reserve in the old british league. Jen's Rasmussen was a 5 point Oxford reserve he dropped down and was virtually unbeatable in the old second division. When Havelock & Silver moved up two very gifted young riders at the time it still took them 2-3 seasons to bed in to the top league before they started to kick on. Now days other than a handful of riders the bulk plying their trade in the UK can be seen in both divisions for different teams.

Webber would certainly have the kind of bags needed, can't imagine Crumpie would be looking to put anything in if he was involved given he has seen over the years how much promoters have lost money wise, all be it he earned well from his time in the UK.

Well at least Flagrags comments about deep pockets and big sponsors lined up sounds promising, he did mention the other side of the world re the new owners,can you imagine if the Glazers were getting involved that would please Mike no doubt.

Remember Virgin Cola

Good to hear Flagrag although I fear they may need the deep pockets, hopefully they have a credible long term plan and won't be off if the first season flops.

British based riders and running on a night to suit the fans are probably the two biggest drivers.

Good call in the 80's & early 90's you had bills like the mortgage, utilities and food but in the modern world you can add on as you say Sky, Streaming, Wifi, mobiles, subsidising kids mobiles ,easily another £150- £200 a month going out the door on things now viewed as essentials that speedway didn't have to compete against thirty years ago.

I think Ipswich made a small profit last year and I would imagine Buster breaks even as he own's the stadium but the rest I would imagine loose money year on year.

Doesn't the lad want more dollar than Doyle though for turning out, maybe Mayfield aren't going to be as generous with the wages as Tolley was last season.

Fair point re King and a weaker league this coming season, who ever swaps in and out of number six over the season Ippo should have the strongest rider in that position all season long assuming Northampton haven't gone for a similar strength in depth line up and have managed to get Anders Thompson reduced down to four points.

i think 99% on here wish them all the best Phil and would be more than happy to be proved wrong and it ends up being a resounding success. My worry is that it seems to have been rushed without any testing for public appetite for the Sport in Northampton. Given how hush hush its been I can imagine 99% of the Northampton population have no idea anything is even going on with the new season weeks away. Over the years I have seen numerous promoters come into speedway loose a bundle of money then exit a year later, if the other promoters are all going to chip in you still have a situation where Leicester and Sheffield both lost money last year, Lynn and Ipswich maybe made a small profit ?, Belle Vue no idea do they make money or operate at a constant loss. But you still have at least two of the five above who might be being asked to shell out a contribution on top of expected losses for 2026 and no tv money either. I would be delighted for anyone to say to me "i told you so" this time next year and i want to see the sport thrive but think it will need another Tolley character to finance a large chunk of it. Your way better connected than myself so hopefully the venture will be in experienced, long term planning, wealthy hands.

Spot on he is the key if someone can get him motivated again, he does seem to go better when he's not number one, it looks a solid side and if the rumours are true of the Swede coming back on a buttons average they should have the best reserve in the league all season long. The only thing I personally think is there might have been a better choice than King on his average I understand he's been a great servant but he will do well to maintain his average this coming season.

Is Greta free that weekend ?

Bonkers isn't it and certainly in the UK there's not the money coming in to warrant that kind of expense hence promoters regularly doing anything between 50-100k losses most seasons.

Thats my worry if true Dean taking on two tracks at the same time one of which has no speedway heritage is a massive risk. I really hope if its true they make an outstanding success of it as we would all on here be happy to have eggs on our faces this time next year. I just think whoever it is could end up doing a 100k-200k loss, lose interest and if it is Mayfield Ipswich are back in the melting pot next year and Northampton ends up being never touched again. You read about Leicester who have heritage, had Fricke, but still by all counts losing bucket loads of money (all be it racing on a night that suits the riders not the public doesn't help).

Remember Ian nothing happens with speedway until the building is on fire and the roof your standing under is at the point of collapsing on your head.

I wish them all the best but do feel its all been rushed and it would have been better to have a couple of open meetings to see if the crowds are there this year, I just hope that whoever is coming in doesn't loose a bundle and then jacks it in come October and where then in a worse situation than now.

Agreed would have been one of the few who could have made things difficult for Bartoz

I wasn't going in the early 80's but did see him when he returned to link up with Shawn at Sheffield in the Maurice Ducker years. From videos I have watched I would agree you probably had the best version of him when he was very young and the bad living didn't have so much of an effect due to his youth, when he came back he was still brilliant but probably 10-15% down on what he could have been due to a poor lifestyle. I was fortunate to see lots of brilliant riders but for me my top five natural talents in no particular order have to be Cowboy Cook, Kelly Moran, Mark Loram, Henka Gustaffson and Darcy Ward.

maybe a stroke can be pulled similar to ablitt