YeOldPitGate

Has anyone heard anything around the future of Leicester I'm hoping Cairns snr isn't going to chuck the towel in after one season ?

Excellent that all sounds very promising just need to hope now there's some kind of league structure still in place for 2026 as these sound exactly the kind of people we need to attract into promotion. I'm not going to put you on the spot but I wonder if its the chap who has mountains of cash who backs Ipswich and is also supporting Sheffield from memory.

Your normally in the know Flagrag so fingers crossed that the new owners are experienced, know how to budget and have suitably deep pockets for the early days until they are bedded in.

Pray god no utter respect to the old boy for his enthusiasm and willingness to chuck money at the problem but I don't think even a combination of John Berry and Ian Thomas at their peak could make a go of Northampton in the current climate, would love to be proved wrong but just can't see it.

I do think doubling up will remain a necessary evil if they went two leagues of 8 home and away once to keep the likes of Masters, Harris and Lawson on side you would have to allow them to compete in both leagues , I'm really thinking maintain the current status quo but with eight teams shortened season over say four months May, June, July , August when weather should be favourable. Reduced losses also the first struggle thought would be to get the bottom four teams up to a half decent standard so they weren't getting whipped every week like Oxford and Brum which would somehow mean getting 3-5 additional top line riders back to the UK.

I do wonder if the best of pretty much a load of bad choices would be to somehow get both leagues up to 8 teams each then race once home and away then into play offs. Okay it's not many fixtures but look at the struggle every year to try and get matches over the line even in the current reduced format where your running into October cold nights/rain etc. Second given most teams rent/lease the stadium they run in, losses should in theory be roughly halved due to reduced number of meetings plus you won't end up seeing the same visiting away teams at home 3-5 times a season. As others have said the biggest conundrum is one big league won't work, so the most important thing is running on your best target market night and within your means, the progress made by Plymouth this year is a rare ray of light, the issue for them is hoping they have some teams to race against in 2026. The Fords and Glasgow management might be tempted up for a shortened 7 home and away fixture list on the basis of losses might be contained or they might even make a tiny profit if they get to play offs. Very few/if any good choices sadly but that's the best outcome I can think of the Poles run once home and away and are making a far better fist of it than the UK.

Ideally someone with plenty of money Phil, Nigel seems to have uber deep pockets but if he does come in pray god he gets a good team around him for once, so that he can hopefully break even rather than keep dropping 100-200k per season.

See Pederson unbeaten appreciate difficult conditions and not an uber strong field but does he look like an unpolished gem for someone to pick up on a 5 point average for 2026 ?

Winding up petition previously doesn't inspire confidence.

I don't think Brexit and Covid helped the number of Poles travelling to Cardiff seemed to drop off a cliff post 2020 and agreed the year Bewley one it the surface was truly terrible which would have killed 20-30% of the spectators from ever coming back. Despite being a far from ideal location Odsal did produce some great racing in the two world finals I witnessed there.

Counter argument London has nigh on 9 million population and not a single track.

All fair point but the 5,500 at Belle Vue is another sign of how far we have fallen granted at a push you could maybe get 20-25k at a British GP if such a venue existed it just doesn't seem that long ago when crowds of high 40's were at Bradford and Cardiff early days.

And lets be honest Mike a Monday is a terrible night to try and run any spectator event other than top line footie or mega singer event, its the first day back at work and most people have the blues feeling, a Thursday night would be so much better with the weekend in touching distance and only Friday to get through, but at least as you say maximum effort was put into shouting the event from the rooftops in the build up till last night.

What's the betting the campaign to blow it all up has been instigated by certain dark forces at arm's length it also noticeable that there's been lots of quotes of "if this doesn't work that's it Speedway here is done forever, never coming back" everything seems to be pointing towards a token effort being set up to fail.

Lets hope not the old boy must be super successful in his other business but he's blind when it comes to speedway I can hear the conversation now Stadium owner "Hi Nigel we have no speedway heritage the existing speedway clubs can't get an extra hundred new people in per season, you will need to find a thousand die hard regulars from the get go, Expect to drop a minimum of 100k per season, the track will be super narrow once the air fence is added and won't be conducive to good racing" Nigel after a one second pause "i'm in"

Plus they only meet once home and away which is a far better proposition.

Who ever does it is taking a huge gamble that probably has a 10-15% chance of working and they will need to be willing to drop six figures it just seems utter madness , we certainly need more tracks but if it was Louis this looks like the kind of experiment that would blow up massively and probably bring the witches down with it. If the stadium was in Coventry it would most likely be a goer but again start at Championship standard don't go all in on a huge gamble and the most expensive gamble of three options also.

I agree Mike and think this is the best chance for trying to steer towards a mildly better future even if its 6 teams in top flight they meet home and away once then into play offs , if you didn't get into the play off you would only get the one chance to see Emil, Holder Jnr, Kurtz, Bewley etc if nothing else it would reduce club losses. From the big six the teams those that wanted could then also run a team in the second division this would consist of championship standard riders who would commit to at least 90% of matches, these matches would be run on a night that best suits the club ideally not Mondays and Tuesday's. If three of the top league teams went with it this would give a 12 team second division once home and away then into play offs. The rising star to be used in second division sides not the premier league which has always seemed bonkers to me for every Rob Lambert or Screen that are good enough to go into the top division there's a lorry load more that are sacrificed to make the numbers up, You then have the issue where their confidence is shot to bits within a year and then they are lost to the sport forever, where if they progressed gradually they might never be world beaters but could be the new second division engine room types like Si Lambert, Howarth etc currently are.

Rob always runs teams to win at home on a shoestring budget he's not the kind of fella who's willing to repeatedly drop six figures every year.

Pray god its not poor old Tolley behind this huge expense to get up and running in an area with no Speedway following/heritage in the most expensive league of the three to boot.

Really hope for their sake they don't they seem to be slowly turning things around at Plymouth why risk increasing your operating costs by 30-40% going back to running on a duff night, plus they are on the edge of England so a lot of riders don't want to travel all the way down there for home meetings. Look how Birmingham have struggled to put a competitive team together and Plymouth haven't got Tolley's deep pockets to bale them out.

I think that was the fella it was defo Wheels complex and from memory he poured in a lot of money to keep things running but after possibly one season as a businessman he saw the writing on the wall and pulled out.

It is bizarre he looked unbeatable at times when riding for Sheffield, maybe he's the modern day Andy Graham for older fans who remember him he was an average rider until he turned up at Cradley Heath and he would pretty much bang in 18-21 every time.

I've done a google on it and can't find anything on him (although AI says a Corbett was associated with Brum Speedway) but AI is really internet scraping and there was no internet in mid 80's so could explain lack of results. I was really into Speedway in mid eighties and used to read the Star and Speedway Mail religiously he might have been a co-owner with someone else and I'm sure it was at the wheels complex as he poured a fair bit of money in but after a year to 18 months he saw the writing on the wall and pulled out. Interested if any Brum fans remember him going back 40 years so I would have been 14/15 at the time tracks same as now were always on the verge of closing but there seemed to be more white knights with a few grand to stave off the issues for 3-4 years before they chucked in the towel and rinse and repeat. One of those things nagging at me now sure I'm not barking up the wrong tree, equally I could have then name wrong but from reading about Evitts and Powell they were operating on a shoestring where this fella was in the Tolley money to burn camp.

Shame the young dane wasn't there as I'm sure he would have got 6-8, he looks a genuine future world class talent but I think it will be to much to overturn in the return leg.