YeOldPitGate

It might be a case that we just have to accept the sport in the UK at the level we have known it previously is now over. I mentioned before i stopped going in my late teens in the early 90's when I discovered nightclubs , fast forward 33 years and nightclubs that pulled in thousands of people on a Saturday night then are all gone. The nearest city to me had 10 night clubs in the early 90's now it has one tiny one, and loads of pubs have closed over that time frame also, places that from 1990 -2005 if you had said to me one day all these will be gone you would have thought never going to happen but it did. Its accelerated since then with social media really taking off a lot of the youth of today have near zero interest in going out, online gaming, dating app's so you don't physically have to trawl out rounds pubs any more looking for a likely partner. Why bother with restaurants get Deliveroo to drop off a pizza to your door, Blockbusters video gone the way of the Dodo when streaming caught on. I occasionally look back at threads on here from 10 years or so back, and there's loads of names I come across who are no longer posting, I would guess there is maybe 50 of us die hards on here now posting and hoping a miracle happens so even this forum is probably on last knockings. Really sad how its ended up all be it the sport has actually limped on for far longer than i thought it would but these days its a struggle to attract punters even when you are offering a professional leisure opportunity let alone when you are trying to attract people to a sport where the riders all ride for different teams every other week and after the first month in you can pretty much guarantee every week from the two teams on show there will most likely be at least 2-4 of the combined 14 riders missing. It really does look like checkmate is nearing I would say one big league but the argument that there has to be some form of even dire top league to subsidise the bottom league as far as rider earnings goes does have merit as an argument, so it really is a case of least bad outcome. I would imagine it will be a five team top league in 2026 with a view to finding a sacraficial lamb to get it up to six in 2027 unless someone with a load of money and no business sense can be shoe horned into getting Northampton running in 2027.

Didn't Paul ride for a bit also ?, I stopped going at the time Martin was starting to clean up with Eastbourne in the second division and he was getting the odd ride out for Oxford.

Is the lad Michael West any good ? could he be lured over on a 4 point average possibly .

The fact that phone calls were made to Cradley and Peterborough who don't even currently have a track shows the level of magnitude of the ostrich approach to things.

Reg and Ron in contention for the numbers 6 & 7 spots so the rumour mill reckons

Great track but it was bad enough spotting fans at Brum last year can you imagine what 700-800 turning up in a place that can hold 40 thou would look like.

Can't see anything on the Glasgow site who are the other four riders ? other than the three mentioned here already.

The fact that Cradley and Peterborough are even being asked when they are trying to just get agreement to run currently shows the level of the huge problems to be solved by the Prem League. Other than someone with huge money to burn and agreeing to run at the untested Northampton venue or running say a Swindon team at Oxford I can't see that they will get a sixth team from anywhere, this also assumes to new owners are found for Ipswich and Sheffield given their might not even be a league for the new owners to run in.

Despite his many distractors he brought more cash into the sport than anyone , granted he took out more than anyone also but there's probably no one else I can think of who brought in more than seven figures to speedway, wouldn't be a bad outcome if he came back, he's certainly not short of money.

This is another of the many problems with British Speedway 10-15 years ago you would probably have 5-6 rich fans who would be willing to set light to 100k per season for the kudos of owning the local speedway club, these days due to more pull on everyone's pound you might get one or two if your really lucky, hence as many on here have said clubs are pretty much worthless.

You do have to question the intelligence of the fella to come out with that publicaly even as you say if it is a shoe in, now if a bodge is put together and their are two leagues in 2026, he's alienated pretty much every Scunthorpe fan and potential local sponsor in that area to. Talk about getting a 12 baur shotgun and deciding to aim it at your own foot at point blank.

I thought Mick said on here a few weeks back they were looking at championship if they can get a foot back in the door as starters.

Granted that also is a big ask.

Isn't Batch back at Worky ?

Could be the best least worst case outcome if they have to run with five teams, twice home and away (defo not three times that will never run). With a view to trying something more sustainable/sellable for 2027.

He's certainly not afraid to chuck money into the sport I just wonder if he may be put off by the thought of a speedway club that is profitable.

I think Peterborough are looking at championship if they come back.

Agreed great first two signings but they really need to keep momentum going and not fill up with five journey men.

Tate could still have a decent career but he hasn't been helped by having 3 big bangs which would have dented his confidence and held him back , plus some worky supporters were saying his machinery leaves a bit to be desired. Its the same for Bailey, Rushden and Cairns they need good organisation from the get go an in an ideal world need to avoid big smashes in the early days whilst they are finding their feet.

Here you go the lad in action

Didn't help the number one's hoovering up all the money and then a lot of them leaving the UK as soon as the trough was empty.

If he ends up coming to the UK whoever gets him will be onto a major winner , in my opinion he's the best young aussie since Darcy Ward and like Darcy he's an out and out racer.

Last time they ran the pairs the over 85's bingo hall at east fife had more spectators turn up.

Terry had no equal when it came to running a lottery, but another great site in my days at Lynn in the mid 80-s to early 90's was Bill Barker wandering around the stadium shouting "raffle tickets who wants to buy some raffle tickets" it was always worth buying a couple just to try and get the inside scoop from Bill on anything you wanted to know about re the team.