YeOldPitGate

And this is the problem for getting new promoters interested especially if they are professional people not rich fans of the sport, first you might well need £100-£150k to set light to, you assemble a team of mainly british based riders so baring injuries your 1-7 should be on display most weeks to try and set a strong relationship with the fans. Even with that achieved you face the prospect of your opponents turning up most weeks missing half their team and borrowing riders from other clubs, and your having to run on generally unattractive nights also.

Its taken forty odd years to get here but sadly its looking close to finally being checkmate for the sport we all love. I have followed it from afar since 1992 and its still my favourite sport, I did think things might head in the right direction when Sky came on board but promoters let the number one's hoover up all the money so the foresight to put some of the millions into the general infra-structure to set a sturdy base for the future was wasted. I still have great memories of when I first started going in the early 80's Lynn had a dreadful team but crowds were decent and Martin Rogers really tried to promote things locally, every week powerhouse teams turned up and steam rolled us, but when we got the odd win the place went mental. This was mainly down to Bobby Schwartz being so reliable and the odd time when Mike Lee rolled back the years and could be bothered. I also had the privaledge of watching some of the most gifted riders ever in Henka, Loram and John 'Cowboy Cook' during his brief stint. So sad its come to this and even forty years ago I knew it was always a constant struggle for the sport as every winter a couple of teams would be in troublee, maybe there's a 10% chance that the promoters will now be forced to work together and some kind of rebirth can begin.

Whats the other 2030 vision, you refer to ?

I think the issue is they don't know where things are going themselves literally every week we have been having huge bombs go off, no tv deal, no sixth club, Louis looking to get out, no firm buyer for Sheffield yet.

The reality is that's not as daft as it sounds Clarkeson's farm has been uber popular do to all the stresses and problems in the UK farming industry if the farming ship was running smoothly the series wouldn't have got past one season. They should try and approach Amazon and say look we have huge problems , Harry is super popular with Jo public if your willing to chuck 1-2 mil in you would have some great tv as there's about a hundred fires burning currently which nobody really has any idea how to put out, imagine what great tv it would be watching Harry deal with 15-20 other promoters all with different views, work permit problems, riders not showing up for meeting, guests galore and the general unworkable rule book. They could get three seasons just out of the above stuff.

As Mike has said the promoters have poured in millions over the years but they could never get a real long term collective game plan together, those that tried to make radical changes didn't last very long, (John Berry, Jonathan Chapman the two who most come to mind). When a club got into trouble there always seemed to be someone pop up with 100k-500k to burn through over 2-3 seasons before they threw in the towel but these people seem gone now also. The only positive is that Louis stepping down is going to force them to try something different whether it works better than the last decade or this is the beginning of the end we will have a better idea of when April rolls round.

I've said on here before I think the slide started after Penhall quit at the end of the 1982 season he was probably the most box office speedway rider ever. As a deja vue scenario a few years later promoters realised things were going the wrong way and got the ex Ipswich promoter John Berry (Berry was the best promoter in the early 80's and again Ipswich was the jewell) to be the big chief. If anyone could have turned things around it was Berry but from memory less than a week into his new role he quit as he couldn't implement the changes he wanted to do, fast forward forty years and the modern day version of John Berry has now also thrown the towel in.

Yep Louis has tried to do the right thing all down the line but has been caught in forty years of bad decisions finally breaking the bridge everything stood on. Can't see a way out now I think thats it for the premiership unless a bodge can be done on club number six and they can talk Louis round I really can't see anyone wanting to buy it given 33% of the prem want out , it will most likely shut down for a year at least to see if anything is left in the wreckage. I'm beginning to think this is it for UK speedway as we have known it.

Sadly it is worthless TTT who would be mad enough to set light to a pile of cash and enter the mess known as the premiership.

Not often I disagree with you Mike but even though its the best run club in the UK personally think anyone buying it would be mental, given Sheffield and Leicester ideally want out of top league by all counts, the 6th club if it happens will be a bodge, you could buy the crown jewell of speedway but it would sit amongst burning ruins. I admire everything Louis has done but personally think he will struggle to give it away given the state of everything else in speedway world.

Thing is even allowing for the fact its probably the best run and supported club in the UK given the current state of things this winter who would be crazy enough to buy it , I can't see its worth anything given you might not have anyone to race against.

Any sign of Harry in central London this morning banging on the doors of all the major broadcasters ?

Near zero I reckon unfortunately.

I don't think that's the case TTT we all have different views. I think the one thing we can all agree on is that due to being asleep at the wheel for the last forty plus years the day of reckoning has sadly now arrived and there's no easy choices left, its a case of either tough actions that are going to upset plenty of people or option b which is most likely total collapse.

Cause I did Iain

Just watching this on Youtube how we would all love to see these type of days again, Cradley packed to the rafters and wouldn't it be great if the USA could find another 7-8 world stars those Americans back in the 80's were box office.

I do get your arguement TTT but if you were Poole you would most likely want 100k passed over upfront or put in a bank account controlled by someone other than the bspa.

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.