YeOldPitGate

I would love to be proved wrong and Northampton turns out to be a massive success but even with Tolleys millions they couldn't get a committed number one, you just think who will come pray god not someone like Zagar who will probably want £3-5k per week and will put in 50% effort. I just can't see anyone half decent coming over unless some multi million lottery winning speedway fan is taking over who can maybe tempt Anderson or Michelson over.

Who the hell are Northampton going to have thought Phil with the scraps left they will make Birmingham 2025 look like Cradley 84 .

When it comes to budgeting Rob is on a par with what Jesus could do with a loaf and a fish when he fed the five thousand.

You also though have things like inflation, goods/services on average are 25% more expensive now post covid partly because the Government at the time printed another £400 billion out of thin air which caused prices to sky rocket, with Putin invading Ukraine adding fuel to it all. Speedway appeals mainly to the working class who will be suffering financially most of all so it is likely people will pick and choose matches that they attend, this will most likely be highlighted even more in the coming season with only five teams so I think its highly probable that crowd numbers will be lower this year and then most likely get a big bump up when the play offs get here.

Plus roughly 30% higher costs and running on a night that doesn't suit your customers but as others have said theres no easy fix as far as racenights go as the riders hold the cards. So at the moment you either have speedway run on unattractive nights for punters and the poor old owner underwrites the losses or you switch to a night where you have a fighting chance of breaking even but probably half the riders would clear off from UK as it wouldn't fit around their plans.

We know there are problems with speedway helping itself due to all the problems that have been allowed to build up over the last 2-3 decades but that is the number one issue in my book run on the best night for your customers but unfortunately the current set up is run on the best night for the employees which equals bigger losses and probably no jobs for the employees 3-5 years down the line.

That's my thoughts you know support is there already so way less financial risk ,then get 2026 out of the way whilst trying to formulate some kind of plan for 2027 all be it given all the issues with doubling up and riders dictating when the club can operate and the top league subsiding the championship to a degree I'm at a loss as to what anything workable could look like.

Hopefully Ipswich will get over the line and if it does I would have thought Northampton will be canned as I'm more getting the impression its back up plan z if Ipswich falls through. Some credit is due if its existing prem promoters who are going to underwrite the expected losses to keep the top league going but as 99% of us on here have said at some point they are going to have to accept the current format just doesn't work anymore and the only way forward unless Futures really do come through is paring back the product to most likely championship lite standard and starting again.

I think the problem is as other have mentioned the 20-30 double uppers in the prem will make more money in the current system than say one big league at championship pay rates so they won't be keen. Again another example of the sport boxing itself in so the riders dictate for the UK unattractive race nights for some clubs and do rider shortage they can call more shots even bang average riders.

Spot on Cookie in fact if they had any sense they should probably kick off on the early May bank hol Monday but as ever with Speedway you run the risk even with a possible only 8 fixtures of running until back end of Sept.

I'm thinking Sam Fox and best pairs very apt.

Oi oi granted your taking your chances if you venture into Lynn or Yarmouth and your not on your toes but the other 98% is all farms and country pubs which are most agreeable, If you see a wiry fella in Lynn who would now be about 80 shouting "RICHARD KNIGHT" at about 10 thousand decibels best give him a wide birth,

Less of that there's at least thirty of us on here.

Good on the management team he's young and could be an unpolished gem. I always prefer when management take a chance on a youngster who might be a future quality rider rather than someone whos best days were a decade ago and have no improvement left in them.

The only way I could see it working is if they talked Harry into fronting it a bit like Clarkson's farm and then got a tv deal with Amazon or Netflix off the back of it with £200-£500k of backing from the tv company so they could get a really good side together and also give the marketing a really big push.

Call Tolley "Nige this will need £250k min to set up ", Nigel "hold my beer"

I think the thing is these farewell meetings pull in fans from other catchments areas nearby take P.Boro farewell I bet plenty of die hards from Lynn, Ippo, Mildenhall and maybe some midland tracks came over for a one off but wouldn't make the 3-4 hour round trip on a regular basis.

Lidl are recruting

Rob talking a good game hopefully at least 50% of what he thinks will happen will come to fruition lord knows the sport needs a massive shot in the arm.

Can you imagine the scenes if Panthers win, hopefully they do and the tv cameras are there.

Outstanding work

Do you have the link to 360 speedway relevant episode thanks

Agreed would love it to happen and be a huge success but the odds look stacked against it run Northampton out of Oxford and you have a situation where the Spires were dropped as there wasn't an appetite for three Oxford teams last year from the paying public, so unlikely to be an appetite for the same again but run under the name of Northampton rather than Oxford. The only way that might work is if its some uber rich promoter who could afford a spearhead of Zmarslik and maybe Lindgren couple of top riders not seen in the UK often so you get the novelty value interest. Also agree ideally it needs time to be set up as so many things that could go wrong not rushed over the line and then we will sort out the logistics/marketing afterwards when big money has already been committed. Again championship would be preferable to lessen financial risk and see/test if there's public appetite for racing and if you end up shutting down at end of season as not enough public buy in at least the final loss will be lower.

I think they would be but given the top flight is so weak on teams I would imagine the prem bosses will be trying to ensure that it didn't happen. I seem to remember someone on here saying at a Lynn talk in Buster mentioned they were looking at a new top flight team but it might cost the existing promoters some money to make it happen hence I wonder if someone does take it on part of the risk will be underwritten. However as others have said it is a huge risk financially so I can't imagine anyone would take it on say if 5x5K =£25k all in was offered by the existing promoters. I would have thought it would need to be nearer 100k-150k would be needed up front from the existing five so the new teams promoters would probably be risking 50k-100k max if it went wrong which would still need a deep pockets person.

The bit I don't understand from the article is that it says plans to open are edging closer and in the same breath the original possible promoter has pulled out due to the high costs in getting it off the ground that doesn't sound like edging closer. If it goes ahead given the massive financial risk involved they would be better off going in the championship to start with.