ouch

With new owners it’s a chance for a new beginning and a change in team building strategy. Stop with having riders in for 2,3 or 4 years and look long term so the fans can grow to love them and start to create a family feel to the club, like The Aces. For some clubs speedway can be a numbers game put together on a spreadsheet where they see a number and not a name. It’s not the best imo despite results and being somewhat under the points limit is no bad thing if it allows riders to grow with the club.

The Colts run on Sunday afternoons (or use to on Friday) because most if not all of the competitors have jobs or rely on working parents to help them at meetings. Sundays are ideal with that in mind and even a Friday makes it a far easier fit when considering post meeting travel and maintenance. We can agree that pubs, restaurants, cinemas etc focus on weekends, so why would a small sport like ours want to go up against them? Far better to run when there is less competition. We do have “specials” on Monday and Thursday, it’s called the play offs when the masses come out irrespective of what day of the week it is.

Nights not conducive to the entertainment industry is very subjective. If we took Saturday as THE night and everyone else did the same then you are all competing against each other. You do what’s best for you. In 1976 less than half the teams in the league rode on a Saturday (6). 3 rode on a Friday with the other 10 riding mid week. This was at the height of the sports popularity yet most CHOOSE to open mid week. Moving to alternate nights to gain the biggest crowd happens in all industries. Film distributors will not go up against the blockbusters, bands will serve dates when big hitters are in town and pubs will arrange theme nights on dates to attract the most punters. It’s not a case that Saturday is the holy grail and we need to avoid the negative connotations currently being associated with mid week.

More likely that one team runs away with both leagues then suffers injuries to key team members resulting in a loss in the grand final. We could then heap praise on the second placed team as being the best in the land and worthy winners.

Is there a link to that quote from Jaimon?

Very true. Jaimon would be even better at Foxhall as a home rider as he would quickly get the starts dialled in. He’s one of the better away riders out there as well and that was not lost on Chris and Richie when looking for a top scoring guest. I’d prefer their opinion and that of the cold hard facts rather than that of anti Aces trolls.

Using the excellent speedway-stats website, here are the last three years at Foxhall Jaimon 2023 6.13 2024 5.78 2025 5.33 17.24 Musielak 2025 3.64 2023 8.73 2022 5.00 17.37 Becker 2025 7.56 2024 5.78 2023 5.00 18.34 It’s interesting how cold hard stats without any petty bias (or trolling) tell a more factually correct story. Opinions are fine but please don’t present them as fact without even checking.

A dialled in gating tart would never succeed at Foxhall, though no one every.

Jaimon would have been a number one at three tracks last year so could end up in that position this coming season and of course Brady is an out & out number one. If that was the case then in seasons ‘24-‘26 riders for 6 different teams would have occupied the number one spot a season or two after being released by Belle Vue Aces. Ace stat.

There’s no real jeopardy at the PCMT as it’s just our individual meeting in tribute to the great man. The key to the big crowds is the level of the participants. Top riders attract a bigger audience, even at an increased admission cost. You’re right about the play offs and it’s great the extra crowds turn up but not so great for teams not in it nor the qualifiers. One of my gripes that fell on deaf ears when they came about was the implied importance or not of certain fixture in peoples minds. People, though they may not realise, like to be told what to do and adopt herd mentality. Back in the day all meetings had similar importance for most of the season. Even teams that knew they couldn’t win the league wanted to finish as high up as possible or beat the title chasing teams. This led to a consistent attendance. Now we are told that some fixtures are way more important than others, we naturally start to pick and choose. Play off finalist can make up some of the shortfall but others do not. The result for the sport as a whole is a nett loss. I think now as I did then that the play offs have had a lot to do with dwindling attendances but that horse bolted long ago and the simple fact that two teams get record attendances basically drowns out any other aspect of why they should or shouldn’t be adopted by our sport. I’ve said this many times without any kind of response, which says it all to me that even us as speedway nuts cannot persuade close family and friends to attend so any amount of advertising will currently fall on deaf ears. People don’t like speedway. The ONLY hope -and I’m too old to grasp what it is - is that some zeitgeist person or event presents itself that a social media guru can use to create the fomo effect. I’ve seen it happen with say Prime drink, Ibiza Final Boss, 6/7 etc but I cannot get my head around it.

They need to be upfront with the fans and the riders about the state of the sport and prepare both for one big league. It’s already been established what the make up of teams will be and that our future top stars are the current 1-2 in the Championship. Polish rules and random race-nights will see the current set of top stars disappear from the UK. Doubling up will end so even some current Championship 1-2 (or more) will jump ship and we’ll end up with an NDL+ product. Nothing wrong with that at all at £10-£15 admission but that won’t be possible. Crowds will drop due to what’s on offer so if anything admission will go up to cover costs as has been the case for decades. The only way to stop this is to pay riders less but then you have additional riders turning their backs on the sport and standards drop further. Next season onwards we need to be looking at a semi pro/amateur level but unfortunately for us fans at an Elite admission (background costs remain whether Elite or amateur riders take to the track). I see crowds dropping further leading to the inevitable track closures. I think we’ll get to “celebrate” our centenary but after that it’ll be The Colts and the odd bank holiday meeting with top riders shipped back in to keep the NSS as a worthwhile operation. There is an alternative but very little ambition, know how and collective responsibility to achieve it from most running our sport.

It’s taken options to be so thin on the ground that only now an Ace gets a look in. If the other members vote different to Mark then it makes no odds what he thinks or doesn’t what to sign off. Chris might think it’s worthwhile carrying on if he gets his own way again. It’s dangerous to stand up to his kind as the repercussions for the whole sport are huge, as we have seen.

No, somethings never change - unfortunately. Billy no mates!

The average was altered for Crump a few seasons ago so if Ipswich want this fudging then it will be or Chris will run off again with his goal posts. 😡 Somethings never change during our decent.

In 2021 his entire finishing 1-7 were double uppers and the following year he used six throughout the season. There is one team that in recent years has used one in the main team and one at reserve. Actions speak louder than words but unfortunately one team doesn’t get listened to whether spoken or otherwise and here we are but they will keep fighting the fight for the good of the sport.

The sport in this country is mainly ran by fans with a few ex riders tagging along. Reading this forum gives an indication as to why our sport is where it is. I can’t get behind such a repetitive league but my favourite meeting of last season was when our rivals met us for the 10th time. We don’t need top stars but I’d be there every time my favourite top rider showed up, no matter how often his team visited. We need someone from outside the sport to manage things but when that sees the rule book being upheld then I’d prefer a closed shop. We don’t need top stars and the sport is too expensive to watch and needs to be at weekends. Colts get 500 people turning out to watch lesser riders at the weekend for £15. Fans need to identify with riders who are part of the team over many seasons but if they ride bad for a few meetings I’d like them replaced. The rules need to be followed though if it helps my team to fudge them a bit then I’m all for that. It’s vital we get a tv deal but I hate tv meetings due to all the delays. I’m sick of guests even though my team used less guests over the last five seasons than it did during five seasons in its hay day. My favourite race this year was the final heat of the British Final. Races like that could only help make the sport more popular but I do like how riders follow each other around at my tricky home track. The above displays a large amount of self interest on the fans part making them ideal to become the next generation of promoters.

I’d take ANY near eight point man over a six point something man but unfortunately for us the one year we could have kept all our team, they changed the rules.

Good suggestion as they have identical CMA’s and looking at 2025 figures their home and away split was 9.12/8.91 & 6.77/6.88. Almost identical in every way but one is fourteen years younger. Be sad to see another of our team departing having only ever been an Ace but if it helps another club then so be it and it shows the system can work.

Let’s hope he can’t be assed (sic) getting injured as apart from COVID in 2020 that’s the only thing keeping him away from UK fixtures for eleven seasons now - unless anyone has links to the contrary.

The Leicester info is for 2025. It’s just not been removed/updated for 2026 yet.

A league once placed a ban on Swedish riders who lived in Sweden. Bullies throwing their weight around.

Me too. This has been done before and it’s not popular with the top team as they miss out on a lucrative semi final. That is all the play offs are about, creating welcome extra income for a few teams at the top. It goes some way to balancing the books due to the lack of interest/attendance for the qualifiers. For the teams not in the play offs, it’s tough and they just have to suck up the losses created by the implementation of the play offs.

That makes sense at face value but with a little unpacking Louis motives become a little clearer. At the end of October he knew the tv deal was over and that his team would be weakened by the departure of Emil. So that’s the tv deal and weaker product covered. The air fence is another known item Louis still had to contend with whilst openly planning for 2026. Now we come to the fixture issue. If it’s five teams you’re basically dropping a Birmingham type team for extra visits from Belle Vue & Sheffield. Only Louis can say which is best financially, through we probably all have our own thoughts. BTW, it’s less fixtures with the same repetition or the more repetition with the same fixtures. The house seemed at equal risk in October as it did 2/3 weeks later but imo that’s not the issue, it’s purely down to not getting his own way. I kind of don’t blame him as the trait of almost all speedway promoters is one of “I’m alright Jack, screw you.” Owning that mindset is another thing and we continually get this smoke screen from clubs PR and social media trolls that everything they do is for the good of the sport. Hopefully he doesn’t kill off the club as they have been a welcome addition to the top league recently and their true fans don’t deserve to have the rug pulled after their cup win only a few weeks ago.

Being a Belle Vue man since a rookie at 16 he knows the value of bigging up British speedway including other teams. It’s a bigger picture thing sadly lacking at some other promotion. What a shame that his social media post has been hijacked by the not rights trying to make out it’s a slight on the club he loves. I know it’s just trolling but should some young rider get the wrong idea and subsequently not post then it’s another missed opportunity for the sport to engage with social media. Given the column inches in the Star where young riders have bemoaned the trolling they receive, it’s clear the impact they have and I can testify to that being on the receiving end way too often. Maybe a New Years Resolution for you guys to think about, tone it down.

I’d say that’s more a dig at Sheffield & Leicester, given that was where we won the last two of our fourteen championship titles.