IainB

I used to love watching Crabby smashing the phone up in front of the main stand at Loomer Road when arguing with the ref, all pantomime stuff but got the crowd going ☎️💥👍🏻

TV money from who though?

I'm beginning to realise that the "radical" change that has been mooted for next season is in fact no change... and that, when you think about it, is quite radical for a sport in a terminal decline!

There was a match presented to the paying public last week at Leicester. It was a double header Leicester vs Belle Vue in the NDL followed by Leicester vs Kent in the NDT. In the first match Leicester tracked 2 guests and R/R, Belle Vue 1 guest and R/R In the second match Leicester tracked 5 guests 1 of which didn't start and Kent R/R In the second match Leicester tracked 3 riders who were riding for Belle Vue in the first match. In the second match Kent tracked 1 rider who was riding for Belle Vue in the first match. The 2nd match was scheduled to start at 20:30 but didn't start until after 21:00 and the 2nd match was abandoned after heat 14 due to the curfew. I was toying with the idea of attending this as my last match of the season as it's a long close season. I asked Leicester Speedway a simple question on TwitterX of how much the admission price was only to get no reply... so I didn't bother. Everything that is wrong with British Speedway encapsulated in 1 night! And the powers that be are proposing business as usual as the cure... the sport is finished!

Wasn't it Marcel Gehard, former long tracker, his daughter was also involved in some capacity I think when it all went ** up. Not sure why they never took off, many riders tried them and didn't Freddie even win a GP on one?

In suspenders?

If you fell on him 😉😂

@racers and royals? 🤔

Aren't we all getting a bit ahead of ourselves here? Have the showground owners made any comments about their next move or anything about reopening the showground as an events facility?

With no TV deal, none of these GP riders will be back, there's going to be a £100k black hole in the budget. A new TV deal, a big sponsor or at least £5 on admission look to be the only options to keep them.

It's what a lot of people like to do... go and look at the Scunny thread about the announcement of an announcement and a lot were saying Scunny were going NDL... until Picko signed and now they're nailed on Champions 😂

Northampton Nohopers?

BetVictor have prior interest in Speedway sponsoring Coventry in 2003 Let's not forget that the dogs kicked Wolves out of their stadium, money talks (barks)

Fair point and I'm not for one minute saying British Speedway has done a stellar job but comparing British Speedway with Polish Speedway is almost impossible as they are 2 very different things other than 4 riders racing each other over 4 laps. Many of the Polish clubs are riding on land provided to them historically by a socialist/communist government and have been subsidised by local governments ever since, and I'm sure it adds up to a tidy sum. Factor in the differences in land prices, apartment living as opposed to 3 bed detached houses with a garden add in cost of living, salaries etc. The 2 countries and their Speedway are almost beyond comparison.

To be fair Polish Speedway has been (probably uniquely) heavily subsidised over the years. If other countries leagues were subsidised to the extent that Polish Speedway is they'd be in a lot healthier position also.

You could say that they're in fact bleeding the rest of the Speedway world dry by drawing all the riders away from other leagues, especially with their U24 league and the imposing of riding limitations. The lack of riders in those other leagues leading to a reduction in their crowds. They're doing the test of the Speedway world no favours at all. They certainly weren't subsidising the SoN and some rider wage expectations are certainly not subsidising non Polish Speedway... and don't forget their "World" Champion who rarely leaves his home country 😉

Sounds like the type of things British promoters would have said back in the 70's and early 80's and look at us now. Back then we were the Speedway powerhouse with everybody else struggling to get a look in. We didn't like it when all these World Championship qualifiers were being held in the back of beyond and the arse end of nowheresville. Poland are in effect killing the rest of the sport worldwide with riders being attracted to the ludicrous amounts of money on offer like moths to the flame (or flies to the 💩). It's down to the FIM to keep them in check but they seem to have little interest in Speedway other than the SGP series.

This time next year Drew... we'll be millionaires 😂

Doesn't it go "on ice", didn't that happen to Horton when he was stringing the Coventry story along?

I do think Mr Morris comes in for a bit of undue stick regarding his position as CEO of the Premiership. First of all there's only so much he's allowed to do, the buck still very much stops with club owners. He's brought quite a few new sponsors to the sport, has been instrumental in bringing in some foreign talent and has improved the way the sport comes across on TV (from the Speedway side) with the branding and banners etc. Yes he dropped a massive bollock by fixing the pay off semis last year but has also admitted that was a big mistake and will hopefully learn from it If there were somebody like him liaising with tv during the sky years we may not be in the total mess we now seem to be in, who was the TV meeting coordinator back then? Jim Lynch?

2027 though, It's time for non-Poland Speedway nations to get their retaliation in first. It's clear what they're trying to do playing us off against Sweden & Denmark both with failing leagues if the vibe I get off of here is true. It's time for SVEMO, the DMU and whoever it is that runs Speedway in the UK to work together and put it back to Poland by saying if you ride in Poland you cannot ride in Swedish, Danish or British Leagues. A few riders would have some decisions to make then, let Poland have the tier 1 riders and the rest can ride in the other 3 leagues. Denmark on a Wednesday, Sweden Tuesday & Thursday and UK the rest of the week. If they could also get Motorcycling Australia involved they'd be more than enough riders to sustain the 3 countries leagues.

There's been enough talent retiring over the last number of years to fill every team in the league, but for one reason or another they've been lost to the sport.

It looked quite healthy, despite it being a nothing meeting. A little disappointing that there was no real support from thee defunct clubs, maybe because this was the 3rd attempt at staging it, though there was a sprinkling of those fans around but I've seen more Wolverhampton identification at Leicester this season than I did last night. Maybe Peterborough would have been a better choice than Wolves as they seem to have a more realistic chance of returning than Wolves. Or Cradley with a big push to get Heathens fans in to maybe get that project pushed over the line. One little bug bear of mine... I know it was an end of season knockabout type of meeting but would it really have hurt for the riders to have done a lap of victory after a race win to keep the fans engaged on a cold night? From memory only Leon Flint, Luke Killeen & Bomber came round for applause after heat wins. A few more did after their last race, Lambert, Nicholls, Lawson, Scott. They should be coming around after every race win, I'd dock them £50 out of their wages if they didn't.

Why do you think this will happen?

I don't follow any of the "save" groups on TwitterX (only Cov, I probably should follow the rest) but I generally always get to hear about any need for action through re-tweets and then post them on here under the relevant topic. So it does appear that the save Swindon reach is not as far as some of the others i.e. Coventry, Arena, Rye House etc. Which I do get to heat about... Just an observation.