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What about Northampton?


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Before Birmingham and Oxford came into the Premiership, and while fears circulated that it could go down to 5 clubs, there were strong rumours (fuelled further by Phil Morris comments at the Coventry hearing) that Chris Louis could be interested in bringing a Premiership club to Northampton.

As we are set to lose Birmingham and others are wobbling, could it be time to make Northampton a reality?

One big league could never work.   It would have to involve a sharing out of riders, but even if Belle Vue gave up one of Bewley/Kurtz,  Ipswich gave up Doyle./Sayfutdinov, Sheffield gave up Holder/Holder, could the likes of Workington, Plymouth, or Berwick really afford Kurtz, Sayfutdinov or Holder?    Of course not!

So could Northampton be the Premiership saviour?

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, RoundTheBoards said:

Before Birmingham and Oxford came into the Premiership, and while fears circulated that it could go down to 5 clubs, there were strong rumours (fuelled further by Phil Morris comments at the Coventry hearing) that Chris Louis could be interested in bringing a Premiership club to Northampton.

As we are set to lose Birmingham and others are wobbling, could it be time to make Northampton a reality?

One big league could never work.   It would have to involve a sharing out of riders, but even if Belle Vue gave up one of Bewley/Kurtz,  Ipswich gave up Doyle./Sayfutdinov, Sheffield gave up Holder/Holder, could the likes of Workington, Plymouth, or Berwick really afford Kurtz, Sayfutdinov or Holder?    Of course not!

So could Northampton be the Premiership saviour?

 

 

 

id imagine if there was one big league it wouldnt be 7 man teams and the big boys would be off anyway. 

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8 minutes ago, LisaColette said:

They don't tend to put new clubs straight into the Prem though. Normally have to work their way up through the leagues. 

Think they will try and convince Glasgow to move up. Whether they will or not though. 🤷‍♀️

Can see Godfrey being the saviour and move Scunthorpe up

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4 minutes ago, LisaColette said:

They don't tend to put new clubs straight into the Prem though. Normally have to work their way up through the leagues. 

Think they will try and convince Glasgow to move up. Whether they will or not though. 🤷‍♀️

I was there at the NSSC meeting when Phil Morris strongly hinted that there was a brand new club interested in running speedway. The rumours at the time were that this was Northampton but Phil never said that. But if it was and if that is still a possibility it is a good catchment area. Also, if they only entered at NDL level, there would be local derbies with Leicester and Oxford.

Ah well. We can dream. The best laid plans of mice and men eh?

P.S. Glasgow moving up is an obvious candidate. However, the loss of all those relatively lucrative local derbies with Edinburgh is surely a factor.

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What about Northampton ?  🤣

Struggling to find enough support for the ever decreasing number of clubs today. 

You ould have thought that with the closure of Coventry , Cradley Heath and Wolverhampton that htere woudl be bumper crowds at the one remaining midlands track?  Oh no speedway supporters area fickle lot ( and I include myself in that group) Never really could transfer my support bewteen clubs in he London area. 

As I posted on another thread, the only solution is to close the whole lot down , wind up BSPL Ltd and start again. 

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I'm amazed that no one ever mentions the new track opening for banger racing in Prestwood, Buckinghamshire as a possible site for speedway.

It looks ideal for speedway.

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19 hours ago, SJA said:

I'm amazed that no one ever mentions the new track opening for banger racing in Prestwood, Buckinghamshire as a possible site for speedway.

It looks ideal for speedway.

You assume the track owner /landlord wants speedway or has enough days on his planning permission.  Also most bangers racing is run with steel armour type fences which have to be covered with airfences and on the straight wooden fences. You then need a full time track staff to do this this work or volunteers, which I think has been covered extensively elsewhere on this forum. 

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12 minutes ago, Petecc said:

You assume the track owner /landlord wants speedway or has enough days on his planning permission.  Also most bangers racing is run with steel armour type fences which have to be covered with airfences and on the straight wooden fences. You then need a full time track staff to do this this work or volunteers, which I think has been covered extensively elsewhere on this forum. 

One thing would be guaranteed IF it was Chris Louis involved and that is it would be done correctly.....

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A conversation I had on Facebook  with someone regarding Northampton and speedway being introduced to the track they seemed to think the track would be to narrow once a air fence was put up - the obvious answer would be I thought bring in the white line a bit - there is definitely a catchment area of fans with Pboro not so far away and Coventry as well . 

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On 7/17/2025 at 9:44 AM, LisaColette said:

They don't tend to put new clubs straight into the Prem though. Normally have to work their way up through the leagues. 

Think they will try and convince Glasgow to move up. Whether they will or not though. 🤷‍♀️

I can hear it now "do you fancy moving up and increasing your cost base by 30-40% with minimal increase in your attendance and we only want you moving up as the current club members are either folding or looking to drop out"

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