What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[enotian]

The split of opinions here is exactly the problem that needs to be solved.

One big league (any race night therefore no star names or enough riders but otherwise sustainable). Or A Premiership (Mon & Thursday with star names but not enough teams).

As per my previous post I think you can have both. But the Premiership needs to be slimmed down.  8 teams 7 home and 7 away. Get it all done over June and July when the sports channels have no football. Like The Hundred in cricket.  Give the broadcaster something they can focus on and market to a wider audience for a shorter period. That probably provides enough fixtures for the star riders and promoters, especially if whatever TV money is for a small number fixtures. Less is more.

But not for the domestic riders or maybe the stadium owners or supporters

The solution, Premiership teams also operate a 2nd tier team. Alongside the other current 2nd tier teams ie 14 team league. Where the riders come from at this point I don't know so maybe 6 or even 5 man teams initially. You could even have a different promoter running the 2nd Tier team.

Yes the 2nd tier teams might not attract the same attendances as the Premiership fixtures but the operating cost will be lower without the star riders.

It's basically the franchise cricket model where the top stars move around the globe to play in different leagues for different franchises supplemented by local players who return to domestic leagues once the circus has moved to the next (town) country.

[TB1]

On 9/28/2025 at 8:11 PM, RoundTheBoards said:

Absolutely spot on.

I found the Speedway Star recent edition which claimed something like "70% of fans want one big league" to be totally irresponsible.  It seemed to be 70% of people responding to a dishonest question 

The question they were responding to was "Would you support one big league if it had 14 strong teams with good quality riders, and equally competitive teams?"

But get that thought out of your head.  A "yes" answer to that question is irrelevant.  That's not an option.

One big league, running on any racenight, would automatically rule out anyone who races in the Polish leagues.

Gone would be:    Max Fricke, Jack Holder, Brady Kurtz, Dan Bewley, Emil Sayfutdinov, Jaimon Lidsey, Josh Pickering, Ryan Douglas, Jason Doyle, Michael Jepsen-Jensen, Chris Holder, Tom Brennan, Luke Becker, Jan Kvech, Tobias Musielak, Nicolai Klindt, Matej Zagar, Keynan Rew, Ben Cook, Maciej Janowski, Rohan Tungate, Norick Blodorn, Francis Gusts.

So that's 23 riders gone from Britain.

So what will the Premiership bring to a new combined league?     JUST ADAM ELLIS !

Every other rider who ride in the Premiership in 2025 (apart from Adam Ellis) doubled up into the Championship.   We can't count them twice.

So, the 5 teams joining the "One Big League" (Belle Vue, King's Lynn, Ipswich, Leicester, Sheffield) are bringing Adam Ellis to the party, but they need 5 x 7 = 35 riders.

So these big 5 need to take 34 of the doubling up riders....  

The remaining 9 championship clubs need 9 x 7 = 63 riders.....   but 34 of them are not availsble because they can no longer double up.

So suddenly we need a further 34 riders.   Where are they coming from? 

We could look to the National League, but many of the NDL riders already double-up into the Championship, others are still only 15 years old, so even if we take every NDL rider right down to the lowest 3.00 newcomer, we still can't get close to filling 14 "One Big League" teams.

Then of course, with no one able to double up, will riders be happy to have their income reduced by so much?  Or will they quit the sport?

What happens when someone gets injured?  Where will replacement riders come from?

ONE BIG LEAGUE CANNOT POSSIBLY WORK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SPOT ON, however it is getting to the point where the turkeys won't have a choice on whether or not they vote for Christmas!

[YeOldPitGate]

2 hours ago, TB1 said:

SPOT ON, however it is getting to the point where the turkeys won't have a choice on whether or not they vote for Christmas!

I do wonder if the best of pretty much a load of bad choices would be to somehow get both leagues up to 8 teams each then race once home and away then into play offs.

Okay it's not many fixtures but look at the struggle every year to try and get matches over the line even in the current reduced format where your running into October cold nights/rain etc.

Second given most teams rent/lease the stadium they run in, losses should in theory be roughly halved due to reduced number of meetings plus you won't end up seeing the same visiting away teams at home 3-5 times a season.

As others have said the biggest conundrum is one big league won't work, so the most important thing is running on your best target market night and within your means, the progress made by Plymouth this year is a rare ray of light, the issue for them is hoping they have some teams to race against in 2026.

The Fords and Glasgow management might be tempted up for a shortened 7 home and away fixture list on the basis of losses might be contained or they might even make a tiny profit if they get to play offs.

Very few/if any good choices sadly but that's the best outcome I can think of the Poles run once home and away and are making a far better fist of it than the UK.

[1 valve]

17 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

I do wonder if the best of pretty much a load of bad choices would be to somehow get both leagues up to 8 teams each then race once home and away then into play offs.

Okay it's not many fixtures but look at the struggle every year to try and get matches over the line even in the current reduced format where your running into October cold nights/rain etc.

Second given most teams rent/lease the stadium they run in, losses should in theory be roughly halved due to reduced number of meetings plus you won't end up seeing the same visiting away teams at home 3-5 times a season.

As others have said the biggest conundrum is one big league won't work, so the most important thing is running on your best target market night and within your means, the progress made by Plymouth this year is a rare ray of light, the issue for them is hoping they have some teams to race against in 2026.

The Fords and Glasgow management might be tempted up for a shortened 7 home and away fixture list on the basis of losses might be contained or they might even make a tiny profit if they get to play offs.

Very few/if any good choices sadly but that's the best outcome I can think of the Poles run once home and away and are making a far better fist of it than the UK.

Slowly but surely folk on this forum are beginning to understand (although not necessarily accept) that there are insufficient riders available to make one big league and that the amount of current riders doubling up to enable teams to exist is actually bad for the credibility of the sport. 
Your post makes some good points and the suggestion to run less meetings could fit into a final solution. 
However, as I and others elsewhere have said, one barrier to progress is the promoters themselves, who first and foremost take the view of “how does this effect me” rather than “will this help the sport” Take Poole for example a very well run and profitable club why, because they choose to be the big fish in a small pond with less outgoings on riders.  Unfortunately there is not the volume of riders with the same skill levels who make up the Poole team to replicate across the board especially considering the restrictions on race nights & doubling up etc.  

I guess we have no choice but to wait and see what exciting news & changes the close season & Speedway Ventures brings forth. 

[Falcon1983]

There is a solution where you could run one league incorporating all teams but a race format where heats are split, offering a junior section where they race off against each other for a team point, and a main feature card where heat leaders and 2nd strings race their format for 2 league points.

Simply call it the British League with a regional cup thrown into the mix.