What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[racerback]

just keep lowering the points limit soon we can have 1 man teams with a 3 pt team limit speedway futures need to look for a long term fix not these stupid short term deals 

 

 

[mikebv]

37 minutes ago, Ben91 said:

The current business model is clearly unsustainable. Premiership club dies so a Championship club has to step up to keep the Premiership afloat. Rinse and repeat. This Groundhog Day can only repeat itself a finite number of times, before long there will be no teams left. 

It’s concerning the number of fans who think things should carry on this way, let alone that the people running the sport seem to agree. 

Spot on...

"Let's find another way to fudge through another season"...

Without the TV six figure sum per team, you cannot see how the GP lads can be afforded anyway...

Even if presently a significant part of their salaries is paid by sponsors, the TV money then paid for either rent and other meeting costs, or assisted towards the salaries of other riders..

That £100k leaves a huge black hole to be filled if no TV deal bears fruition...

 

[PersonalResponsibility]

1 hour ago, Ben91 said:

The current business model is clearly unsustainable. Premiership club dies so a Championship club has to step up to keep the Premiership afloat. Rinse and repeat. This Groundhog Day can only repeat itself a finite number of times, before long there will be no teams left. 

It’s concerning the number of fans who think things should carry on this way, let alone that the people running the sport seem to agree. 

It feels like boiling the frog with some people. It's crazy to think we've gone from an 8-team Elite League, 18-team Premier League, plus a decent conference league to what we have now in a little over 20 years. If that happened overnight there'd quite rightly be serious questions asked, if not something more serious. Yet here we are, still being told the sport is in good shape and has an exciting future.

[PersonalResponsibility]

1 hour ago, Ben91 said:

The current business model is clearly unsustainable. Premiership club dies so a Championship club has to step up to keep the Premiership afloat. Rinse and repeat. This Groundhog Day can only repeat itself a finite number of times, before long there will be no teams left. 

It’s concerning the number of fans who think things should carry on this way, let alone that the people running the sport seem to agree. 

.

Edited 9 hours ago by PersonalResponsibility

[stevebrum]

4 hours ago, Teromaafan said:

No rider should be bigger than the sport or an individual club. Clinging on to the top riders by satisfying their financial demands is not the way to evolve British Speedway. The current crop of GP riders in this country will move on/retire before you know it and the sport in this country still needs to be standing when they do so. Powers that be need to be brave and if necessary have a total reset instead of applying fresh sticking plasters to see the sport through following season. Competitive racing with riders of a similar ability distributed across teams has to be the focus. How else do you attract fresh interest which the sport desperately needs? The people whose interest and money we need have probably never heard of the sport’s current elite. A league of five teams that can borrow riders from each other now and again isn’t the way to attract outsiders.

But the sport needs the big names to survive with any modicum of respectability. Without them it will be left to the hardcore supporters to keep the sport afloat and as we know it’s an ever increasing older generation that will continue to diminish. 
The sport needs a big company and TV promotion to keep its awareness alive. They won’t be interested if the big names aren’t involved. 

3 hours ago, BluPanther said:

It's been on life support for a while now Brum. It will have to be just one league if we lose a few more tracks, and I just don't see a 'top league' existing in five years time...

The sport has been on life support more like. All leagues are diminishing and more lower level tracks closed before the likes of Wolves/Peterborough/Birmingham closed.

its a worrying trend that’s for sure.

[TTT]

Just my opinion.

Championship clubs are nothing without Premiership clubs, It's the Premiership clubs that keep the sport alive in the UK even though it leaves some of the club bosses out of pocket.

The day the Premiership collapses that see's all of the GP / Ekstraliga riders exit is the day when British Speedway collapses for good.

Nowhere near enough good riders to go around for one big league, 27 out of the 49 riders that finished the season in an official Premiership 1-7 also rode in the Championship.

Say we have One Big League featuring 15 Teams (Inc. Northampton) and 5 Riders per a Team = 75 Riders

85 Riders in Total (Exc. D/UP's) finished the 2025 Premiership & Championship seasons in an official 1-7.

One big league then see's mass exits from British Speedway altogether due to race nights being scattered throughout the week (21 Riders Minimum)

5 GP Riders (Kurtz, Bewley, Doyle, Fricke & J. Holder)

7 Ekstraliga Riders (Lidsey, Blodorn, Rew, Sayfutdinov, B. Cook, Janowski & Tungate)

9 Ekstraliga 2 Riders (Musielak, Zagar, Brennan, Kvech, Iversen, Douglas, Becker, Pickering & C. Holder)

That then takes the total No. of riders down to 64 to a point where lower ranked riders from the NDL have to fill those spots, The same lower ranked NDL Riders who Championship clubs aren't even interested in using.

Premiership has to continue until the day British Speedway collapses for good and someone has to step up and fill one of the voids left by Oxford/Birmingham.

Whisper is that Northampton may be the one to dive in head first at the deep end by running in the Premiership but everything with them would be a guessing game as to how many punters they get through the turnstiles and stuff.

Glasgow on the other hand have everything in place to run Premiership Speedway, Facilities, Track, Attendances, Sponsorship, Finances so instead of potentially putting Northampton at risk before they've even returned, Club bosses need to block Glasgow from competiting in the Championship and instead give them an ultimatum -> Premiership or Nothing and they'll soon bite the bullet and say Premiership.

Edited 8 hours ago by TTT

[IainB]

1 hour ago, PersonalResponsibility said:

Yet here we are, still being told the sport is in good shape and has an exciting future.

But don't forget the happy clappy brigade will have you believe that Coventry, Peterborough, Cradley, Swindon & Wolves are all coming back and that Northampton are going to join them... just as the next club closes. 

[singy13]

10 minutes ago, TTT said:

Premiership has to continue until the day British Speedway collapses for good and someone has to step up and fill one of the voids left by Oxford/Birmingham.

That day is rapidly approaching. And for 2026 I fear that, as ever, the 'bully boys' of the sport (I don't know them thank goodness)will keep controlling the downward spiral of lost clubs - mainly via self denial of how UK speedway should really be changed for the better of us all. Bully's rule ok!!!! 

[Fromafar]

32 minutes ago, TTT said:

Just my opinion.

Championship clubs are nothing without Premiership clubs, It's the Premiership clubs that keep the sport alive in the UK even though it leaves some of the club bosses out of pocket.

The day the Premiership collapses that see's all of the GP / Ekstraliga riders exit is the day when British Speedway collapses for good.

Nowhere near enough good riders to go around for one big league, 27 out of the 49 riders that finished the season in an official Premiership 1-7 also rode in the Championship.

Say we have One Big League featuring 15 Teams (Inc. Northampton) and 5 Riders per a Team = 75 Riders

85 Riders in Total (Exc. D/UP's) finished the 2025 Premiership & Championship seasons in an official 1-7.

One big league then see's mass exits from British Speedway altogether due to race nights being scattered throughout the week (21 Riders Minimum)

5 GP Riders (Kurtz, Bewley, Doyle, Fricke & J. Holder)

7 Ekstraliga Riders (Lidsey, Blodorn, Rew, Sayfutdinov, B. Cook, Janowski & Tungate)

9 Ekstraliga 2 Riders (Musielak, Zagar, Brennan, Kvech, Iversen, Douglas, Becker, Pickering & C. Holder)

That then takes the total No. of riders down to 64 to a point where lower ranked riders from the NDL have to fill those spots, The same lower ranked NDL Riders who Championship clubs aren't even interested in using.

Premiership has to continue until the day British Speedway collapses for good and someone has to step up and fill one of the voids left by Oxford/Birmingham.

Whisper is that Northampton may be the one to dive in head first at the deep end by running in the Premiership but everything with them would be a guessing game as to how many punters they get through the turnstiles and stuff.

Glasgow on the other hand have everything in place to run Premiership Speedway, Facilities, Track, Attendances, Sponsorship, Finances so instead of potentially putting Northampton at risk before they've even returned, Club bosses need to block Glasgow from competiting in the Championship and instead give them an ultimatum -> Premiership or Nothing and they'll soon bite the bullet and say Premiership.

Your last paragraph is total nonsensical.

[TTT]

11 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

Your last paragraph is total nonsensical.

What's your solution then?

I stick by my solution of going after the club with the most cash / stable business model and forcing their hand into propping up the Premiership instead of stepping into the unknown by playing poker with Northampton.

[Teromaafan]

4 hours ago, Aries said:

You’ve literally contradicted yourself in two sentences. If those people haven’t heard of the “current elite”, then they won’t know who’s been borrowed and from which club either and wouldn’t be bothered with it.

 

The last two sentences of my post are not a contradiction, but you've tried to link them. The reference to outsiders not knowing who the elite are was to emphasise that if they were not riding in the UK, any newcomers drawn to the sport following the departure of these stars wouldn't care less so long as entertainment is provided on track. The borrowing of riders from each other relates to the guest system. Newcomers coming on board to the sport will soon realise that riders are representing more than one team during a season (which is the where sport lacks credibility outside those that follow it). The fewer the teams, the greater the likelihood of guest appearances from the same rider.  This has nothing to do with elite level riders, so where's the contradiction?

[Mgas]

1 minute ago, TTT said:

What's your solution then?

I stick by my solution of going after the club with the most cash / stable business model and forcing their hand into propping up the Premiership instead of stepping into the unknown by playing poker with Northampton.

You can’t force a business into spending money they don’t want to or operating in a way that’s not profitable just because it would benefit others. If Glasgow were given the ultimatum you suggest it would end up in court very quickly. The club is run by very successful business owners who I can’t imagine will be easy to push around. If the premiership want more clubs they need to make it an attractive prospect not try and force more clubs in.

[gjcone44]

13 minutes ago, TTT said:

What's your solution then?

I stick by my solution of going after the club with the most cash / stable business model and forcing their hand into propping up the Premiership instead of stepping into the unknown by playing poker with Northampton.

do you work for the government..  🤣

[TTT]

9 minutes ago, Mgas said:

You can’t force a business into spending money they don’t want to or operating in a way that’s not profitable just because it would benefit others. If Glasgow were given the ultimatum you suggest it would end up in court very quickly. The club is run by very successful business owners who I can’t imagine will be easy to push around. If the premiership want more clubs they need to make it an attractive prospect not try and force more clubs in.

But that's what they're rumoured to be doing now with Northampton.

The whole thing is a mess imo and it's years of failure that's got us to this point.

[Fromafar]

19 minutes ago, TTT said:

What's your solution then?

I stick by my solution of going after the club with the most cash / stable business model and forcing their hand into propping up the Premiership instead of stepping into the unknown by playing poker with Northampton.

Think most Championship Promotions would be reasonably happy with season,problems being fixture planning and missing riders for various reasons that were not factored in.Fans probably feel the same.Now that the Premiership is having problems it is up to their Promotions to resolve without trying to badger others into their way of thinking.Just my opinion.

[foreverblue]

1 hour ago, IainB said:

But don't forget the happy clappy brigade will have you believe that Coventry, Peterborough, Cradley, Swindon & Wolves are all coming back and that Northampton are going to join them... just as the next club closes. 

I think I miss Peterborough the most out of those, fantastic racetrack.

[YeOldPitGate]

31 minutes ago, TTT said:

What's your solution then?

I stick by my solution of going after the club with the most cash / stable business model and forcing their hand into propping up the Premiership instead of stepping into the unknown by playing poker with Northampton.

But if your the owner of that business and lets say your just about breaking even as is and you also have all the agg of running the business.

 

The likelyhood is your going to think mmm Birmingham went up and lost a packet, Oxford tried three leagues and knocked it on the head after one season, I'm probably going to do six figures, there's no tv deal either, I might as well shut down anyway and spend the 100k I would have lost on cruises for my family for the next five years and have more time to myself.

Worst case they could start running stocks which seems to generate more money than speedway or join nora and do the odd open meeting.

[SteveLyric2]

41 minutes ago, TTT said:

What's your solution then?

I stick by my solution of going after the club with the most cash / stable business model and forcing their hand into propping up the Premiership instead of stepping into the unknown by playing poker with Northampton.

I thought that's what Ipswich have been doing!?

[The White Knight]

5 hours ago, TTT said:

Bosses need to grow a backbone and refuse starting permission for Glasgow in the Championship imo.

It's a club with a Premiership business model in place on all fronts.

Under no circumstances can the Premiership take place with 5 Teams.

Could the same argument not be applied to Poole?

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, IainB said:

But don't forget the happy clappy brigade will have you believe that Coventry, Peterborough, Cradley, Swindon & Wolves are all coming back and that Northampton are going to join them... just as the next club closes. 

They would need three rider teams if all those came back...