What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[Daniel Smith]

Think we're seeing evidence of a watered down Premiership in 26. Sayfutdinov gone & been mentioned elsewhere that Jack Holder has also said no more.

2026 looks like it could have lineups that are reminiscent of the shocking Covid return season.

With the certainty of less teams, no TV money, less sponsorship = less income, how would folks feel about a (very likely) admissions increase??

Looking at basic numbers guesstimate, adult admissions could be between £28-£30 to fill all the voids??

[truthsayer]

1 hour ago, Spiderman1 said:

Bring in weight limits bike and rider, you will get more riders interested instead of a team of midgets

Are there actually any examples you can give to back this statement up?

[Mgas]

1 hour ago, Spiderman1 said:

Bring in weight limits bike and rider, you will get more riders interested instead of a team of midgets

Where will these bigger riders suddenly appear from? 

[Spiderman1]

10 hours ago, truthsayer said:

Are there actually any examples you can give to back this statement up?

Any country has tall and small people, just would make it more compeditive if there was weight limits through speedway,much like road racing moto 3 for one example, more people would take up speedway weight is hp ,only have to look a the current gp guys

[Spiderman1]

9 hours ago, Mgas said:

Where will these bigger riders suddenly appear from? 

The same place you come from

[noaksey]

Big name count

Left 1

Arrived 0

I'll update as we go 

[gazzac]

16 hours ago, Spiderman1 said:

Bring in weight limits bike and rider, you will get more riders interested instead of a team of midgets

If you based the total weight on a bloater, Ben Cook would have to tow a trailer with the weight in......

[RoundTheBoards]

14 hours ago, Mgas said:

Where will these bigger riders suddenly appear from? 

Could put an advert in McDonalds window?

[YeOldPitGate]

15 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Think we're seeing evidence of a watered down Premiership in 26. Sayfutdinov gone & been mentioned elsewhere that Jack Holder has also said no more.

2026 looks like it could have lineups that are reminiscent of the shocking Covid return season.

With the certainty of less teams, no TV money, less sponsorship = less income, how would folks feel about a (very likely) admissions increase??

Looking at basic numbers guesstimate, adult admissions could be between £28-£30 to fill all the voids??

Agreed the year dads army one the league the overall quality was dire, the Peterborough seven were all great riders in their day but for all of them that was five to ten years ago but as the rest of the league was uber weak their experience was enough to see them over the line.

[YeOldPitGate]

4 hours ago, noaksey said:

Big name count

Left 1

Arrived 0

I'll update as we go 

Who's officially left ?

[Fromafar]

15 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Think we're seeing evidence of a watered down Premiership in 26. Sayfutdinov gone & been mentioned elsewhere that Jack Holder has also said no more.

2026 looks like it could have lineups that are reminiscent of the shocking Covid return season.

With the certainty of less teams, no TV money, less sponsorship = less income, how would folks feel about a (very likely) admissions increase??

Looking at basic numbers guesstimate, adult admissions could be between £28-£30 to fill all the voids??

Can’t see many paying those prices.

[YeOldPitGate]

3 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Who's officially left ?

Apologies just caught up so no Emil for 2026 and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere no Woffy either so two big names gone.

[Mgas]

17 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

 

5 hours ago, Spiderman1 said:

The same place you come from

Thanks, but what I was eluding to is most riders start young, smaller and lighter. There are tall riders who I suspect work especially hard to keep their weight down. Ballast isn’t going to see a sudden influx of speedway riders. Because it’s so expensive and so specialised, a 20 something year old mx rider isn’t being held back from switching to speedway by weight.

Edited 5 hours ago by Mgas

[Mgas]

YeOldPitGate  not sure how I ended up involving you in that last post, one day I might actually learn how to work my phone 🤣

[Fortythirtyeight]

22 hours ago, mikebv said:

Didnt the BSP buy a load of those GTR bikes?

If so, why not just use them for dozens of practice days and see if anyone with ability turns up...

MX seems to be a decent breeding ground as it appears Grasstrack no longer looks like the pathway... 

get with the times, GTR project died years ago when the BSPL, as was, were taken the the cleaners by the builder and the BSPL lost over three hundred grand on the project.

and just how many MX riders have taken up speedway in the last 5 years ?

[Fortythirtyeight]

On 10/30/2025 at 11:46 PM, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

The more I think about it the more I don’t know why they don’t run a premiership team out of Buxton, the rent is cheap enough and with the right promotion I would think they could get around 700 crowd, maybe if it was run as Wolverhampton then more than 700 is possible? it’s sounds ridiculous but no more ridiculous than some of the ideas I hear being banded around at the moment, it doesn’t have lights at the moment but that surely isn’t an unclimbable hill 

Simple answer….MONEY !

700 crowd for Premiership riders wage bill ?  That sort of crowd probably only justifies  a Championship level team , unless your going to follow a Birmingham scenario and be willing to lose buckets and buckets of cash.

[mikebv]

Just now, Fortythirtyeight said:

get with the times, GTR project died years ago when the BSPL, as was, were taken the the cleaners by the builder and the BSPL lost over three hundred grand on the project.

and just how many MX riders have taken up speedway in the last 5 years ?

So where are the bikes?

Must be useful for something... 

And Jon Cook did a pretty good job in targeting MX...

I remember a Speedway Star interview with him where he basically was targeting MX riders with his selling point being that a "decent" Speedway rider could (at that time), ride three or four times a week and earn over four grand..

[Fortythirtyeight]

Just now, mikebv said:

So where are the bikes?

Must be useful for something... 

And Jon Cook did a pretty good job in targeting MX...

I remember a Speedway Star interview with him where he basically was targeting MX riders with his selling point being that a "decent" Speedway rider could (at that time), ride three or four times a week and earn over four grand..

There never was ‘ bikes ‘ , just engines, and only 13 were delivered to the UK. You need to keep up, the MX ‘appeal ‘ only got three definite bookings and was abandoned .

[mikebv]

1 minute ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

There never was ‘ bikes ‘ , just engines, and only 13 were delivered to the UK. You need to keep up, the MX ‘appeal ‘ only got three definite bookings and was abandoned .

Gerhard did well....

[Fortythirtyeight]

2 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Gerhard did well....

Yep, laughed all the way to the bank and made the ‘ Top Table ‘ of the BSPL look like the idiots they were / are.

Edited 48 minutes ago by Fortythirtyeight