What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, Mick Bratley said:

IMO Monday night Premiership racing is the worst decision ever made. Thursday is slightly better. Who wants to really go out on a Monday night especially parents with kids. And if you’re trying to attract a younger early 20s audience, generally they’ve spent out over the weekend. The majority of our meetings should be on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and if that means we have to lose the ‘stars’ then so be it, the sport is or needs to be bigger than any individual rider.

"Stars" who don't seem to be able to get too many to come out to watch them on Monday's or Thursday's, at most tracks who run on those days...

But do seem to get a "lot of money" for doing something with such a small audience present...

[1 valve]

1 hour ago, Mick Bratley said:

IMO Monday night Premiership racing is the worst decision ever made. Thursday is slightly better. Who wants to really go out on a Monday night especially parents with kids. And if you’re trying to attract a younger early 20s audience, generally they’ve spent out over the weekend. The majority of our meetings should be on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and if that means we have to lose the ‘stars’ then so be it, the sport is or needs to be bigger than any individual rider.

I understand the sentiment but what also should be taken into consideration is that it’s not just the GP stars that will disappear from the UK racing scene but nearly all or every rider who rides in Poland. To include many Brits, Australians, Scandinavians & Poles and the occasional American. Maybe enough for around four five UK teams.  
But at least there would be one league - Just!

[Aries]

51 minutes ago, 1 valve said:

I understand the sentiment but what also should be taken into consideration is that it’s not just the GP stars that will disappear from the UK racing scene but nearly all or every rider who rides in Poland. To include many Brits, Australians, Scandinavians & Poles and the occasional American. Maybe enough for around four five UK teams.  
But at least there would be one league - Just!

And not for long either. 
 

Sorry Mick, dreadful idea. 

[IainB]

59 minutes ago, 1 valve said:

I understand the sentiment but what also should be taken into consideration is that it’s not just the GP stars that will disappear from the UK racing scene but nearly all or every rider who rides in Poland. To include many Brits, Australians, Scandinavians & Poles and the occasional American. Maybe enough for around four five UK teams.  
But at least there would be one league - Just!

They can't all go and ride in Poland, there's only so many team places available over there and unlike us they fill a lot of them with local talent. Does a rider sit on the sidelines hoping for a shot in a Polish team or do full racing programmes elsewhere?

[Neila]

3 minutes ago, IainB said:

They can't all go and ride in Poland, there's only so many team places available over there and unlike us they fill a lot of them with local talent. Does a rider sit on the sidelines hoping for a shot in a Polish team or do full racing programmes elsewhere?

Think a lot of the lesser riders,  and some bigger ones ( like josh Pickering) are now giving Poland a wide berth  due to several cases of non payments. Several polish clubs are in deep financial doo doo

[Fromafar]

1 hour ago, 1 valve said:

I understand the sentiment but what also should be taken into consideration is that it’s not just the GP stars that will disappear from the UK racing scene but nearly all or every rider who rides in Poland. To include many Brits, Australians, Scandinavians & Poles and the occasional American. Maybe enough for around four five UK teams.  
But at least there would be one league - Just!

The Poles are looking after themselves with their rule changes.Not everybody will get aTeam place in Poland. (Pickering for example,he’s signed foe Scunny just in case his wage demands price him out over there).

IMO.

 

[TTT]

2 hours ago, Fromafar said:

I’m afraid I can’t agree with you on once the Prem goes the Champ goes with it.

That's fine Fromafar, Everyone's entitled to have a view/opinion whether it's in agreement or disagreement

All I'm saying is that the math doesn't add up when it comes to Rider Availability so the CHAMP in it's current format would have to be scrapped if it's one big league.

We're in a mess and a longer term solution has to be found at the AGM, Northampton in the PREM isn't the answer as we'll be back here in the same situation in 12 Months time.

[cowboy cookie returns?]

3 hours ago, Mick Bratley said:

IMO Monday night Premiership racing is the worst decision ever made. Thursday is slightly better. Who wants to really go out on a Monday night especially parents with kids. And if you’re trying to attract a younger early 20s audience, generally they’ve spent out over the weekend. The majority of our meetings should be on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and if that means we have to lose the ‘stars’ then so be it, the sport is or needs to be bigger than any individual rider.

To be honest I’ve never totally understood the argument about weekend racing being the answer.

If the overall product was decent & people wanted to see it live race night to a certain point doesn’t make any difference.

League football outside the premiership runs on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. My experience of that is the place is full of kids watching and the game doesn’t finish until at least 9:30.

Also Ipswich seem to attract plenty of youngsters on Thursday.

Race nights, GPs Poland etc etc have all been blamed for British speedways problems . GPs & Poland were not an issue 40 years ago when the the problems began to take hold.

Make the sport something that people can buy into & want to attend.

[mikebv]

6 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

To be honest I’ve never totally understood the argument about weekend racing being the answer.

If the overall product was decent & people wanted to see it live race night to a certain point doesn’t make any difference.

League football outside the premiership runs on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. My experience of that is the place is full of kids watching and the game doesn’t finish until at least 9:30.

Also Ipswich seem to attract plenty of youngsters on Thursday.

Race nights, GPs Poland etc etc have all been blamed for British speedways problems . GPs & Poland were not an issue 40 years ago when the the problems began to take hold.

Make the sport something that people can buy into & want to attend.

I 100% agree...

However, that last paragraph is the one that they simply cannot deliver, given what has been allowed to take place over the past few decades has left them with far too many issues to fix...

What we have had for the past many years is pretty much all they can deliver. And has inevitably led them to the current challenges they face...

As you surely wouldn't run the sport the way they do by choice would you?

Guestfests are now part and parcel of the UK version of the sport, so, just ride on the best nights for your business, and if fhere is a clash with Poland or Sweden then just use the same guest system as they do now...

The sport is pretty much in "survival mode" rather than being in "progress mode", so anything that can get just an extra 100 per week to attend, could be the ultimate difference to keeping some tracks going..

 

[Mick Bratley]

3 hours ago, mikebv said:

"Stars" who don't seem to be able to get too many to come out to watch them on Monday's or Thursday's, at most tracks who run on those days...

But do seem to get a "lot of money" for doing something with such a small audience present...

100%

[Mick Bratley]

1 hour ago, Aries said:

And not for long either. 
 

Sorry Mick, dreadful idea. 

By saying it’s a dreadful idea, you’re actually saying what we currently have is ok (ish). It isn’t, it is not viable. Great to have the GP stars but we need enough people to come through the turnstiles and enough sponsors to pay for them. It clearly doesn’t happen for 95% of the clubs and the 5% bet everything on getting to the Grand Final and getting five times their normal attendance to pay for the season and a bit of the following season. It is a crap business model. Monday is a rubbish night to watch Speedway, the diehards will come but attracting a new audience to come on a Monday night is nigh on impossible, if it was working we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Those who say yeah well football is played on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, well yes that’s true but it’s not every Tuesday or Wednesday and the majority of a clubs midweek games coincide with school holidays.

[Ben91]

People are more likely to go out and do something at the weekend. Friday evening and Saturday in particular. If we could find a way to get teams racing at the weekend (or on a race night that suits their audience) we’d be laughing. But. 

There would be riders lost to Poland and the current domestic rider pool isn’t up to the standard a lot of fans deem acceptable apparently.

Weekend racing isn’t a bad idea. It’s probably unrealistic given the place the sport has been navigated into over the last few decades however.

We need solutions, not pointing out of obvious problems of course. The first couple of steps for me are safeguarding the current tracks (we really can’t afford to lose any more) and repopulating the domestic rider pool. That means doubling up must be curbed (over time, we can’t go cold turkey due to the lack of good enough riders now) and a strong focus on getting youngsters into the sport, developing their talents and then keeping them on their bikes. 

Tackle one issue at a time, build a solid, sustainable foundation and then move forward from there. 

[IainB]

1 hour ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

 

League football outside the premiership runs on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. My experience of that is the place is full of kids watching and the game doesn’t finish until at least 9:30.

 

The difference is, you know what time it's going to start and finish, you know (unless there are freak circumstances) that it's going to be on when you get there and you know who the player are lining up for both teams.

[castrolargh]

2 hours ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

To be honest I’ve never totally understood the argument about weekend racing being the answer.

If the overall product was decent & people wanted to see it live race night to a certain point doesn’t make any difference.

League football outside the premiership runs on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. My experience of that is the place is full of kids watching and the game doesn’t finish until at least 9:30.

Also Ipswich seem to attract plenty of youngsters on Thursday.

Race nights, GPs Poland etc etc have all been blamed for British speedways problems . GPs & Poland were not an issue 40 years ago when the the problems began to take hold.

Make the sport something that people can buy into & want to attend.

Got to disagree there regarding race nights. I only live 15min away from the afa or saddlebow road but I absolutely hate Monday race nights, especially when I'm normally home  about 18.30 and very often out at 4.30 in the morning.  It means I'm nackered Tuesday and that doesn't start the week off very well. At least with a Thursday race night there's only Friday at work to get through!

[stevebrum]

On 10/31/2025 at 4:57 PM, noaksey said:

It's a long way from Wolverhampton so that might not attract many (any) Wolves fans especially on a weekday night.

I certainly wouldn't see the previous Wolves promotion being interested 

 

Wolves fans didn’t turn out in vast numbers to Birmingham neither which is much closer although it’s understandable because there teams were pants.

On 11/7/2025 at 5:40 AM, Fromafar said:

While we have to wait for outcome of  12th Nov. If half the rumours are founded. I don’t understand why there is not just one league at Championship Level.Going back to basics and rebuilding.

I understand perfectly why there won’t be one big league it’s simple really. There isn’t enough suitable standard riders to fill all team spaces unless you reduce team strengths to 5 or 6. 

[cowboy cookie returns?]

2 hours ago, IainB said:

The difference is, you know what time it's going to start and finish, you know (unless there are freak circumstances) that it's going to be on when you get there and you know who the player are lining up for both teams.

It’s quite easy to do that in speedway to. Take Ipswich everyone who has an interest in going knows first race is 7:45 & it will be finished by 9:30

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, IainB said:

The difference is, you know what time it's going to start and finish, you know (unless there are freak circumstances) that it's going to be on when you get there and you know who the player are lining up for both teams.

And jeopardy and consequence to the results...

Plus enormous rewards...

Plus plenty of away fans to create tribal atmosphere..

Plus credibility in team selection..

Plus. Plus. Plus etc etc etc... 

[mikebv]

5 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

It’s quite easy to do that in speedway to. Take Ipswich everyone who has an interest in going knows first race is 7:45 & it will be finished by 9:30

When Ipswich made the decision to drop down from Div 1 nto Div 2 (and stay there for many years), did they not start and finish at a certain time?

Or, was the reality not enough had an interest in going, hence the decision to drop?...

[cowboy cookie returns?]

1 minute ago, mikebv said:

When Ipswich made the decision to drop down from Div 1 nto Div 2 (and stay there for many years), did they not start and finish at a certain time?

Or, was the reality not enough had an interest in going, hence the decision to drop?...

At the time they dropped down the club was at a low point. Several years of poor teams the club had gone stale. When Louis junior took over the day to day running was when he made the decision to drop down. The position Ipswich find themselves in today is down to the hard work put in by Chris in rebuilding the club over several years. 
 

The ironic thing is even when we dropped the attendance levels were still quite good  but it needed a reboot.

sounds daft but Ippo must be happy with their attendance figures I guess most weeks it 2000

[1 valve]

5 hours ago, IainB said:

They can't all go and ride in Poland, there's only so many team places available over there and unlike us they fill a lot of them with local talent. Does a rider sit on the sidelines hoping for a shot in a Polish team or do full racing programmes elsewhere?

I’m referring to those who currently ride in Poland of whom the vast majority will continue to do so.