What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[TTT]

37 minutes ago, Mumsie said:

The 'top' league is clearly on borrowed time, one league will be the only solution at some stage. Some serious massaging will need to happen for the Prem league to happen in 2026.

That I agree with, When we're down to 10 Teams.

Imo it's not the time to do it when we've got 14 Teams as well as a couple of potential returns in the near future when it comes to Northampton and Peterborough whether that's in 2026 or 2027.

British Speedway is on a downward slope granted, But it's still got a lot of fight left in it.

[B.V 72]

Looking at this years Prem teams out of the seven teams there is only one rider J Thompson who does not either double up or rides overseas. So if you look at 5 Prem teams joining the Champ league to form one big league you might get the odd few who ride overseas that might stay even if they do you are around 30 riders short.

So what does that mean. These riders will have to be replaced with possibly a few lower order overseas riders but the majority will be replaced by lower order National league riders.

This also means that 5 teams need 15 more heat leaders between them. The only place the majority of these riders can come from is the existing heat leaders and the better second strings in the league being shared out. To be replaced in the teams by the new lower order national league riders making the league a very much weaker product than it is now.

Now i am not choosing a side but putting out the options that i can see happening with the riders available. So if the above happens will fans be happy with a very much weakened product.

Edited 7 hours ago by B.V 72

[Fortythirtyeight]

11 hours ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Seriously as low as that or are you on a wind up ? and is that per meeting shown on tv or the entire season payout ?

No wind up, that’s it, TOTAL, TV money died with Sky.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

1 hour ago, ouch said:

add in seeing Glasgow v Edinburgh 10 times makes for a mouth watering prospect. 

That doesn’t make sense, with one league Glasgow would ride Edinburgh less times than they would now 

[LisaColette]

43 minutes ago, B.V 72 said:

Looking at this years Prem teams out of the seven teams there is only one rider J Thompson who does not either double up or rides overseas. So if you look at 5 Prem teams joining the Champ league to form one big league you might get the odd few who ride overseas that might stay even if they do you are around 30 riders short.

So what does that mean. These riders will have to be replaced with possibly a few lower order overseas riders but the majority will be replaced by lower order National league riders.

This also means that 5 teams need 15 more heat leaders between them. The only place the majority of these riders can come from is the existing heat leaders and the better second strings in the league being shared out. To be replaced in the teams by the new lower order national league riders making the league a very much weaker product than it is now.

Now i am not choosing a side but putting out the options that i can see happening with the riders available. So if the above happens will fans be happy with a very much weakened product.

Didn't he double up for Leicester and Plymouth? 

[B.V 72]

4 minutes ago, LisaColette said:

Didn't he double up for Leicester and Plymouth? 

yes he did another weaker end National league rider needed.

[proud panther]

I think the most obvious solution for next season is run the Premiership with 5 teams if Sheffield continue, or 6 if another team moves up. Trying to change to 1 league this late is impossible in my opinion.

[ouch]

1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

That doesn’t make sense, with one league Glasgow would ride Edinburgh less times than they would now 

For one big league, I’d not thought they’d reduce the total number of fixtures on top of no doubling up. “Sorry Chris, you’re not getting your income from the 27 Kings Lynn meetings. Oh well I’ll just make do with the 26 Glasgow meetings. 

You might want sit down.”

Ouch!

[SteveLyric2]

1 hour ago, TTT said:

That I agree with, When we're down to 10 Teams.

Imo it's not the time to do it when we've got 14 Teams as well as a couple of potential returns in the near future when it comes to Northampton and Peterborough whether that's in 2026 or 2027.

British Speedway is on a downward slope granted, But it's still got a lot of fight left in it.

Don't you mean the 'British Premiership is on a downward slope'? The Championship seems to be doing ok with a lot of fight left in it, with clubs (even those in the lower half of the Championship) signing and announcing the likes of Pickering, Lawson, King, Nicholls and Harris.

2026 will undoubtedly by 2  senior leagues plus the NDL, with the Prem clubs having to make some major rider decisions in 2027 if the Poles bring in their new rule restricting where riders can ride.

[TigerIain]

12 hours ago, TTT said:

KING'S LYNN We'll have Harris, Rowe and Kerr

IPSWICH We'll have King, Nicholls and Jenkins

LEICESTER We'll have D. Thompson, Howarth and N. Morris

Rest of league says 'no you won't if you want to join the league then the best riders need to be shared out'. If ANY Championship club wanted to get dumped on like that, then they would have stepped up to the Premiership!

You've just shown exactly why your Premiership league has failed. A couple of clubs hoard all the top riders causing other clubs to fail.

PS Ashfield is Harris' favourite UK track, and the owners are at least as wealthy as Buster. So not 100% guaranteed to go to KL.

2 hours ago, ouch said:

The “big” five didn’t screw over Birmingham or Oxford. If the Brummies had won the league this season they would still have closed. Kings Lynn (one of the “big” five) screwed Oxford over last year and simultaneously finished below them in the table. 

They didn't share out the top riders, the big 4 hoarded them all last year and KL signed 6 third heat leaders and made a decent go of it. Everyone could see that Oxford and Birmingham were going to, and did, get hammered repeatedly. If Birmingham had been in any way competitive then at least someone would suggest running that team from another track. They got hammered repeatedly and hardly anyone paid to watch it, so the big 5 killed them off. 

2 hours ago, ouch said:

Looking forward to one big league and Sam Masters battles with Jack Shimelt, add in seeing Glasgow v Edinburgh 10 times makes for a mouth watering prospect. 

The 10th match between them last year was the best speedway match I've seen in the 40ish years I've been watching speedway. Admittedly helped by being a 2 leg knock out contest. At least there is a city rivalry there to promote the match. Glasgow v Ipswich 10 times would not have the same pull. (PS Masters v Harris at Ashfield is normally something to get excited about)

[therefused]

14 teams with 5 man teams needs 70 riders, this gives each rider 6 rides a meeting (ignoring any potential replacement rides).
 

This in theory would cut down on the amount of signing on fees per rider, less cost of machinery etc but riders could earn more with more riders and more points money. 
 

As a more radical solution I’d be tempted to go down the route of one big league where each meeting is a four team tournament, you then have only 4 riders per team (maybe a fifth youngster) and the potential of three sets of away fans instead of just one. 

[Pirates Of Poole]

8 minutes ago, SteveLyric2 said:

Don't you mean the 'British Premiership is on a downward slope'? The Championship seems to be doing ok with a lot of fight left in it, with clubs (even those in the lower half of the Championship) signing and announcing the likes of Pickering, Lawson, King, Nicholls and Harris.

2026 will undoubtedly by 2  senior leagues plus the NDL, with the Prem clubs having to make some major rider decisions in 2027 if the Poles bring in their new rule restricting where riders can ride.

I also wonder if the 1 eight point rider will be rubber stamped in January and a u-turn on that could happen as could mean more premiership team riders can double down like Pickering.

[TTT]

18 minutes ago, SteveLyric2 said:

Don't you mean the 'British Premiership is on a downward slope'? The Championship seems to be doing ok with a lot of fight left in it, with clubs (even those in the lower half of the Championship) signing and announcing the likes of Pickering, Lawson, King, Nicholls and Harris.

2026 will undoubtedly by 2  senior leagues plus the NDL, with the Prem clubs having to make some major rider decisions in 2027 if the Poles bring in their new rule restricting where riders can ride.

No because the CHAMP and CHAMP Clubs can only operate in the way that they do because of the PREM.

CHAMP relies on a Two Tier Structure just as much as the PREM relies on a 6+ Team Top League.

2027 Polish Rule is another reason why One Big League cannot happen, We'd already have a Rider shortage now in One Big League featuring 14 Teams as I highlighted this Morning in my 8+, 7+, 6+ GSA post.

[TTT]

29 minutes ago, TigerIain said:

You've just shown exactly why your Premiership league has failed. A couple of clubs hoard all the top riders causing other clubs to fail.

No offence but you support Glasgow......The team that signs 4 Heat Leaders every year.

Glasgow do the exact same thing to CHAMP Teams what PREM Teams do when it comes to the Oxford Spires and Birmingham Brummies.

I'm all for a One Rider Over 8.00 Rule being introduced into the PREM to level out the playing field.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

41 minutes ago, ouch said:

For one big league, I’d not thought they’d reduce the total number of fixtures on top of no doubling up. “Sorry Chris, you’re not getting your income from the 27 Kings Lynn meetings. Oh well I’ll just make do with the 26 Glasgow meetings. 

You might want sit down.”

Ouch!

Couldn’t care less what Harris or king or any rider thinks he needs, this is about the future of speedway, its currently is broke, can’t pay its debts off and if it carry’s on the same path Harris and the rest will have to get a job in B&M  or Asda let alone have to reduce their income,it’s a tough old world out there and it’s time the riders started to feel it 

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

5 minutes ago, TTT said:

No offence but you support Glasgow......The team that signs 4 Heat Leaders every year.

Glasgow do the exact same thing to CHAMP Teams what PREM Teams do when it comes to the Oxford Spires and Birmingham Brummies.

I'm all for a One Rider Over 8.00 Rule being introduced into the PREM to level out the playing field.

Add Poole to that scenario too

When they dropped down did they pick up the dregs? 

Nope! Laswon, King, the Cook brothers etc and proposed for next year the premium rated newcomers - Cairns, Rushen and Bailey - not really sharing is it.....

[Hamish McRaker]

I did think that having two "conferences" of 7 teams with strict points limits and limited doubling up, could be a solution.

Then, after riding 12 matches, go to mini-leagues of 4, 5 and 5 teams to sort out a final league table and have division 1, 2 and 3 champions, and maybe also a grand final playoff between the top two.

 

But then I realised the potential for chaos created by doubling up, in the second part of that cunning plan

[SuffolkWitch]

I cannot see how One league  would work with the current talent pool of riders available. Riders riding for 2 teams in one league is simply not an option even if there was some North/South split for the regular league season ahead of a champions of champions play off. The only way I see one league working is working on some kind of arrangement(if it’s even possible) to allow some of the young unattached riders from the USA, Aus, South America and some of the less common European nations.
 

However, that then leaves the problem of costs of these riders coming over for machinery, travel, accommodation,  working visa’s and whether they’d even meet the criteria to be able to come over here and race under current laws (something I’m not too read up on). Then the question of whether they’d even want to.

Edited 5 hours ago by SuffolkWitch

[TTT]

35 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Couldn’t care less what Harris or king or any rider thinks he needs, this is about the future of speedway, its currently is broke, can’t pay its debts off and if it carry’s on the same path Harris and the rest will have to get a job in B&M  or Asda let alone have to reduce their income,it’s a tough old world out there and it’s time the riders started to feel it 

They'll just retire as they won't risk getting seriously injured at their Age when it would have a knock on effect when it comes to a regular paying job.

They could be left claiming Universal Credit and other Benefits if they Broke a Leg, Fractured Vertebrae's etc. whilst taking part in a hobby that once was a career for them.

Then what will British Speedway do when the Rider crisis deepens especially with the 2027 Polish Rule?

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

There was a classic example this season of how things need to change and it answers a couple of points too  Oxford run a team in the championship with no tv money from TNT and break even, they run a team in the premier with TNT money and owe £1000s, same track one team is sustainable one isn’t, the one with the lesser riders got marginally bettter support, dispelling the point about the star riders needed, the lessen is all there to see, will the bspl see it ? No they have superheats and points limits  to discuss