What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[Fromafar]

22 hours ago, noaksey said:

Then eventually the whole thing will go broke so the choices are

Overpay and go broke

Pay what you can afford and reset the whole sport on a semi professional basis if that what it takes. It might not work but it's much better than going skint 

That’s too sensible for some.

 You have to have some sympathy for the lesser riders that won’t know if they are “coming or going” .Maybe the are being kept in the picture though.

[PhilTheAce]

4 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

 And you know this how?  He's certainly not let me down and the 6-7k crowd for the play off final was testament to the hard work that's been put in. 

I’d rather have 10 years of speedway than 1 crowd of 6-7k per season.

 

Hes risking you losing your weekly speedway, closing the club you love for what seems to look like prams being thrown out of the pram.

 

when the going gets tough, the tough get stronger, not quit 

[Steve Irving]

1 minute ago, PhilTheAce said:

I’d rather have 10 years of speedway than 1 crowd of 6-7k per season.

 

Hes risking you losing your weekly speedway, closing the club you love for what seems to look like prams being thrown out of the pram.

 

when the going gets tough, the tough get stronger, not quit 

There it is. You’re making assumptions on something you know absolutely nothing about. You haven’t got a clue what is going on Phil.

[PhilTheAce]

8 minutes ago, Steve Irving said:

There it is. You’re making assumptions on something you know absolutely nothing about. You haven’t got a clue what is going on Phil.

Then he needs to come out and say his reasons. Don’t just out of the blue put out a statement and give it no reasons,

 

As I said a few weeks ago on this very thread, I was told Louis was throwing his toys out the pram and threatening to sell the club, and guess what, looks like he has

[cowboy cookie returns?]

40 minutes ago, PhilTheAce said:

I’d rather have 10 years of speedway than 1 crowd of 6-7k per season.

 

Hes risking you losing your weekly speedway, closing the club you love for what seems to look like prams being thrown out of the pram.

 

when the going gets tough, the tough get stronger, not quit 

This is a guy who has been involved professionally at Foxhall for near on 40 years. I don’t buy the throwing his toys out of the pram.

Anyone who has had dealings with him will tell you he is the ultra professional. It’s got to the point where he can’t see any future & can’t drag others in the direction to make it more professional. Believe you mean he has being trying for years. 

Probably got to the same point the late great John Berry did at the end of 83.
 

As a Ipswich supporter I have to say I agree with & respect his decision. Yes it’s a tough one as it could see speedway at Foxhall finish but if the alternatives are as bad as rumoured the final call is coming anyway.

Louis had the decency to actually personally let all the sponsors know before the announcement was made.

[ouch]

1 hour ago, Daniel Smith said:

Which, as we've all said many times about Promoters, it's 'all about me' & never what's best for British Speedway. 

Louis could well be right about the direction the sport should go, but he's been part of the collective that's taken this sport down with the Titanic for decades.

Here's the thing. 

Why should any other p promoter trust him? Why should any promoter trust Lemon? Why should any other promoter trust Ford?

That's it, they all can't trust each other because they've no interest in British Speedway, just self serving. 

The only way this sport can be saved is a totally independent body. Doesn't matter the route that gets taken without that, as has continually happened over many decades, the sport is just going to continue to devour itself. 

I wouldn’t use the word trust but there is little to no respect for Belle Vue or their staff amongst the BSPL committee and many of its members. Adrian was too vocal about the need for an independent body and that did not go down well and this has been mirrored with Mark. To have a business man who basically fell into speedway but could see the direction it should be going, move on due to the shenanigans of those at the top table said it all much more and much earlier than Louis latest stunt. 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

57 minutes ago, PhilTheAce said:

Then he needs to come out and say his reasons. Don’t just out of the blue put out a statement and give it no reasons,

 

As I said a few weeks ago on this very thread, I was told Louis was throwing his toys out the pram and threatening to sell the club, and guess what, looks like he has

Unfortunately it sounds like lemon is doing the same, BV in the national league only and Ipswich potentially not running at all is catastrophic for the sport, both completely avoidable but are we dealing with stubbornness preventing a proper solution 

[SteveLyric2]

45 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

This is a guy who has been involved professionally at Foxhall for near on 40 years. I don’t buy the throwing his toys out of the pram.

Anyone who has had dealings with him will tell you he is the ultra professional. It’s got to the point where he can’t see any future & can’t drag others in the direction to make it more professional. Believe you mean he has being trying for years. 

Probably got to the same point the late great John Berry did at the end of 83.
 

As a Ipswich supporter I have to say I agree with & respect his decision. Yes it’s a tough one as it could see speedway at Foxhall finish but if the alternatives are as bad as rumoured the final call is coming anyway.

Louis had the decency to actually personally let all the sponsors know before the announcement was made.

Shame he didn't give the fans any options - 1, Close down; 2, run in a 5 team Premiership;3, Run in the Championship; 4, Run in a 'one league' set-up, with 5 or 6 rider teams?

Edited 11 hours ago by SteveLyric2

[BluPanther]

'Throwing his toys out of the pram' is a well worn phase in speedway, and it's normally directed at people who have wanted to progress the sport domestically. UK speedway has a history of successful promoters walking away from the sport, thanks to the short-sighted toxic dinosaurs that are destroying British speedway... 

[SteveLyric2]

51 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Unfortunately it sounds like lemon is doing the same, BV in the national league only and Ipswich potentially not running at all is catastrophic for the sport, both completely avoidable but are we dealing with stubbornness preventing a proper solution 

Haven't Belle Vue given the local City Council some 'guarantees' about the number of meetings? Also they have 2 GPs scheduled ............!

[Fromafar]

1 hour ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

This is a guy who has been involved professionally at Foxhall for near on 40 years. I don’t buy the throwing his toys out of the pram.

Anyone who has had dealings with him will tell you he is the ultra professional. It’s got to the point where he can’t see any future & can’t drag others in the direction to make it more professional. Believe you mean he has being trying for years. 

Probably got to the same point the late great John Berry did at the end of 83.
 

As a Ipswich supporter I have to say I agree with & respect his decision. Yes it’s a tough one as it could see speedway at Foxhall finish but if the alternatives are as bad as rumoured the final call is coming anyway.

Louis had the decency to actually personally let all the sponsors know before the announcement was made.

I Have no problem with Louis throwing the the towel,just don’t blame other Promoters who don’t want to risk financial ruin by doing something that looks the case.

[PhilTheAce]

1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Unfortunately it sounds like lemon is doing the same, BV in the national league only and Ipswich potentially not running at all is catastrophic for the sport, both completely avoidable but are we dealing with stubbornness preventing a proper solution 

If you won’t even contemplate doing championship then why would you just do NDL, doesn’t make sense

[cowboy cookie returns?]

11 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

I Have no problem with Louis throwing the the towel,just don’t blame other Promoters who don’t want to risk financial ruin by doing something that looks the case.

But in Louis case he has proven if  it’s done correctly & professionally then it can work. 

[PhilTheAce]

1 hour ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

This is a guy who has been involved professionally at Foxhall for near on 40 years. I don’t buy the throwing his toys out of the pram.

Anyone who has had dealings with him will tell you he is the ultra professional. It’s got to the point where he can’t see any future & can’t drag others in the direction to make it more professional. Believe you mean he has being trying for years. 

Probably got to the same point the late great John Berry did at the end of 83.
 

As a Ipswich supporter I have to say I agree with & respect his decision. Yes it’s a tough one as it could see speedway at Foxhall finish but if the alternatives are as bad as rumoured the final call is coming anyway.

Louis had the decency to actually personally let all the sponsors know before the announcement was made.

If Ipswich fans are happy then Fair enough, 

 

 

[therefused]

23 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

But in Louis case he has proven if  it’s done correctly & professionally then it can work. 

Just because one team made it work doesn’t mean all the others will, how many teams have come and gone in the top league now? None of them could make it work, it just doesn’t work in this country anymore unless you have deep pockets or sponsors with even deeper pockets 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

26 minutes ago, PhilTheAce said:

If you won’t even contemplate doing championship then why would you just do NDL, doesn’t make sense

I agree, I actually think BV would flourish in a one league set up , but if they run NL then they have lost my family’s custom, we would rather go Buxton for NL and if they run in a 5 team league we would go to a few but not many, probably see each team once 

[old bob at herne bay]

Looks like the “premiership” has finally sunk ? Clearly the AGM scheduled for November wasn’t going to be a “rubber stamping” of decisions for 2026. Ipswich now up for sale, Sheffield up for sale , and allegedly Belle Vue running only NL.

 

The AGM being postponed until January, signings continuing unabated in the Championship. Seems the CL will be running unchanged …….

 

all will be revealed in January’s AGM possibly THE most important in the history of the sport ?😂🤣

[poole keith]

The premier league clubs seem to be proving conclusively they're not capable of running anything,clueless. 

[cowboy cookie returns?]

8 minutes ago, poole keith said:

The premier league clubs seem to be proving conclusively they're not capable of running anything,clueless. 

It will be interesting to see how the championship gets on when doubling up ends & the riders ask for bettter terms to cover their loss in earnings

[Roger Jacobs]

1 hour ago, Fromafar said:

I Have no problem with Louis throwing the the towel,just don’t blame other Promoters who don’t want to risk financial ruin by doing something that looks the case.

Louis hasn't blamed anyone.  He said: "Following a meeting on Thursday I have informed my fellow Premiership promoters of my intention to sell the club."