What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[Preston Comet]

9 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

It might be a case that we just have to accept the sport in the UK at the level we have known it previously is now over.

I mentioned before i stopped going in my late teens in the early 90's when I discovered nightclubs , fast forward 33 years and nightclubs that pulled in thousands of people on a Saturday night then are all gone.

The nearest city to me had 10 night clubs in the early 90's now it has one tiny one, and loads of pubs have closed over that time frame also, places that from 1990 -2005 if you had said to me one day all these will be gone you would have thought never going to happen but it did.

Its accelerated since then with social media really taking off a lot of the youth of today have near zero interest in going out, online gaming, dating app's so you don't physically have to trawl out rounds pubs any more looking for a likely partner.

Why bother with restaurants get Deliveroo to drop off a pizza to your door, Blockbusters video gone the way of the Dodo when streaming caught on.

I occasionally look back at threads on here from 10 years or so back, and there's loads of names I come across who are no longer posting, I would guess there is maybe 50 of us die hards on here now posting and hoping a miracle happens so even this forum is probably on last knockings.

Really sad how its ended up all be it the sport has actually limped on for far longer than i thought it would but these days its a struggle to attract punters even when you are offering a professional leisure opportunity let alone when you are trying to attract people to a sport where the riders all ride for different teams every other week and after the first month in you can pretty much guarantee every week from the two teams on show there will most likely be at least 2-4 of the combined 14 riders missing.

It really does look like checkmate is nearing I would say one big league but the argument that there has to be some form of even dire top league to subsidise the bottom league as far as rider earnings goes does have merit as an argument, so it really is a case of least bad outcome.

I would imagine it will be a five team top league in 2026 with a view to finding a sacraficial lamb to get it up to six in 2027 unless someone with a load of money and no business sense can be shoe horned into getting Northampton running in 2027.

Take a bow.. this thread should now be locked after this post, magnificently worded

[Littleze]

42 minutes ago, tonyd said:

Agree 100%

Speedway in this country as we know it  is in a state of collapse, high wages, high stadium rents and dwindling  supporters are the norm these days. GP standard riders wages are expensive AND if no team will meet there demands they take there ability elsewhere in Europe to ride which is fair enough. How many races have we seen in the past couple of seasons where there are two races in one? Top riders a straight length ahead of second strings or reserves battling it out together So as more teams fall by the wayside so will the GP riders.

The way things are going at present within 5 years any teams that are left will have to have riders that are semi-professional racing mainly at weekends again, maybe back to the 13 heats and a second half once more where the supporters can watch the juniors improve week on week like we used to. This is the only way I can see speedway completely surviving in this country starting from the grass roots again and rebuilding.

 

 

Until the sport reinvents itself, I don’t see how anything changes. You need salaried riders, a squad and no averages (for team building purposes) but you can’t do that, as no money, not enough riders or interest in the Sport, it’s not football where all you need is a ball. If riders can/do manipulate their average then you’re essentially watching a bent product, which was probably part of the *sports undoing back in the day. This is before modern stadia, all weather surface or preventable measures to minimise rain offs, then you may have some credibility, which is a starting point…but that is all it is. 

[Roger Jacobs]

It seems they are planning for a 5 team Premiership, with teams racing each other 3 home & 3 away. However: it can only be confirmed in the New Year IF new owners are in place at Sheffield and Ipswich - so the riders are looking elsewhere for earning opportunities, in case nothing happens.

[YeOldPitGate]

2 hours ago, Preston Comet said:

Take a bow.. this thread should now be locked after this post, magnificently worded

Thanks Preston take zero pleasure in thinking this is the last knockings but I realistically can't see any good way out moving forward hopefully i'm wrong but think unlikely.

[Marky_Mark]

1 hour ago, Roger Jacobs said:

It seems they are planning for a 5 team Premiership, with teams racing each other 3 home & 3 away. However: it can only be confirmed in the New Year IF new owners are in place at Sheffield and Ipswich - so the riders are looking elsewhere for earning opportunities, in case nothing happens.

And if Ipswich and/or Sheffield don’t get new owners then it leaves Belle Vue, Leicester and Kings Lynn with nothing to run?

[truthsayer]

13 hours ago, ouch said:

Meetings need to be run on a tighter timeline with 9.00 as the finishing target. Grading breaks need to be short and at standard times every meeting. In the down time have something to engage the fans with rider interviews ( preferably on a big screen with replays and scores throughout), games for the kids and a mascot to provide some fun and free sweets. A chance to hear from and meet the riders after the meeting would be good to help build relationships. 

Is handing out sweets and having someone dressed up like an extra from Paw Patrol really going to bring speedway into the 21st century? It's just the old ideas being regurgitated.

 

13 hours ago, ouch said:

All not easy to do I know but with the right people it could be achieved. Chris Louis would be the ideal choice to push this through or Stewart Dickson at Leicester. Bates would have been good before deciding to move on and of course Buster could get things done as he has done in the past. There could even be candidates from the lower division with the drive to see this done. 

So basically get three of the people whose old school thinking has helped us get into the state we're in.

The sport needs a dictator, who will run the sport with a view to making profit and without the rose tinted glasses. Sadly I don't think it can be run at a profit, which is why it will die a death in the next few years.