What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[Youhave2minutes]

13 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Harris (Captain), Nicholls & Lawson as the heat leaders.

Terry Betts and Peter Collins the second strings

[Youhave2minutes]

  13 hours ago,  PhilTheAce said:

Going to stick my neck on the line
 

wanna borrow a chopper?

[Phannan]

Let’s hope this 5 team league provides more fun and excitement than what Mo Salah is getting right now, going by his face like a smacked ar5e look today 

[kevin bass]

47 minutes ago, Phannan said:

Let’s hope this 5 team league provides more fun and excitement than what Mo Salah is getting right now, going by his face like a smacked ar5e look today 

Must be hard and very upsetting sitting on the bench whilst earning 400k a wk

[JoeW436]

It’s a bit of a chicken or egg situation but when we’re down to a 5 team league it’s hard for there to be much confidence and importantly financial backing into bringing back one of the recently demised clubs.

[IainB]

2 hours ago, kevin bass said:

Must be hard and very upsetting sitting on the bench whilst earning 400k a wk

It is when you could be sat on a Saudi bench earning £700k a week 😂

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

2 hours ago, kevin bass said:

Must be hard and very upsetting sitting on the bench whilst earning 400k a wk

 

14 minutes ago, IainB said:

It is when you could be sat on a Saudi bench earning £700k a week 😂

Perhaps he wants to buy a speedway league to fill his time 

[SPEEDY69]

20 hours ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Harris (Captain), Nicholls & Lawson as the heat leaders.

No, they're the championship superstars. 

[1 valve]

On 12/12/2025 at 6:03 PM, Phannan said:

If the premiership should be the target for all clubs , the pinnacle as you say, how do you achieve that without a route to it if it’s to be a credible sport? Promotion and relegation could be an answer. Jeopardy,  credibility, meanfull meetings would then apply . A total fresh start would be the answer in my opinion. 

I'm not sure promotion and relegation is a pre-requisite in preference to a membership competition open to those promotions who can satisfy a strict common criteria somewhat like the NFL providing a meaningful competition featuring the very best of available riders and with it, the best pay for the riders and kudos & financial reward for the promotion provided by significant league sponsorship and the very best of multi media coverage. 
This most probably would, as you say need a restart. Regrettably, I fear this will not happen for the simple reason that a restart would involve immediate and far reaching changes (because we're not talking evolution here but revolution) which the promoters would not agree to if those changes negatively effected there own business in deference to the development and future well being of the sport.

As an example. I have connection to the marketing/sponsorship/brand development management of a major insurance company with an annual budget of £400m (and increasing) for UK sport. I know that the first and foremost criteria for them to consider UK speedway would be the stability of the promotions, not necessarily from a financial position (they appreciate that is what their money contributes toward) but the guarantee of future longevity.
Being mindful of their due diligence procedure they would quickly determine that in recent years a good number of stadiums have closed & teams lost for reasons beyond the influence of the speedway authorities. Consequently they would want to know which promotions can and to what extent guarantee the continued availability of their stadiums. 
So two relevant questions  we should consider as starters are-
1. Which clubs can be reasonably sure they will have continued  access to their current stadium over the next three and five years. i.e. Belle Vue, Leicester, Kings Lynn, Glasgow & Oxford to name a few.
2. Which current stadiums that host speedway have in the last five years been linked to possible development of other actions effecting the possibility of speedway continuing at the venue? i.e Poole & Sheffield. If a team falls into this category, they would instantly be discounted and removed from inclusion in a top flight league - the only concept they would entertain. 
Just to be clear, the circumstance I am citing above is for a restart (revolution) which the company I refer to may be interested in rather than an "evolutionary" approach along the lines of the BSPL saying lets start the journey by agreeing a vision and a plan (we can dream) of where we want to get to. In which case the position of the insurance company would be along the lines of "great, good luck and feel free to come back to us when you get there".
   
 

[old bob at herne bay]

18 minutes ago, 1 valve said:

I'm not sure promotion and relegation is a pre-requisite in preference to a membership competition open to those promotions who can satisfy a strict common criteria somewhat like the NFL providing a meaningful competition featuring the very best of available riders and with it, the best pay for the riders and kudos & financial reward for the promotion provided by significant league sponsorship and the very best of multi media coverage. 
This most probably would, as you say need a restart. Regrettably, I fear this will not happen for the simple reason that a restart would involve immediate and far reaching changes (because we're not talking evolution here but revolution) which the promoters would not agree to if those changes negatively effected there own business in deference to the development and future well being of the sport.

As an example. I have connection to the marketing/sponsorship/brand development management of a major insurance company with an annual budget of £400m (and increasing) for UK sport. I know that the first and foremost criteria for them to consider UK speedway would be the stability of the promotions, not necessarily from a financial position (they appreciate that is what their money contributes toward) but the guarantee of future longevity.
Being mindful of their due diligence procedure they would quickly determine that in recent years a good number of stadiums have closed & teams lost for reasons beyond the influence of the speedway authorities. Consequently they would want to know which promotions can and to what extent guarantee the continued availability of their stadiums. 
So two relevant questions  we should consider as starters are-
1. Which clubs can be reasonably sure they will have continued  access to their current stadium over the next three and five years. i.e. Belle Vue, Leicester, Kings Lynn, Glasgow & Oxford to name a few.
2. Which current stadiums that host speedway have in the last five years been linked to possible development of other actions effecting the possibility of speedway continuing at the venue? i.e Poole & Sheffield. If a team falls into this category, they would instantly be discounted and removed from inclusion in a top flight league - the only concept they would entertain. 
Just to be clear, the circumstance I am citing above is for a restart (revolution) which the company I refer to may be interested in rather than an "evolutionary" approach along the lines of the BSPL saying lets start the journey by agreeing a vision and a plan (we can dream) of where we want to get to. In which case the position of the insurance company would be along the lines of "great, good luck and feel free to come back to us when you get there".
   
 

Phew that’s a long one … one valve. Also might add in the level of support over the past few years and projected attendance targets 

 

oh and why do the PL still have to stick to off peak Monday and Thursday racing ?Teams full of uk double uppers - no SGP sooperstars. 

[1 valve]

15 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Phew that’s a long one … one valve. Also might add in the level of support over the past few years and projected attendance targets 

 

oh and why do the PL still have to stick to off peak Monday and Thursday racing ?Teams full of uk double uppers - no SGP sooperstars. 

Yea sorry about the length, once I get going on the old keyboard there's no stopping me. As I said, from a due diligence perspective, Major sponsors* are first and foremost interested in the future longevity of the sport  and understanding threats going forward. History and past trends are regarded as "interesting and informative" however, of far more relevance is how will our sponsorship support the sports objectives and to what extent can we work together to improve the growth and exposure via multi-media.
*major sponsor = A body prepared to commit a minimum of £15m over 5 years to a league organisation or £1m for a single event.    

Edited December 14, 2025 by 1 valve

[SteveArena]

The sports media keep banging on about Salah. Unless you are a Liverpool fan it is very boring. Let him go to Saudi Arabia in a crap league and earn a load of money.  End of, stop going on about it sports media.

[szkocjasid]

1 hour ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Phew that’s a long one … one valve. Also might add in the level of support over the past few years and projected attendance targets 

oh and why do the PL still have to stick to off peak Monday and Thursday racing ?Teams full of uk double uppers - no SGP sooperstars. 

Kinda answered your own question, Mondays & Thursdays work as they allow riders to double up. Both leagues racing on the same night means more guests.

[old bob at herne bay]

5 minutes ago, szkocjasid said:

Kinda answered your own question, Mondays & Thursdays work as they allow riders to double up. Both leagues racing on the same night means more guests.

 It surely there’s room for Co operation between the leagues to allow clubs to operate on  more profitable race nights? Running 5 clubs just on 2 nights isn’t great … and Monday isn’t a great choice ? 

[M.D]

20 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

 It surely there’s room for Co operation between the leagues to allow clubs to operate on  more profitable race nights? Running 5 clubs just on 2 nights isn’t great … and Monday isn’t a great choice ? 

Problem is, the fixed race nights are protected nights for each Country.

UK, Monday and Thursday, Sweden Tuesday, Denmark Wednesday, Poland the rest.

The minute the UK change this, Poland will run riot and demand riders in Poland, we can't afford to lose those nights, nor can Sweden and Denmark.

[Phannan]

So a 5 team league for 2026 it is then. All the debating, second guessing , presuming, forecasting etc about what will happen has in fact resulted in absolutely nothing. If anything it’s gone backwards. A championship where only two ambitionless ( if that’s a word) teams can win it with the rest just making up the numbers. And a so called top league where even two less teams than last year can succeed and you can finish second bottom and be crowned champions??? A thrilling season with record attendances awaits.. in the promotors dreams 

 

 

 

 

[M.D]

6 minutes ago, M.D said:

Problem is, the fixed race nights are protected nights for each Country.

UK, Monday and Thursday, Sweden Tuesday, Denmark Wednesday, Poland the rest.

The minute the UK change this, Poland will run riot and demand riders in Poland, we can't afford to lose those nights, nor can Sweden and Denmark.

This means in basic, at this present time, Poland have no control over rider and what they do on a Monday to Thursday, change this and they will have even greater control on what riders do affecting riders availability to league racing.

[M.D]

3 minutes ago, Phannan said:

So a 5 team league for 2026 it is then. All the debating, second guessing , presuming, forecasting etc about what will happen has in fact resulted in absolutely nothing. If anything it’s gone backwards. A championship where only two ambitionless ( if that’s a word) teams can win it with the rest just making up the numbers. And a so called top league where even two less teams than last year can succeed and you can finish second bottom and be crowned champions??? A thrilling season with record attendances awaits.. in the promotors dreams 

 

 

 

 

Don't think they had any choice, as I have pointed out over protected nights in the UK.

It was way too late to change the league structure this year, hopefully they will work on a plan in place for 2027 but they have backed themselves into a corner with riders doubling up and the thought of loosing the protected race nights would loose even More riders.

[Phannan]

2 minutes ago, M.D said:

Don't think they had any choice, as I have pointed out over protected nights in the UK.

It was way too late to change the league structure this year, hopefully they will work on a plan in place for 2027 but they have backed themselves into a corner with riders doubling up and the thought of loosing the protected race nights would loose even More riders.

I can’t honestly say I have any faith in that lot improving anything in any amount of time really. 

[TigerIain]

14 minutes ago, Phannan said:

So a 5 team league for 2026 it is then. All the debating, second guessing , presuming, forecasting etc about what will happen has in fact resulted in absolutely nothing. If anything it’s gone backwards. A championship where only two ambitionless ( if that’s a word) teams can win it with the rest just making up the numbers. And a so called top league where even two less teams than last year can succeed and you can finish second bottom and be crowned champions??? A thrilling season with record attendances awaits.. in the promotors dreams 

 

 

 

 

Anyone that knows the facts knows the Glasgow promotion are not lacking in ambition. They just aren't stupid enough to risk their business propping up a failing Premiership in 2026. They do have ambitious plans, and have made them public, to grow Glasgow speedway but at a steady and sustainable pace. The same way any sensible businessman builds their business. 

Edited December 14, 2025 by TigerIain
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