What will 2026 UK speedway bring?

[ouch]

10 hours ago, mikebv said:

24 years ago...

You had Sky Sports coverage, usually a match per week, and around a million quid put into the league a season by them..

Meaning Sky Sports News showed highlights on top of the live action, which was often on SS1....

The largest Sports Channel on the planet even sponsored the league via their Skybet arm...

You also had (apart from Mr T Gollob), the worlds best 20 or so riders riding over here... 

Riding on nights that clubs could engage their largest crowds. which meant Wednesday racing, Friday racing, and Saturday racing in the Elite League...

A very different offering than what we have today...

 

So if we get all the above back it will create meaning in meetings?

Televised speedway ran along side the sports biggest demise in decades. I’m not saying it’s the reason for it but neither will it be the saviour to have it back. 

Coming from you, the comment about top stars is confusing given your repeated suggestion that they don’t matter. 

With regards racenights between then and now, for every Wednesday, Friday or Saturday club there were and are Monday & Thursday clubs. Touting Wednesday as a speedway night again is at odds with your previous thinking where weekends are the goal. 

As with a lot of stuff on here when suggesting ideas to take the sport forward we get confusion and contradiction when drilling down to the fine detail. 

“First out of the gate always wins” was the common complaint from folk when speedway was mentioned. As a sport we have leaned into this rather than rail against it making the sport tedious & boring and we have continually charged more for people to “enjoy” it. I’ve more than halved my attendance of the sport due to this but that’s better than most how have reduced theirs by 100%.

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, ouch said:

So if we get all the above back it will create meaning in meetings?

Televised speedway ran along side the sports biggest demise in decades. I’m not saying it’s the reason for it but neither will it be the saviour to have it back. 

Coming from you, the comment about top stars is confusing given your repeated suggestion that they don’t matter. 

With regards racenights between then and now, for every Wednesday, Friday or Saturday club there were and are Monday & Thursday clubs. Touting Wednesday as a speedway night again is at odds with your previous thinking where weekends are the goal. 

As with a lot of stuff on here when suggesting ideas to take the sport forward we get confusion and contradiction when drilling down to the fine detail. 

“First out of the gate always wins” was the common complaint from folk when speedway was mentioned. As a sport we have leaned into this rather than rail against it making the sport tedious & boring and we have continually charged more for people to “enjoy” it. I’ve more than halved my attendance of the sport due to this but that’s better than most how have reduced theirs by 100%.

The top stars do bring in crowds, if the infrastructure around them generates interest. Hence I have paid nearly three hundred quid for two nights of Speedway at the NSS in June..

However, they also need to be (at least) cost neutral, which when Sky gave the sport circa one million a season, they were. (They took most of the money)...

Nowadays, with lower crowds, and no TV money, I would question whether having them in the league over here is cost effective, particularly when hardly any marketing budget is then available..

As for the nights to race on, running on Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri and Sat was ideal for those top tier tracks whose long held traditional night wasn't just a weekend...

Poole is an example in the UK whose race night is paramount to their business plan, regardless of the infrastructure around which league they are in....

And Plymouth are an example of moving to a weekend and seeing fantastic growth...

That flexibility of "my best night to open" looks  like it is key to the sports future..

The racing today is, for me, as good as it ever was. I can look back with those rose tinted glasses and remember my all time hero, Peter Collins, 50 years ago, winning every race, on the line, after passing all three opponents around the outside, at Hyde Rd...

The reality of course was "PC" won around seven races in ten by half a straight or more, given he was that good, and often rode against two point average make weights...

The difference being that there was well over 10,000 other people in the stadium with me, making noise, with, at least, 500 or so from the opposition...  

50,000 at a Cardiff GP was a fantastic event to be at, the racing however wasnt ever much above OK..

Somehow the UK version of Speedway needs to generate crowds, (with plenty of away fans), to generate atmosphere. Which then generates engagement and repeat visits..

That would be a game changer and a whole new future...

Edited 3 hours ago by mikebv

[paulnolan]

Feels odd to be chipping in here before my club has even raced a meeting but it strikes me that, leaving aside the quality of the racing, regularity is one of the key things to attract and keep a crowd. Let's take Northampton as an example. The beginning of April to the end of September is 6 full months. Let's say they want 12 home meetings, as this season. It would make all the sense in the world to divide the league into 3 Monday tracks and 3 Thursday tracks. If Northampton is a Thursday track, they should run the first and third Thursday of every month. That leaves the second and fourth Thursdays for away at the 2 other Thursday tracks - let's say Ipswich and Sheffield - and rain-offs, with Mondays free to go away to the 3 other tracks. That way the local fans know exactly when there will be speedway at Brafield, and the casuals will know it's the first and third Thursday of the month. The season can extend into October for play-offs if needed, and begin in March for pre-season action if desired.