Ipswich Witches 2026

[GeneralMelchett]

1 hour ago, IainB said:

There's going to be a lot of worried Witches fans in the dark at the moment at what should be a time of celebration for them. As had often been said the club belongs to the fans the owners are just passers through. 

Well this would be an interesting time for the fans to come good and buy the club 😉

In another sport - AFC Wimbledon announced recently that a fan owned model isn't sustainable in football at the level they operate at, I rather suspect it wouldn't in top tier speedway speedway either!

 

[SteveLyric2]

29 minutes ago, ShanoXtra said:

Interesting news coming out of Poland! They are reporting high potential of Guy Nicholls taking over and that’s the reason behind him pulling out of sponsoring Sheffield.

Let's hope he is approved as a BSPL promoter and assuming he is, I wonder what level he would want Ipswich to compete at?

Edited 13 hours ago by SteveLyric2

[GeneralMelchett]

27 minutes ago, ShanoXtra said:

Interesting news coming out of Poland! They are reporting high potential of Guy Nicholls taking over and that’s the reason behind him pulling out of sponsoring Sheffield.

No idea if this has any truth / mileage or not but it would be interesting to see a proper sound business man operate a top tier club - you can't deny Tru7 are a proper operation.

[IainB]

7 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

Well this would be an interesting time for the fans to come good and buy the club 😉

In another sport - AFC Wimbledon announced recently that a fan owned model isn't sustainable in football at the level they operate at, I rather suspect it wouldn't in top tier speedway speedway either!

 

You'd think that there'd be no better time with the worth of the stock being at an all time low. 

[TigerIain]

43 minutes ago, ShanoXtra said:

Interesting news coming out of Poland! They are reporting high potential of Guy Nicholls taking over and that’s the reason behind him pulling out of sponsoring Sheffield.

TruPlant pulled out of Sheffield what feels like a long time before Louis put Ipswich up for sale. It would seem strange then that Chris Louis announces that he is pulling out, and in such a way that questions the future is the Witches, if he is selling it to the main sponsor of the Witches.

Anyway, if there is a potential buyer for Ipswich then lots hope it happens as the sport needs all the well supported clubs it can get. 

[BluPanther]

14 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

No idea if this has any truth / mileage or not but it would be interesting to see a proper sound business man operate a top tier club - you can't deny Tru7 are a proper operation.

And I guarantee he wouldn't do it, if it doesn't at least break even. We will hopefully know in the next few weeks, so fingers crossed it's positive news for the club...

[YeOldPitGate]

47 minutes ago, IainB said:

You'd think that there'd be no better time with the worth of the stock being at an all time low. 

Given the current state of speedway if he's as shrewd as he seems he may well ask the other promoters to pay to him a sub to keep the club running if they still want a top league.

As others have said these days what are you buying, not the riders, maybe a tractor, air fence and shale, all second hand probably 5-10k for the lot i reckon.

Whoever takes it on is walking into an inferno currently raging in British speedway with the risk if it flops you are going to have to underwrite all the losses.

Edited 12 hours ago by YeOldPitGate

[Bash]

Don’t think Guy Nicholls needs any tractors he has plenty of his own

[cowboy cookie returns?]

3 hours ago, IainB said:

Okay, so it seems that this is the overriding topic of the day and not the future of Ipswich Speedway...

While Chris Louis is the owner of Ipswich Speedway he is most definitely in a position to make a "guarantee" that should there be no buyer for the club before the start of next season that the club will continue to run until a buyer is found. 

I would have preferred that he'd have made an assurance to fans in his statement, but as my words have been mis-quoted, I've written it out for you in black and white. 

He has said he isn’t running in 2026 & the club is for sale 100% clear as day. If someone buys the club it runs if no one does then no speedway at Ipswich. Simples

[IainB]

14 minutes ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

He has said he isn’t running in 2026 & the club is for sale 100% clear as day. If someone buys the club it runs if no one does then no speedway at Ipswich. Simples

He said "stepping down from the club" but in what capacity? Many clubs are owned but not run by the owners. Leicester is owned by Cairns but run by Jen Crossland, Stewart Dickson and their team. Poole is owned by Matt Ford but run by Danny. 

[spin king]

1 hour ago, ShanoXtra said:

Interesting news coming out of Poland! They are reporting high potential of Guy Nicholls taking over and that’s the reason behind him pulling out of sponsoring Sheffield.

I mention this in an earlier post.

For me it is a bit coincidental that Tru Group pull out sponsoring Sheffield citing they want to concentrate on Ipswich.

Then Chris Louis put the club up for sale.

[IainB]

8 hours ago, BluPanther said:

And I guarantee he wouldn't do it, if it doesn't at least break even. We will hopefully know in the next few weeks, so fingers crossed it's positive news for the club...

You're in no position to make a "guarantee"... unless you're Guy Nicholls 😜😜😂

I do wish Mr Louis had been a bit more informative in his statement, there's a lot of unanswered questions that fans must be asking. 

Edited 4 hours ago by IainB

[Arch Stanton]

Guy has never been remotely interested in owning, or running the Ipswich Witches (or any other club) come to that. I don’t know the latest state of play there due to a breakdown of certain relationships, but if he ends up owning/running Ipswich then he’s had a massive change of heart. 

[Hawk127]

1 hour ago, IainB said:

There's going to be a lot of worried Witches fans in the dark at the moment at what should be a time of celebration for them. As had often been said the club belongs to the fans the owners are just passers through. 

Every club is run by custodians of the sport and along that journey some will fall by the wayside for one reason or another. It is key for the future of the sport that the custodians are fit, willing and able to carry the concept forward but in reality until it has a concrete business plan to see out the next five to ten years why would any one invest . It is up to the promoters, riders and current supporters to sell the sport, no one else is going to do it and without a coordinated approach it is on borrowed time.

[Aries]

It was literally three or so weeks ago that Chris Louis and Ritchie Hawkins were on local radio stating the hard work was already underway to build another top challenging team for next year. So this isn’t something that has been brewing for a while, something has happened at the BSPL meetings very recently that has made him throw in the towel.

Fans of other clubs have been very quick to stick the boot in on the bloke. But in Louis’ defence, he has stated quite clearly that he’ll be working “tirelessly” over the coming weeks and months to make sure the club is left in safe hands.

After everything he’s done, he deserves that time, and the benefit of the doubt to see what exactly these “safe hands” the club has been left in, are.

If we end up with no speedway at Foxhall in 2026 and the club left in limbo, then he’ll have tarnished the whole Louis legacy and I’ll be the first to criticise.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Aries

[TigerIain]

The uncertainty over Ipswich running may have left all the other clubs in limbo though. Fans don't know yet if it will be 1 division or 2, and if it's 1 surely that was relying on Ipswich running. Just because Chris Louis says he will work hard to find a buyer doesn't mean that he will find one, or find one quickly. Where does that leave the new Ipswich owner in terms of team building for next season? Would a rider take a chance on signing for a club that might not run or might not want them on their old promoters contract? Does the new owner just get left with the riders that didn't fit elsewhere?

It's too early to know the answers to these questions, and it's Chris' money and business to do what he likes with but it has created more uncertainty in a winter that's not been lacking in that at all. Has he just undone all the work that was done to get to the slightly cryptic potentially good news from Rob Godfrey last week? Again time will tell, but at the moment it looks like Chris Louis has thrown a spanner in the works hence the negative reaction to his announcement

[IainB]

3 minutes ago, TigerIain said:

The uncertainty over Ipswich running may have left all the other clubs in limbo though. Fans don't know yet if it will be 1 division or 2, and if it's 1 surely that was relying on Ipswich running. Just because Chris Louis says he will work hard to find a buyer doesn't mean that he will find one, or find one quickly. Where does that leave the new Ipswich owner in terms of team building for next season? Would a rider take a chance on signing for a club that might not run or might not want them on their old promoters contract? Does the new owner just get left with the riders that didn't fit elsewhere?

It's too early to know the answers to these questions, and it's Chris' money and business to do what he likes with but it has created more uncertainty in a winter that's not been lacking in that at all. Has he just undone all the work that was done to get to the slightly cryptic potentially good news from Rob Godfrey last week? Again time will tell, but at the moment it looks like Chris Louis has thrown a spanner in the works hence the negative reaction to his announcement

There's been better clubs than Ipswich that have failed to sell, what you don't do as a business owner is close that business down to sell it, you sell it as a going concern to realise the full value.

Emotions are obviously running high down Suffolk way at the moment and I hope Mr Louis can find a way of collecting his toys up, putting them back in his pram and start acting like a true custodian of a Speedway club with a strong and loyal fan base.

[Aries]

But you can’t criticise when you don’t have a clue as to the reasons why he’s put the club up for sale. Nobody on here knows it’s just pure speculation. Louis has said further explanations are coming so he’s obviously restricted by what he can, and can’t reveal at the moment. We’re all going to just have to be a bit more patient and wait and see what develops over the coming weeks. 

[Steve Irving]

7 minutes ago, IainB said:

There's been better clubs than Ipswich that have failed to sell, what you don't do as a business owner is close that business down to sell it, you sell it as a going concern to realise the full value.

Emotions are obviously running high down Suffolk way at the moment and I hope Mr Louis can find a way of collecting his toys up, putting them back in his pram and start acting like a true custodian of a Speedway club with a strong and loyal fan base.

And he hasn’t done that has he Iain? You haven’t got the first clue what is going on so pipe down. It’s not your money or business at stake here. If Louis feels what is currently on the table isn’t something he wants any part with, he’s perfectly entitled to make that decision. His money, his business. 

[Aries]

There’s no speedway, it’s the off season and I get people are bored. But we’re just going to have to wait and see what develops. Go and do some Christmas shopping ffs! 🙄