Ipswich Witches 2026

[IainB]

11 minutes ago, mikebv said:

The Junior Championships and NDL meetings are akin to me paying to watch the United U23 Academy...

That's because there is a Manchester United senior team (no matter how poor they are at the moment).

If you're running 2 levels of effectively the same thing of course people are going to want to see the higher standard, if it's affordable. There are of course other factors involved, the success of the team etc. 

Edited 22 hours ago by IainB

[mikebv]

3 minutes ago, IainB said:

That's because there is a Manchester United senior team (no matter how poor they are at the moment).

If you're running 2 levels of effectively the same thing of course people are going to want to see the higher standard, if it's affordable. There are of course other factors involved, the success of the team etc. 

100%...

I will go to Buxton next year, (several times if its not Arctic up there!)..

I won't care who wins, but it will be an afternoon out watching Speedway..

However. I have zero emotional attachment even to the Aces due to the Mickey Mouse way the sport is ran, but still enjoy "my Speedway" and attend the NSS when something is either riding (pun intended), on it, and will attend various places around the country as a "day out"...

Who is there is pretty much irrelevant just as long most of the competitors are of a "decent" level..

Poland provides the "utopia" which the UK sadly "bent over" for, (instead of ploughing its own furrow), and a weekend out there is great for any Speedway fan...

[Daniel Smith]

2 hours ago, TTT said:

Where has all of this Chris Louis hate come from?

He's one of a very few who actually cares about British Speedway.

Certain other Owners and Promoters couldn't care less about the Sport in the UK.

 

2 hours ago, WookieboyDon said:

It's called jealousy...

Jealousy of what exactly. There's nothing in British Speedway to be jealous of.

Hate towards Louis?? Nobody is hating on Louis, Hawkins, Nicholls or Ipswich as a whole.

People are just highlighting the delusions of Ipswich fans, believing that Ipswich is well-run, where, in fact, it's just well-backed.

How do we know it's about backing rather than the running of the club?!?

Seeing as you asked, here's some basic maths to wrap your head around.

Let's say Ipswich has around 1400 through the gate every meeting. 

700 at full (£24), 600 at concession (£22), 100 at child (£1).

That's £30,100 per home meeting.

Half that to also cover the away fixtures (£15,050).

What's the chances that Sayfutdinov & Doyle almost swallowed that up between them?? Highly likely isn't it?? 

Now it's about guesstimating the costs of Brennan, King, Ellis, Thompson & Edwards.

Would £10,000 seem a fair guess for those 5?!?

That's a basic 30% needing to be covered by sponsorship in salaries. 

None of the above has taken in to consideration the costs of medical cover, insurance, track materials, staff etc, all the costs outside of the septet. 

When 30%-40% of expenditure needs to be covered by Sponsorship, that's not a well run club, that's a well backed club.

I'll say it again. It's in no way "Chris Louis hate", it's just to highlight this best-run, well-run nonsense.

It is absolutely fact, Ipswich would be also-rans (like King's Lynn) without TruPlant.

[SteveLyric2]

5 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

 

Jealousy of what exactly. There's nothing in British Speedway to be jealous of.

Hate towards Louis?? Nobody is hating on Louis, Hawkins, Nicholls or Ipswich as a whole.

People are just highlighting the delusions of Ipswich fans, believing that Ipswich is well-run, where, in fact, it's just well-backed.

How do we know it's about backing rather than the running of the club?!?

Seeing as you asked, here's some basic maths to wrap your head around.

Let's say Ipswich has around 1400 through the gate every meeting. 

700 at full (£24), 600 at concession (£22), 100 at child (£1).

That's £30,100 per home meeting.

Half that to also cover the away fixtures (£15,050).

What's the chances that Sayfutdinov & Doyle almost swallowed that up between them?? Highly likely isn't it?? 

Now it's about guesstimating the costs of Brennan, King, Ellis, Thompson & Edwards.

Would £10,000 seem a fair guess for those 5?!?

That's a basic 30% needing to be covered by sponsorship in salaries. 

None of the above has taken in to consideration the costs of medical cover, insurance, track materials, staff etc, all the costs outside of the septet. 

When 30%-40% of expenditure needs to be covered by Sponsorship, that's not a well run club, that's a well backed club.

I'll say it again. It's in no way "Chris Louis hate", it's just to highlight this best-run, well-run nonsense.

It is absolutely fact, Ipswich would be also-rans (like King's Lynn) without TruPlant.

Don't forget VAT!!

[Littleze]

1 hour ago, Daniel Smith said:

 

Jealousy of what exactly. There's nothing in British Speedway to be jealous of.

Hate towards Louis?? Nobody is hating on Louis, Hawkins, Nicholls or Ipswich as a whole.

People are just highlighting the delusions of Ipswich fans, believing that Ipswich is well-run, where, in fact, it's just well-backed.

How do we know it's about backing rather than the running of the club?!?

Seeing as you asked, here's some basic maths to wrap your head around.

Let's say Ipswich has around 1400 through the gate every meeting. 

700 at full (£24), 600 at concession (£22), 100 at child (£1).

That's £30,100 per home meeting.

Half that to also cover the away fixtures (£15,050).

What's the chances that Sayfutdinov & Doyle almost swallowed that up between them?? Highly likely isn't it?? 

Now it's about guesstimating the costs of Brennan, King, Ellis, Thompson & Edwards.

Would £10,000 seem a fair guess for those 5?!?

That's a basic 30% needing to be covered by sponsorship in salaries. 

None of the above has taken in to consideration the costs of medical cover, insurance, track materials, staff etc, all the costs outside of the septet. 

When 30%-40% of expenditure needs to be covered by Sponsorship, that's not a well run club, that's a well backed club.

I'll say it again. It's in no way "Chris Louis hate", it's just to highlight this best-run, well-run nonsense.

It is absolutely fact, Ipswich would be also-rans (like King's Lynn) without TruPlant.

Maybe it was well run and his personality/vision etc secured good backing, if it wasn’t competently managed, I’m sure the  Speedway community would be letting everyone know. 

[SPEEDY69]

1 hour ago, Daniel Smith said:

 

Jealousy of what exactly. There's nothing in British Speedway to be jealous of.

Hate towards Louis?? Nobody is hating on Louis, Hawkins, Nicholls or Ipswich as a whole.

People are just highlighting the delusions of Ipswich fans, believing that Ipswich is well-run, where, in fact, it's just well-backed.

How do we know it's about backing rather than the running of the club?!?

Seeing as you asked, here's some basic maths to wrap your head around.

Let's say Ipswich has around 1400 through the gate every meeting. 

700 at full (£24), 600 at concession (£22), 100 at child (£1).

That's £30,100 per home meeting.

Half that to also cover the away fixtures (£15,050).

What's the chances that Sayfutdinov & Doyle almost swallowed that up between them?? Highly likely isn't it?? 

Now it's about guesstimating the costs of Brennan, King, Ellis, Thompson & Edwards.

Would £10,000 seem a fair guess for those 5?!?

That's a basic 30% needing to be covered by sponsorship in salaries. 

None of the above has taken in to consideration the costs of medical cover, insurance, track materials, staff etc, all the costs outside of the septet. 

When 30%-40% of expenditure needs to be covered by Sponsorship, that's not a well run club, that's a well backed club.

I'll say it again. It's in no way "Chris Louis hate", it's just to highlight this best-run, well-run nonsense.

It is absolutely fact, Ipswich would be also-rans (like King's Lynn) without TruPlant.

Garbage (the highlighted bit).  A well run club will be able to attract and maintain sponsorship of the level required to operate profitably.  Other clubs struggle to do this, as well as pay riders on time, act professionally to gain local prominence and get 1.5k to 2k fans to attend.  So I'd say it has been well run, it's not luck!

[GeneralMelchett]

1 hour ago, Daniel Smith said:

 

Jealousy of what exactly. There's nothing in British Speedway to be jealous of.

Hate towards Louis?? Nobody is hating on Louis, Hawkins, Nicholls or Ipswich as a whole.

People are just highlighting the delusions of Ipswich fans, believing that Ipswich is well-run, where, in fact, it's just well-backed.

How do we know it's about backing rather than the running of the club?!?

Seeing as you asked, here's some basic maths to wrap your head around.

Let's say Ipswich has around 1400 through the gate every meeting. 

700 at full (£24), 600 at concession (£22), 100 at child (£1).

That's £30,100 per home meeting.

Half that to also cover the away fixtures (£15,050).

What's the chances that Sayfutdinov & Doyle almost swallowed that up between them?? Highly likely isn't it?? 

Now it's about guesstimating the costs of Brennan, King, Ellis, Thompson & Edwards.

Would £10,000 seem a fair guess for those 5?!?

That's a basic 30% needing to be covered by sponsorship in salaries. 

None of the above has taken in to consideration the costs of medical cover, insurance, track materials, staff etc, all the costs outside of the septet. 

When 30%-40% of expenditure needs to be covered by Sponsorship, that's not a well run club, that's a well backed club.

I'll say it again. It's in no way "Chris Louis hate", it's just to highlight this best-run, well-run nonsense.

It is absolutely fact, Ipswich would be also-rans (like King's Lynn) without TruPlant.

Define badly or well run? 

By virtue of what you have typed here virtually every sports club in the UK is badly run as virtually none of them can operate on gate receipts alone! That's from Man U all the way down to the Sheffield Sharks Basetball team!

 

[eric i]

What was Chris Louis hoping for? he wanted a premiership but you can't force a team up so what did he want the BSPA to do?

[Technik]

18 minutes ago, eric i said:

What was Chris Louis hoping for? he wanted a premiership but you can't force a team up so what did he want the BSPA to do?

My opinion of it is fairly simple. The Louis family have built a fairly good team with a regular following of loyal supporters & sponsors to compete in the top league & in a good season turn a small profit.

I'd say he has looked at the books & like many posters on here he can't see the top league with a possible 5 clubs being the product he wants to offer those people. Equally he is not prepared to take his club into a lower league as those same people may not support the venture. His choice is to walk away as a Champion & good luck to him.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

What if Louis did the unthinkable and sold it to buster ? 

[noaksey]

2 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

What if Louis did the unthinkable and sold it to buster ? 

Or maybe a former promoting colleague of Busty's.....

[YeOldPitGate]

18 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

What if Louis did the unthinkable and sold it to buster ? 

Busters days of bailing out tracks (other than Lynn) are well and truly over.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

3 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Busters days of bailing out tracks (other than Lynn) are well and truly over.

He isn’t bailing one out though is he, he is buying a profitable speedway team 

[Rickyag]

25 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Busters days of bailing out tracks (other than Lynn) are well and truly 

Thank god for that then, supporters will pleased to hear he is not involved with there club.

[YeOldPitGate]

1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

He isn’t bailing one out though is he, he is buying a profitable speedway team 

Ideally he wants to retire hence why he hoped to shift Lynn on to the estate agent fella before they fell out, he said around that time he wouldn't put much more money in as he viewed his reserves as his and his wife's pension money.

[SPEEDY69]

4 hours ago, eric i said:

What was Chris Louis hoping for? he wanted a premiership but you can't force a team up so what did he want the BSPA to do?

Did I miss the bit where this was confirmed? The rest, as you say, is unknown. 

[Aries]

1 hour ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Ideally he wants to retire hence why he hoped to shift Lynn on to the estate agent fella before they fell out, he said around that time he wouldn't put much more money in as he viewed his reserves as his and his wife's pension money.

Buster falling out with someone? Surely not?? 😁

[Hawk127]

Spedeworth International (east anglia) Ltd seem to have a decent balance sheet and could pick up the witches for a song to maintain the income stream and cover those weeks when the four wheeled sport is not running at Foxhall. They would rake in everything from food, car park and entrance fee as they do with bangers and stock cars. Obviously the alternative is to run bangers and stocks on those weeks when speedway would have run notwithstanding the restrictions. Let’s hope that the two wheeled sport continues but in these uncertain times, you have to make the assets work for you and whatever generates the revenue you run with. I fear that if speedway stops even for a season, it will be the last you hear of the Witches.

[eric i]

1 hour ago, SPEEDY69 said:

Did I miss the bit where this was confirmed? The rest, as you say, is unknown. 

Maybe Chris Louis wanted 1 big league, 'Some things no longer align for me', which he would force the BSPA into if he didn't actually sell the club and left them hanging.

[BluPanther]

1 hour ago, eric i said:

Maybe Chris Louis wanted 1 big league, 'Some things no longer align for me', which he would force the BSPA into if he didn't actually sell the club and left them hanging.

He did... that or a minimum 6 team Premiership...