Ipswich Witches 2026

[mikebv]

24 minutes ago, 40-38 said:

But that's the trouble isn't it? Where did that get us? One of the things that blights the sport for many people is doubling up and guests, but all we've done is pay silly money to someone to come over for a year and sod off again. 

I know I'm likely alone in this, but I personally don't see losing GP riders as a disaster, but what is a disaster is not having a good enough production line of young riders coming through to fill team places. It should be an embarrassment of riches rather than a desperate scrabble to scratch teams together.

As so many of us say...

It needs a root and branch review and complete reset..

But not by anyone in the "UK Speedway Echo Chamber"..

And, (most importantly) for any business, include customer Market Research...

My old company would spend millions on refitting stores but not ever without me as the Store Manager previously holding several "Customer Focus Groups" with up to 200 of them in attendance..

They had the chance to tell us what they wanted, from after up to six months of disruption, and I got the chance to tell them if their wish list was feasible or not..

We also had many a "brutal" session where I got told what my store was like for shopping in..

However, again, I was able to explain some of the rationale why things were the way they were, and why some things couldn't get done..

I held forums every quarter so any comments I could resolve had a 13 week timeline to deliver before we met again...

It certainly focused my attention...

But also certainly improved my stores performance and growth...

White Middle Aged Men running something for mainly White Middle Aged Men, simply cannot survive...

Sometimes humble pie has to be eaten, and you accept that, no matter how good you are, more diverse age groups and genders can improve your business..

Two teams, 15 Heats, Seven riders per team, Four Laps per race, Guestfests and Sharing riders, etc etc etc obviously isn't cutting it...

So. Find out why and do something about it... 

NB. As and aside I was looking at how much Sky put into the sport earlier, and the Oxford Mail covered the 2001 deal... Five years, Five Million and an added £150,000 a season to sponsor the league..

They also showed the admission fees for the then Elite League Oxford for the coming season..

£10 for an adult, which in 2025 is just under £19 allowing for inflation..

The second tier charge more than that don't they? 

 

[topaz325]

Championship average last year was around £20.00 with a few charging £22 I believe .

[Glen]

1 hour ago, 40-38 said:

But that's the trouble isn't it? Where did that get us? One of the things that blights the sport for many people is doubling up and guests, but all we've done is pay silly money to someone to come over for a year and sod off again. 

I know I'm likely alone in this, but I personally don't see losing GP riders as a disaster, but what is a disaster is not having a good enough production line of young riders coming through to fill team places. It should be an embarrassment of riches rather than a desperate scrabble to scratch teams together.

I agree and we can look back with hindsight and say that it wasn’t a long term investment. I had 2 Elite tracks within an hours drive but chose to go to Rye House as I admired Len Silver and what he was trying to do for British speedway. Running 2 teams with investment in the juniors - I don’t recall many others doing that but then Len had other businesses to fall back on.

I did venture to Lakeside a few times and can honestly say there was little difference in the racing - maybe Jason Crump winning every race by the length of the straight comes to mind. 

[Daniel Smith]

5 hours ago, secsy1 said:

Great idea, lets help them maintain their strangle hold on the sport as they dictate the continual demise of speedway by stipulating race days/nights and hold the riders to account!!!!!!!!!!!!

Swings & roundabouts. Since Speedways inception the UK had the stranglehold over everyone. Raced every day of the week, asset system etc. From the mid 2000's Poland came in to some serious money and have built a product and rocketed past the UK, Sweden & Denmark & left them all for dead.

For me, as the Ekstraliga has all the 💰 available, it has every right to dictate.

BUT...........

The UK just needs to sit tight for a bit, as the bubble is slowly deflating in Poland too. Some clubs are really struggling with their numbers over the last couple of years

[Littleze]

1 hour ago, 40-38 said:

Engagement with riders is something Speedway is quite good at, to a point, but it does seem to be hit and miss with some riders. Case in point is after a meeting at Leicester, Ryan Douglas always goes along the line of people after the interviews, poses for photos, signs things, shakes hands and the young kids absolutely love it. Heck I'm 40 and I love it.

However the rest generally bugger off back to the pits as soon as it's done, and very rarely if at all do you ever get to meet the opposition unless you're fortunate enough to be in the pits.

I agree, but it should be made mandatory, the same as a lap of honour, again, it’s not going to change the sport, but it adds something at no cost. 

[therefused]

24 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

Swings & roundabouts. Since Speedways inception the UK had the stranglehold over everyone. Raced every day of the week, asset system etc. From the mid 2000's Poland came in to some serious money and have built a product and rocketed past the UK, Sweden & Denmark & left them all for dead.

For me, as the Ekstraliga has all the 💰 available, it has every right to dictate.

BUT...........

The UK just needs to sit tight for a bit, as the bubble is slowly deflating in Poland too. Some clubs are really struggling with their numbers over the last couple of years

does the UK have time to wait though?

[40-38]

38 minutes ago, therefused said:

does the UK have time to wait though?

It depends; does it want to run according to the climate it's found itself in? If not then I'm afraid the writing really is on the wall as they just can't do what they have been, it's been proven to fail.

 

Edited yesterday at 04:01 PM by 40-38

[Daniel Smith]

52 minutes ago, therefused said:

does the UK have time to wait though?

 

14 minutes ago, 40-38 said:

It depends; does it want to run according to the climate it's found itself in? If not then I'm afraid the writing really is on the wall as they just can't do what they have been, it's been proven to fail.

 

☝🏻

[Fromafar]

6 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Swings & roundabouts. Since Speedways inception the UK had the stranglehold over everyone. Raced every day of the week, asset system etc. From the mid 2000's Poland came in to some serious money and have built a product and rocketed past the UK, Sweden & Denmark & left them all for dead.

For me, as the Ekstraliga has all the 💰 available, it has every right to dictate.

BUT...........

The UK just needs to sit tight for a bit, as the bubble is slowly deflating in Poland too. Some clubs are really struggling with their numbers over the last couple of years

Trouble is Uk have been paying riders money they can’t afford for a number of years ,so they are in the same boat.Ours is sinking faster though.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

7 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Swings & roundabouts. Since Speedways inception the UK had the stranglehold over everyone. Raced every day of the week, asset system etc. From the mid 2000's Poland came in to some serious money and have built a product and rocketed past the UK, Sweden & Denmark & left them all for dead.

For me, as the Ekstraliga has all the 💰 available, it has every right to dictate.

BUT...........

The UK just needs to sit tight for a bit, as the bubble is slowly deflating in Poland too. Some clubs are really struggling with their numbers over the last couple of years

Going to be sitting a bit tight for quite a while the extraleague has just signed a new tv deal worth over 14 million pounds, 3 million more than the last deal and crowds at most tracks have been pretty much the same as previous years, Wrocław was sold out for the complete season, tracks where crowds were down were the least successful ones 

[mikebv]

8 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Going to be sitting a bit tight for quite a while the extraleague has just signed a new tv deal worth over 14 million pounds, 3 million more than the last deal and crowds at most tracks have been pretty much the same as previous years, Wrocław was sold out for the complete season, tracks where crowds were down were the least successful ones 

But ..

Apart from that. ?

Comparing Chalk and Cheese isn't it?

Yet, it appears, some UK promoters seem to think what the UK produces has some similarities..

Baffling...

Just deliver the sport you can afford to, with the minimal outlay.. 

[SPEEDY69]

13 hours ago, mikebv said:

But ..

Apart from that. ?

Comparing Chalk and Cheese isn't it?

Yet, it appears, some UK promoters seem to think what the UK produces has some similarities..

Baffling...

Just deliver the sport you can afford to, with the minimal outlay.. 

I think they should be looking to grow, not just exist on existing crowd levels or settle for mediocrity year on year.  That was Louis' vision I think but he couldn't do it alone.

[mikebv]

Just now, SPEEDY69 said:

I think they should be looking to grow, not just exist on existing crowd levels or settle for mediocrity year on year.  That was Louis' vision I think but he couldn't do it alone.

They won't grow if they don't market themselves collectively as a "National Sport", and they won't have money to market themselves as such if they keep paying out a seven figure amount to riders..

Riders who, with all due respect to them, if they rode down a local high street near to their tracks on their bikes, wouldn't be recognised by the vast majority of onlookers..

Two steps back to, ultimately, make five forward wouldn't be the worst idea in the world given the current situation...

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

Two steps back to, ultimately, make five forward wouldn't be the worst idea in the world given the current situation...

I'd say we are actually looking at 5 steps back right now with the prospect of 2 forward again not guaranteed.....

[SPEEDY69]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

They won't grow if they don't market themselves collectively as a "National Sport", and they won't have money to market themselves as such if they keep paying out a seven figure amount to riders..

Riders who, with all due respect to them, if they rode down a local high street near to their tracks on their bikes, wouldn't be recognised by the vast majority of onlookers..

Two steps back to, ultimately, make five forward wouldn't be the worst idea in the world given the current situation...

I agree about collective and that's what's missing of course.  I don't think all of the championship promoters are interested in growing their business at all, just happy with a nice profit each year for their retirement.  You can pay higher wages if the income is greater, which in turn allows higher expenditure and generates higher income.  It's not rocket science.  If only one club does that then the cost of the riders increases for those clubs who haven't and we end up with what we have now - no collective approach.

Edited 8 hours ago by SPEEDY69

[mikebv]

1 minute ago, SPEEDY69 said:

I agree about collective and that's what's missing of course.  I don't think all of the championship promoters are interested in growing their business at all, just happy with a nice profit each year for their retirement.  You can pay higher wages if the income is greater, which in turn allows higher expenditure and generates higher income.  It's not rocket science.

There will be a fair few promoters not bothered about making any profit at all...

For them, it is a hobby that they happily fund, in several ways, differing from club to club..

A "successful team" could actually adversely impact these type of clubs, even up to the point of closure as we have seen in the past...

The losses expected will be budgeted for, with "winning at home regularly" being their No1 aim for the season..

These clubs won't grow their support like Ipswich did last season for example, as they don't have historical large fan bases which can "come out of the woodwork" when success happens..

For them, they will maintain a certain following which won't fluctuate much win, lose or draw, and also know that spending excessive money in trying to win something that delivers such small reward isn't really worth the risk...

[Youhave2minutes]

New consortium.

[RoundTheBoards]

Has anyone closer to Ipswich got any information on the sale of the club and the prospect of Ipswich being able to come to the tapes in 2026?

All I'm hearing is that there's still the same consortium (which involves at least one sponsor - but not Guy Nicholls) that is interested in buying it, with an offer they put in a while back, but Chris Louis is still pondering the next move.    Is he putting an unrealistic value on the club because he doesn't want to quit?    Companies House values the club balance sheet at £3,417, but rumour has it that Louis is asking for about 60 times this amount!   

 

 

 

[BluPanther]

14 minutes ago, RoundTheBoards said:

Has anyone closer to Ipswich got any information on the sale of the club and the prospect of Ipswich being able to come to the tapes in 2026?

All I'm hearing is that there's still the same consortium (which involves at least one sponsor - but not Guy Nicholls) that is interested in buying it, with an offer they put in a while back, but Chris Louis is still pondering the next move.    Is he putting an unrealistic value on the club because he doesn't want to quit?    Companies House values the club balance sheet at £3,417, but rumour has it that Louis is asking for about 60 times this amount!   

 

 

 

Best to ignore the rumours, all will be revealed soon enough...

[TheTopDrawer]

46 minutes ago, RoundTheBoards said:

Has anyone closer to Ipswich got any information on the sale of the club and the prospect of Ipswich being able to come to the tapes in 2026?

All I'm hearing is that there's still the same consortium (which involves at least one sponsor - but not Guy Nicholls) that is interested in buying it, with an offer they put in a while back, but Chris Louis is still pondering the next move.    Is he putting an unrealistic value on the club because he doesn't want to quit?    Companies House values the club balance sheet at £3,417, but rumour has it that Louis is asking for about 60 times this amount!   

Sheffield are suggesting that good news might be around the corner, so hopefully either Chris Louis has agreed a sale, or the other clubs are just cracking on without Ipswich.