Sheffield Tigers 2026

[IainB]

17 minutes ago, Andrew said:

True enough in my Dad's case.He passed halfway through the 2024 season,so that's roughly £700 in entrance money ( upto lastweek) that the club have needed to replace for him. Multiply by just 10 and that's £7000...

Same here... I've been "flying solo" since the 2018 season

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, IainB said:

Same here... I've been "flying solo" since the 2018 season

Me too, since around 15 years ago when he got to the stage that standing around, or sitting down, plus the walking, for any length of time got too much..

He stopped and then I gradually did as I realised I often just went because he wanted to...

It wasnt until a few years ago he mentioned he only kept attending for several years because he thought I wanted to!!!...

As he said in his broad Cork accent...

"It was usually a right load of crap!"....

[gjcone44]

me too from 2024, we got a him a electric buggy for his last season, when he couldn't walk so far.. still miss him when I'm there.

[TB1]

On 7/13/2026 at 5:02 PM, IainB said:

If you look at their 6 home fixtures so far this season, 2 of them have been against Belle Vue & 2 against Leicester!

The first Aces match no Kurtz & Blodorn

The second Aces match no Blodorn, Kildermand & Bewley

The second Lions match no Dan Thompson

Where's the incentive to attend?

Imagine if you bought a luxury car for say 30k. Then they removed the electric windows, the air conditioning and stereo and still tried to flog it for 30k.

[mikebv]

10 minutes ago, TB1 said:

Imagine if you bought a luxury car for say 30k. Then they removed the electric windows, the air conditioning and stereo and still tried to flog it for 30k.

Years ago, you found out when at the track that "headliners" were missing...

Now you know usually two days in advance, and even up to setting off time, that "all of a sudden" one of the main riders wont be there...

And often, not because he is injured...

So much to unpick for the sport to be even remotely a success going forwards...

Probably far too much now I would suggest. 

[Steve Irving]

You’ve got to feel for Sheffield here. It can’t be understated how much of a blow losing Tru7 must have been, especially when no replacement was forthcoming,,

To then lose your GP star through injury who without question would have put bums on seats, is another kick in the nuts. 
 

Hopefully they can limp through the rest of this season, get a new main sponsor on board this winter and then go again in 2027. 

[therefused]

8 minutes ago, Steve Irving said:

You’ve got to feel for Sheffield here. It can’t be understated how much of a blow losing Tru7 must have been, especially when no replacement was forthcoming,,

To then lose your GP star through injury who without question would have put bums on seats, is another kick in the nuts. 
 

Hopefully they can limp through the rest of this season, get a new main sponsor on board this winter and then go again in 2027. 

then in 2027 we can hope everyone limps through to 2028 and repeat 

[Steve Irving]

8 minutes ago, therefused said:

then in 2027 we can hope everyone limps through to 2028 and repeat 

That’s all we can do really isn’t it? They’ve tried all the “five year plan” nonsense before only to rip it all up 12 months later and change things. 
 

There’s so much uncertainty in British Speedway unfortunately with developers/Tracks closing, that we can only really view things short term and take each year as it comes and see what clubs come to the table for the following year. 
 

Nothing much is really going to change while the current incumbents are still ruling the roost in terms of taking the sport forward with fresh plans and ideas also. 

[YeOldPitGate]

1 hour ago, Steve Irving said:

You’ve got to feel for Sheffield here. It can’t be understated how much of a blow losing Tru7 must have been, especially when no replacement was forthcoming,,

To then lose your GP star through injury who without question would have put bums on seats, is another kick in the nuts. 
 

Hopefully they can limp through the rest of this season, get a new main sponsor on board this winter and then go again in 2027. 

Yep nobody wants to see another track close, the Bates family have no doubt poured hundreds of thousands in over the years if they step down will anyone be willing to take it on ? unlikely I would think.

[4thbender]

As a loyal Tigers supporter since 1966, following the Bates announcement I'm fully expecting that 2026 will be the death knell for the sport in Sheffield.

The only hope in my opinion is a single nation-wide league of 12/14 teams, and if that means saying a permanent goodbye to riders who prefer to ride for big bucks in Poland, so be it.

[YeOldPitGate]

23 minutes ago, 4thbender said:

As a loyal Tigers supporter since 1966, following the Bates announcement I'm fully expecting that 2026 will be the death knell for the sport in Sheffield.

The only hope in my opinion is a single nation-wide league of 12/14 teams, and if that means saying a permanent goodbye to riders who prefer to ride for big bucks in Poland, so be it.

Have the crowds been so much worse than 2025 as they are claiming ?

[TTT]

What does everyone think about the streaming of meetings across the League in general?

Personally I don't see the logic in it because it encourages fans to stay at Home and watch the meeting for a cheaper price which surely has an impact on Clubs attendances and finances.

Fan staying at Home watching a live streaming means a Club is potentially losing out on the following.

£10 per an Adult for a ticket, £4 for a Programme and potentially another couple of quid for a Hot drink and parking.

x that by 100 for example and a Club is losing out on £1,600+ per a race day.

Edited 53 minutes ago by TTT

[Youhave2minutes]

1 hour ago, Steve Irving said:

That’s all we can do really isn’t it? They’ve tried all the “five year plan” nonsense before only to rip it all up 12 months later and change things. 
 

There’s so much uncertainty in British Speedway unfortunately with developers/Tracks closing, that we can only really view things short term and take each year as it comes and see what clubs come to the table for the following year. 
 

Nothing much is really going to change while the current incumbents are still ruling the roost in terms of taking the sport forward with fresh plans and ideas also. 

Could be the Bates final season

[Youhave2minutes]

18 minutes ago, TTT said:

What does everyone think about the streaming of meetings?

Personally I don't see the logic in it because it encourages fans to stay at Home and watch the meeting for a cheaper price which surely has an impact on Clubs attendances and finances.

Good for the elderly who have helped to keep  the clubs running in the past. So therefore a nice gesture for them

[Daniel Smith]

16 minutes ago, TTT said:

What does everyone think about the streaming of meetings?

Personally I don't see the logic in it because it encourages fans to stay at Home and watch the meeting for a cheaper price which surely has an impact on Clubs attendances and finances.

Does anyone know the cut the host club takes from the meetings?? Has to be 40/50% at least no??

What's the viewing numbers during live and replays??

It's possible more profit could be had with totally empty stadiums & streamed meetings only.

[TTT]

33 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

Does anyone know the cut the host club takes from the meetings?? Has to be 40/50% at least no??

What's the viewing numbers during live and replays??

It's possible more profit could be had with totally empty stadiums & streamed meetings only.

I'd like to know for sure as it's an interesting topic imo.

2 fans staying at Home purchasing a stream at £15 each = 1 Adult Fan paying to attend on the night after the extra's are added on to the entrance fee.

Live streaming is a good alternative for fans with Disabilites, I just ask the question as to whether it's too much of a saver to a point where it's being taken advantage of by the Younger fans to a point where Clubs could up the prices by an extra £5 per live stream in order to up their race day revenue whilst still offering a small saver to those staying at Home?

Edited 13 minutes ago by TTT

[GeneralMelchett]

I will give the Tigers there due I have seen  them putting a lot of content out on social media of late - I hope they can get a few more through the turnstyles.

I think the issue with streaming is whilst its great for people who have no chance to attend a meeting, for example I am never going to drive to to say Workington, it also means the locals can stay in watch it and save money so the stay aways are perhaps having a disproportionate effect on the crowd levels.

I've been to Ipswich twice this season so far and to my mind crowd levels are down on 2025. Part of that maybe the loss of top line riders like Emil, Jason etc, part of this might be due to lack of competitive sides visiting, or Steaming etc - who knows a- without open and transparency in attendances we have no chance to judge for ourselves.

One of the things I would like to see is Mayfield saying right last week we had 2000 in or whatever it might be!

When Neil Machin stepped down as promoter in April 14 the Tigers had a very modest deficit on their books  - in 11 years this has ballooned to 500k+ which co-incides with operating at the top level! Machin was always insistent (if i recall things correctly) whilst he was promoter they would never operate the top level!

Edited 27 minutes ago by GeneralMelchett

[YeOldPitGate]

As someone else mentioned on the forum if you factor in the loss of the tv deal and main sponsor pulling out they were possibly 100k down on 2025 from the get go, plus it seems some promoters helped get Northampton started if Sheffield chipped in that could be another 10-25K ? (guessing).

Throw in all the problems over the winter making it nigh on impossible to plan things also, I do also remember someone saying the Bates main business was also struggling so wouldn't be as much money available to bail out the Tigers.

Really hope they can pull through but looking at the above there's a lot of headwinds now really hitting speedway and the possible saviors are thinner on the ground than twenty years plus ago.