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2026 Premiership is Go! - At least 5 teams


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59 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

So Oxford could have their arms twisted and be the saviours of the PL 2026 ????

Could be Oxford but not run by Oxford themselves, I know somebody was asked to run a team out of Oxford but declined, so they could of found someone else to do it 

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37 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Keep near your phone this afternoon Dean I've heard you might be getting a call later about the size of your back garden and if its big enough to fit an Plymouth sized track in the back of it.

I am waiting on something but it’s not the size of my garden 😉

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The mythical new team is intriguing to say the least.

 

Personally without any inside knowledge and just speculating what seems the more likely, I'd say "THE DEAN MACHINE" is probably closest to the truth suggesting a current Champs running a 2nd team like Oxford did with other Premier teams helping to subsidise what would likely be a loss making venture.

 

I'd of thought the Oxford promotion won't be getting their fingers burnt again after trying it for two seasons but I'd suggest Oxford is one of the few Championship venues that doesn't have major restrictions on nights they can stage speedway so maybe a Swindon team running out of there?

 

Scunthorpes Championship team is currently only propped up by their practise days, amatuer meetings and stock cars so unless it is jointly funded by the other Prem tracks I couldn't see Godfrey fancying taking on a load of debt and undermining the Scorpians team at the same time.

 

A track running 2 senior teams would likely need to be Centrally based in order to possibly attract floating support.

 

As for former venues still standing - Rye House and Coventry aren't ready, Arena Essex is overgrown and the owners seemingly aren't interested, the Showground owners at Peterborough have been approached but don't want the sport back, Eastbournes the same, Newcastle, Sunderland, Wolves and Kent are owned by big gambling firms seemingly not interested in speedway unless it was for extortionate rent, Great Yarmouth stadium which last staged speedway in 1961 is still running and in good nick but would cost a small fortune to reopen and they often struggled for crowds in those days, Workingtons Derwent Park is under 2 miles from the current Workington speedway track who struggle to get viable crowds in the Championship, Carmarthen if it still stands couldn't get viable crowds for 3rd tier racing, Hampden Park and Cliftonhill Coatbridge still stand but would cost an arm and a leg to get going, Hulls New Craven Park has been squared of like Halifax's Shaygrounds, Brafield, Northampton hasn't staged the sport since the late 60's and even then only ran training/ junior level racing which didn't last for long and Bradfords Odsal Stadium would surely cost a small fortune to reopen a track that couldn't get good crowds when they last ran in 1997 and won the Elite League!    - It would be great to see a former Centre reopen and for all we know things maybe happening at one of the above venues but they will be reopening in current times, in a top flight that is floundering and just to make up the numbers.

 

Current Non League tracks IoW and Mildenhall could be possibilities but the IoW only get good crowds during the holiday period and the Fen Tigers being in the middle of Ipswich and King's Lynn would struggle to get enough through the gate on a regular basis although I'm sure local Derbies would bring in good crowds.

 

I reckon they are waiting to see what happens at Ipswich and the mystery team will be a 2nd team running out of a Championship track to make up the numbers in the tragic event of Ipswich not running?

Edited by MajorMauger
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What a sorry state as we are about to turn the page into 2026 and still no idea how many teams will be in the league with 11 weeks  roughly to the start of the season - how can anyone plan riders or sponsors and to a lesser degree fans . And how can  this league be taken as a serious professional league ? 

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Just now, Haza said:

What a sorry state as we are about to turn the page into 2026 and still no idea how many teams will be in the league with 11 weeks  roughly to the start of the season - how can anyone plan riders or sponsors and to a lesser degree fans . And how can  this league be taken as a serious professional league ? 

And the most worrying bit about the whole sorry affair is the BSPL don’t seem to see it 

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4 minutes ago, Haza said:

What a sorry state as we are about to turn the page into 2026 and still no idea how many teams will be in the league with 11 weeks  roughly to the start of the season - how can anyone plan riders or sponsors and to a lesser degree fans . And how can  this league be taken as a serious professional league ? 

I agree it doesn't sound great but then again in the 1970's and 80's when speedway was in a healthier state many tracks wern't confirmed as running until as late as March and Peterborough's first season in 1970 at their home track didn't start until May of that season!

 

Lets hope we have a pleasant surprise in the new year with Ipswich confirmed as running and a former track reopening! 

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3 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

And the most worrying bit about the whole sorry affair is the BSPL don’t seem to see it 

Bit like when the Titanic sank the passengers in 3rd class knew the ship was sinking way before those in 1st class as they sipped champagne and ate caviar. 

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A couple of things that I have been mulling over the last couple of weeks is, there has been no official statement from TNT discovery saying they are not covering league speedway and on there FB page TNT bikes they showed a bit of footage from kings Lynn on the 21st dec and the lack of communication from the BSPL to the fans has been appalling and disrespectful and yes this is blowing my own trumpet but I believe the only reason they put out a statement a couple of weeks back was because I called them out for it on the speedway 360 podcast which I know they watch and the next day they put a statement out saying nothing really but it the silence has been disrespectful to the fans at best 

Edited by THE DEAN MACHINE
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Think the BSPL have a cunning plan.

The clue was in their statement  " a league of  at least 5 teams"

Come the AGM they have either  Ippo sale confirmed and ready to go  OR they have jointly agreed that they will run Oxford stadium as a BSPL "sponsored" track  with a team in the PL.

So at least 5 teams  whatever happens to Ippo. Hopefully this has been signalled to Christopher Louis , who can either sell the club  for 5 shillings or not at all and receive sod all.

Either way the BSPL will run a PL in 2026. 

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14 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Think the BSPL have a cunning plan.

The clue was in their statement  " a league of  at least 5 teams"

Come the AGM they have either  Ippo sale confirmed and ready to go  OR they have jointly agreed that they will run Oxford stadium as a BSPL "sponsored" track  with a team in the PL.

So at least 5 teams  whatever happens to Ippo. Hopefully this has been signalled to Christopher Louis , who can either sell the club  for 5 shillings or not at all and receive sod all.

Either way the BSPL will run a PL in 2026. 

If they wanted to run a BSPL sponsored side surely running one at Ipswich would be in the best interests? At least it wouldn’t make a loss.

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1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

A couple of things that I have been mulling over the last couple of weeks is, there has been no official statement from TNT discovery saying they are not covering league speedway and on there FB page TNT bikes they showed a bit of footage from kings Lynn on the 21st dec and the lack of communication from the BSPL to the fans has been appalling and disrespectful and yes this is blowing my own trumpet but I believe the only reason they put out a statement a couple of weeks back was because I called them out for it on the speedway 360 podcast which I know they watch and the next day they put a statement out saying nothing really but it the silence has been disrespectful to the fans at best 

Not wishing to rain on your parade but surely the BSPL statement was the result of Leicester breaking ranks and issuing a statement. 

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1 hour ago, IainB said:

Not wishing to rain on your parade but surely the BSPL statement was the result of Leicester breaking ranks and issuing a statement. 

Leicester was but the BSPL statement was the day after me and I don’t care if it was me or not the point being its disrespectful from the bspl 

Edited by THE DEAN MACHINE
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A few weeks back me and another person contacted entain via monmore green to see if there was any chance of getting wolves back at monmore,nothing to do with the previous promotion, there was a plan on the email which I won’t go into but we spoke to the manager at the stadium who told us it wasn’t the stadium who kicked the speedway out it was entain themselves, he told us to write an email to entain and he would forward it to the relevant people for us, we had a reply today from entain via the stadium manager and it’s a NO 🥲 at this present time, sorry wolves fans, never give up 

Edited by THE DEAN MACHINE
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12 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

The Dean Machine .... theres a common theme here with  Speedway being kicked out of stadia, whilst the stadia continue operating other sports  be it greyhounds stock cars etc. 

Do I sense that speedway racing and all its baggage is just too much hassle for stadia owners. 

I don’t know, got to be honest this latest news has sort of knocked the wind out of my sails and at this moment I’ve got no appetite for British speedway at all 

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With the top league clubs starting without any tv deal and  some loosing sponsors I guess some  will be loosing £60/70k before they pay a penny on  riders signing on fee etc why are they going to help a nomad club start up ?  I am pretty sure there is no new club coming next year but only time will tell 

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