Why is speedway in decline?

[IainB]

2 hours ago, Mick Bratley said:

Well I’ll find out later this month as I’m at Glasgow, Berwick and Workington over a weekend. That’ll be six tracks for me this season. After that I’ll probably post a crapness scale on rider presentations at the tracks I’ve been to this season so Glasgow, Berwick and Workington now is the time to up your game!

We'll also need to know which tracks aren't playing the obligatory "Final Countdown" before heat 15!

[Mick Bratley]

3 hours ago, IainB said:

We'll also need to know which tracks aren't playing the obligatory "Final Countdown" before heat 15!

You’ll need to wish me good luck with that!

[ONTWOMINUTES]

Mainly because this country hasn't got any Speedway anywhere near its capital city which is sheer madness.  Way back there were tracks all along the Thames but obviously building developers swallowed them up at the first opportunity. 

[The Cheese]

On 7/11/2026 at 1:51 PM, IainB said:

We'll also need to know which tracks aren't playing the obligatory "Final Countdown" before heat 15!

I found it outrageous that they played this during half-time of extra-time in the World Cup Final.

Don't they know that British Speedway has exclusivity on it?

[SpeedwayJoe]

What is wrong with speedway?  I’ll give you an example of the last meeting I attended.  Bearing in mind I was converted to speedway from football 18 years ago.

It took me over an hour to travel to my nearest track (I know that for many fans this would be a short journey)

I got to the entrance, had to wait 20 minutes as there was one card machine.

Into the stadium with very poor facilities.  Bought my own chair to sit on some scaffolding.

After every 4 heats, there was 15 minutes of track grading and watering with nothing to keep me entertained in the meantime.  Within 2 laps of track grading there was already a blue line.  Dust everywhere.

Racing was poor, I have seen much better entertainment in the youth championships.

This is nothing against the owners/promoters who are doing their best to keep speedway alive and I am forever grateful to them for doing their best.

We need to create some sort of a buzz around speedway, make sure it is the place to go to.

It is such a shame as I really used to love going to speedway.  Speedway has not evolved at all to cater for the fans.  How about introducing some more interactivity (I.e letting the fans ask questions during the meeting/ choosing which riders would be interviewed/voting for rider of the meeting).

Or how about this for even bigger blue sky thinking:  you take the top 3 scorers from each team and get the fans to decide which 2 from each team contest the final heat.  People would say this would advantage the home team, but it would level itself out in the reverse leg.  You could even do the same and have an extra heat where the fans choose who ride from the lowest 3 scorers from each team.

I have said before, just get someone independent in to look at the sport, make some radical changes which we may not like.  What have we got to loose?  It saddens me that the sport is on it’s knees.

[Grachan]

On 7/21/2026 at 9:58 PM, SpeedwayJoe said:

What is wrong with speedway?  I’ll give you an example of the last meeting I attended.  Bearing in mind I was converted to speedway from football 18 years ago.

It took me over an hour to travel to my nearest track (I know that for many fans this would be a short journey)

I got to the entrance, had to wait 20 minutes as there was one card machine.

Into the stadium with very poor facilities.  Bought my own chair to sit on some scaffolding.

After every 4 heats, there was 15 minutes of track grading and watering with nothing to keep me entertained in the meantime.  Within 2 laps of track grading there was already a blue line.  Dust everywhere.

Racing was poor, I have seen much better entertainment in the youth championships.

This is nothing against the owners/promoters who are doing their best to keep speedway alive and I am forever grateful to them for doing their best.

We need to create some sort of a buzz around speedway, make sure it is the place to go to.

It is such a shame as I really used to love going to speedway.  Speedway has not evolved at all to cater for the fans.  How about introducing some more interactivity (I.e letting the fans ask questions during the meeting/ choosing which riders would be interviewed/voting for rider of the meeting).

Or how about this for even bigger blue sky thinking:  you take the top 3 scorers from each team and get the fans to decide which 2 from each team contest the final heat.  People would say this would advantage the home team, but it would level itself out in the reverse leg.  You could even do the same and have an extra heat where the fans choose who ride from the lowest 3 scorers from each team.

I have said before, just get someone independent in to look at the sport, make some radical changes which we may not like.  What have we got to loose?  It saddens me that the sport is on it’s knees.

I seem to have vague recollection of them doing the voting thing a few years back. I can't remember how it worked exactly, but it was another of those "try it for this season and the scrap it" things.

[RS50]

My thoughts on the decline.

1 Amount of entertainment per match. When I first started going, typically 21 races including 2nd half. Now it's 15.

2 Prices. Saw an article mentioning prices ( for a top division match) in the 80s. Had admission only gone up by inflation would about £9 adults, and £5 pensioners.  Now more like £25/£23. This means the price per race has increased from around £0.43 to £1.66 for adults, and £0.24 to £1.53 pensioners.

3 Amount of time a meeting now takes. Seems to take longer now to do 15 races, than it did to do 21 races, many years ago.

Recently went to Buxton. 3pm start, had hoped that all 15 main races and the extra MDL races would have been completed by 5pm. At 5.15, only 12 races had been completed, and they announced there would be an interval. At this point I left. Many followed. Some were departing as early as race 8. Will those people go back?. Simply taking longer to do less is not more entertaining.

4 "Gardening" at the tapes. Just boring to watch.

5 Dodgy call offs. 

6 Lack of loyalty to long term fans. Seems to be some very good offers to potentially new and younger fans. All we regular fans seem to be getting is "the match has been called off" Someone is kicking a ball about/ there's something on the telly. We waited long enough for this year's fixtures, could at least try to stick to them. Not all speedway fans like football. Don't they matter?

Edited July 25 by RS50

[Grachan]

I was at work having my lunch break yesterday so thought I'd read the Speedway GP website.

One of my colleagues walked past and said: "Speedway? How very 1980's".

 

[marko]

6 hours ago, Grachan said:

I was at work having my lunch break yesterday so thought I'd read the Speedway GP website.

One of my colleagues walked past and said: "Speedway? How very 1980's".

 

To be fair you look at most venues and they are stuck in the 80s complete with music from that era apart from list of songs that every track plays prior to the start, prior to heat 15, after a 5-1 and some individual rider victory songs, it’s like the BSPA handout out a list some 15 plus years ago and said you can only use these so every track plays the same stuff.

Pretty much every club plays Republica before the meetings starts and Europe prior to heat 15, no one wants to stand out and be different it’s all the same old same old.

[marko]

6 hours ago, Grachan said:

I was at work having my lunch break yesterday so thought I'd read the Speedway GP website.

One of my colleagues walked past and said: "Speedway? How very 1980's".

 

To be fair you look at most venues and they are stuck in the 80s complete with music from that era apart from list of songs that every track plays prior to the start, prior to heat 15, after a 5-1 and some individual rider victory songs, it’s like the BSPA handout out a list some 15 plus years ago and said you can only use these so every track plays the same stuff.

Pretty much every club plays Republica before the meetings starts and Europe prior to heat 15, no one wants to stand out and be different it’s all the same old same old.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

I would of raced last night but riders were of a different mindset back in the day and we raced engines that were suited to the conditions not conditions suited to the engines, with that statement can anyone see where the problem is ??? 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

And I if hear riders safety one more time🤬firstly racing motorbikes is dangerous, don’t like that fact do something else, 2nd,ok riders let’s talk about lowering the revs by 2000revs  on the engines and make them less volatile and ultimately a considerable amount safer to ride ? No I didn’t think so 

[ElmParkRG2]

57 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I would of raced last night but riders were of a different mindset back in the day and we raced engines that were suited to the conditions not conditions suited to the engines, with that statement can anyone see where the problem is ??? 

Yes, it should be would HAVE, not would OF!  

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

1 hour ago, ElmParkRG2 said:

Yes, it should be would HAVE, not would OF!  

Not in the Black Country it isn’t