Premiership 2027 - Are You Interested??

[YeOldPitGate]

3 hours ago, mikebv said:

The big money comes in through the sponsorship and TV coverage.with "the prize" being huge contracts...

Huge budgets means riders earning circa €800k for riding for your local speedway team will inevitably bring local, and national, interest, and a decent following...

The whole thing then looks "big time", which can only be a good thing when being viewed by the general public...

The GP's still pay out decent money with anyone regularly in and around the top six earning £80k to £100k over a season of 10 GP's..

And winning the World Final was never a massive cash prize but the World Champion made big money over the coming 12 months..

I seem to remember it was said in the late 70's it was worth up to £250k in sponsorship, points money, and lucrative appearance fees..

Zmarzlik currently nationally advertisers Aztorin Watches which will be a very nice earner for him I would suggest, especially given the price point they sell at..

Again, bringing "eyeballs" to the sport through his appearance in the adverts..

UK Speedway desperately needs to look "big time" and quickly, and, somehow, bringing big money into it will deliver those optics..

Hopefully someone can make it happen...

 

I wonder if we will ever again hear anything about the fruits of Harrys and the Tory fellas labors or if the powers that be are just hoping its gradually forgotten about.

[chun]

i do wonder sometimes if gambling could save speedway.  then again with guests, etc. is the sport really credible enough?  given some of the characters involved, would some take bribes to fix matches

[False dawn]

18 minutes ago, chun said:

i do wonder sometimes if gambling could save speedway.  then again with guests, etc. is the sport really credible enough?  given some of the characters involved, would some take bribes to fix matches

I remember reading an article in the Speedway Express a few (several) decades ago about Japanese speedway. Barry Briggs was involved in bringing this form of the sport to peoples attention. Funny shaped handlebars and tarmac surfaces come to mind. But the main difference was the high level of betting involved. To the extent that riders were locked away for, I think, 24 hours before meetings to avoid anyone nobbling the competitors. Can't see that working over here.

[paulnolan]

4 hours ago, ouch said:

We have struggled with weekends and only had around 200 at our last Sunday event. Whilst Mondays are infinitely better they are only around 1400-1800 and we look on with envy at Plymouths numbers. 

I’ll happily have egg on my face come this Saturday at the NSS as I can see British Speedway providing 4000-5000 fans to fill the place out for a weekend fixture. 

As I said, it has to be regular, and it has to be of a comparative quality to the usual fare on offer. 

[DaveWayne]

On 8/10/2026 at 12:04 PM, Gambo said:

Coventry introduced Greyhounds (1990's I think), rather than it being a Greyhound stadium.

Coventry had greyhounds from 1968 to 1986, then intermittently from 2004.

[GeneralMelchett]

Having thought about ITV4 being involved in screening the BF i think a hour long highlights show once a week would be a nice thing to see - that would show racing and meetings etc in a good light and hopefully get a few more interested in attending so that is on my wishlist for 2027!

[therefused]

23 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

Having thought about ITV4 being involved in screening the BF i think a hour long highlights show once a week would be a nice thing to see - that would show racing and meetings etc in a good light and hopefully get a few more interested in attending so that is on my wishlist for 2027!

shouldnt even cost that much to produce really, have some analysis and then upcoming fixtures and a look at the tables and voila can easily fill an hour

[1 valve]

5 hours ago, therefused said:

shouldnt even cost that much to produce really, have some analysis and then upcoming fixtures and a look at the tables and voila can easily fill an hour

A highlights show, broadcast at a reasonable time and not when everybody has gone to bed would be a good idea. However, the question I have is where would the consistent quality  footage come from? All other sporting highlight shows are made up of recent events that have been shown live, or purposely recoded for the show. so unless BSN can be persuaded to license their footage it is difficult to see where its going to come from, nevermind whos actually going to edit and present the show.
But as I said, good idea and I hope it can be made to work.

[Daniel Smith]

Why worry about broadcast times for a highlights show? The 90s are well & truly over, everything will be available to stream regardless of broadcaster.

[Arthur54]

If Poland bring this thing in where you can only ride in one other league, does this mean if you ride in Poland you can't do both premiership and the championship 

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

53 minutes ago, Arthur54 said:

If Poland bring this thing in where you can only ride in one other league, does this mean if you ride in Poland you can't do both premiership and the championship 

Yes

[Aries]

1 hour ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

Yes

That isn’t a bad thing either IMO. Ties in with Richard Coleman’s comments that he wants a bigger gap between the Premiership and Championship, and this rule would naturally help that along. 

[YeOldPitGate]

11 minutes ago, Aries said:

That isn’t a bad thing either IMO. Ties in with Richard Coleman’s comments that he wants a bigger gap between the Premiership and Championship, and this rule would naturally help that along. 

Agreed but equally might make it harder to get two more teams to move up given a lot the top riders don't want UK and we might lose a few more top liners if the rule comes in.

[marko]

Judging by the lack of threads or interest in matches, I would say there is no interest in 2026 never mind 2027.

This forum is so dead, if it were a town, even the local ** would still be a virgin. 

[cowboy cookie returns?]

On 8/13/2026 at 7:35 PM, YeOldPitGate said:

Agreed but equally might make it harder to get two more teams to move up given a lot the top riders don't want UK and we might lose a few more top liners if the rule comes in.

The problem when there has been so little development of the sport outside of Poland in the last 30 years. 
 

For a long time Sweden Denmark & too a lesser extent the UK has relied on the excess of Polish riders floating about & riders who were happy to ride in 3 or 4 leagues.

With the new polish regs next year the level of the championship is going be a lot lower so those 2 top teams might have no option but to move up. 
 

Speedway in the uk must be the only sport & possibly one of the only areas in life where people don’t aspire to be the best they can be & reach for the top. That speaks volumes for how it’s run & the lack of meaning that the competitions have.

[mikebv]

20 hours ago, marko said:

Judging by the lack of threads or interest in matches, I would say there is no interest in 2026 never mind 2027.

This forum is so dead, if it were a town, even the local ** would still be a virgin. 

Iainb led most, if not all, of the threads ..

On his Forum it still happens and there are other polls, prediction threads etc on them...

I didn't know Sheffield rode at Leicester on Thursday till I went on there ..

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

The problem when there has been so little development of the sport outside of Poland in the last 30 years. 
 

For a long time Sweden Denmark & too a lesser extent the UK has relied on the excess of Polish riders floating about & riders who were happy to ride in 3 or 4 leagues.

With the new polish regs next year the level of the championship is going be a lot lower so those 2 top teams might have no option but to move up. 
 

Speedway in the uk must be the only sport & possibly one of the only areas in life where people don’t aspire to be the best they can be & reach for the top. That speaks volumes for how it’s run & the lack of meaning that the competitions have.

Spot on...

There is, sadly, an overall feeling of "What's the point?" of UK Speedway...

I can only think its a chance for riders to earn decent money for six months work, and owners to have a hobby...

Outside of that?...

[YeOldPitGate]

1 hour ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

The problem when there has been so little development of the sport outside of Poland in the last 30 years. 
 

For a long time Sweden Denmark & too a lesser extent the UK has relied on the excess of Polish riders floating about & riders who were happy to ride in 3 or 4 leagues.

With the new polish regs next year the level of the championship is going be a lot lower so those 2 top teams might have no option but to move up. 
 

Speedway in the uk must be the only sport & possibly one of the only areas in life where people don’t aspire to be the best they can be & reach for the top. That speaks volumes for how it’s run & the lack of meaning that the competitions have.

If they do though Cookie I think the prem will have to be run at championship standard look at the problems with only six teams Leicester, Ipswich, Northampton all don't have a genuine number one, essentially 50% of the current league.

Throw another two teams into the mix and again look at the Northampton team built on the scraps if Poole and Glasgow moved up and if nothing changes from a big financial injection into the sport in 2027 they would make Northampton 2026 look like Cradley 1984.

[YeOldPitGate]

27 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Iainb led most, if not all, of the threads ..

On his Forum it still happens and there are other polls, prediction threads etc on them...

I didn't know Sheffield rode at Leicester on Thursday till I went on there ..

I think where down to sub ten regular posters on here now Mike we better start hanging around the lights switch near the door soon don't want the responsibility of being the last one out who is charged with turning the forum lights out in 2027.

[1 valve]

1 hour ago, cowboy cookie returns? said:

Speedway in the uk must be the only sport & possibly one of the only areas in life where people don’t aspire to be the best they can be & reach for the top. That speaks volumes for how it’s run & the lack of meaning that the competitions have.

There’s plenty of Uk based riders who aspire to achieve the highest levels possible. Just that to do so they need to ride in Poland. 
It’s more the promoters who over the past decades have failed to aspire to “be the best” which is dragging the sport down.