Ipswich Witches 2027

[Aries]

13 minutes ago, LisaColette said:

In theory it shouldn't matter. But crowd levels were different for Thurs in the prem vs Weds in the Champ. But that was 2019 so who knows what would happen now! 

Sorry I just don’t get it. We’re talking about 24 hours moving from one midweek day to another. What is so special about the day Wednesday down in Poole Lisa?

Our race night is Thursdays and we’ve been Thursdays since the dinosaurs were roaming earth. If circumstances meant we had to change to a Wednesday evening instead, yeah it would seem a little strange at first but we’d soon get used to it.

I certainly wouldn’t huff and puff and refuse to go because it’s no longer being held on my favourite day of the week! I can’t imagine any supporter doing that to be perfectly honest it’s all a bit nuts.

As I’ve said I understand more if you’re a weekend track and take the family but wouldn’t then fancy taking them on a school night. That’s a much bigger change and I’d get people’s hesitation.

But Wednesday to a Thursday? Nah.

[YeOldPitGate]

8 hours ago, Aries said:

I was going to suggest camping Mike. The track and car park is surrounded by woodland so perfect opportunity to have an adventure! Forget the hotels. Park up for the SGP 2 on the Friday, stay on site after the meeting, shove up ya tent in the woods and get cooking on ya portable bbq! 

Don't let Burnham here you talk about bbq's

[Aries]

22 minutes ago, SteveLyric2 said:

With AFC Bournemouth having Europa fixtures on Thursdays there is no way Poole will run on Thursdays. Added to that is the question mark over the longer term availability of Poole Stadium, more so after the recent passing of Mr Osborne!?

What about Mondays? The football season finishes in May and Bournemouth will no doubt be knocked out of European competition by the time the Speedway season starts in April.

Stop making poor excuses, put your big boy pants back on and start behaving like a big club again and show some ambition.

Edited 4 hours ago by Aries

[DaveWayne]

9 hours ago, Aries said:

I was going to suggest camping Mike. The track and car park is surrounded by woodland so perfect opportunity to have an adventure! Forget the hotels. Park up for the SGP 2 on the Friday, stay on site after the meeting, shove up ya tent in the woods and get cooking on ya portable bbq! 

Camping is not an option at Foxhall. It is tradition to have camping at weekend stock car meetings, but it has never been allowed at the July weekend at Ipswich. Trust me, if it was an option, the Spedeworth promoter would be cashing in.

[Bagpuss]

1 hour ago, SteveLyric2 said:

With AFC Bournemouth having Europa fixtures on Thursdays there is no way Poole will run on Thursdays. Added to that is the question mark over the longer term availability of Poole Stadium, more so after the recent passing of Mr Osborne!?

 

1 hour ago, Aries said:

What about Mondays? The football season finishes in May and Bournemouth will no doubt be knocked out of European competition by the time the Speedway season starts in April.

Stop making poor excuses, put your big boy pants back on and start behaving like a big club again and show some ambition.

Wa gonna say Bournemouth are likely to be out by then! 

In any case its not every Thursday, shouldn't be an issue to keep the fixtures apart.

[arnieg]

10 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

The bikes can race but I believe they cannot use the tannoy system to announce results. Years back the meeting overran and while they raced to the end of the meeting no announcements.

22 March 2007

Ipswich v Reading

Loram  and Simota collided coming out of bend 2 [ht 1] resulting in an hour delay. (The accident ended Loram's career). Meeting ended about 10.15 with no tannoy for last 2/3 races.

[Hawk127]

1 minute ago, arnieg said:

22 March 2007

Ipswich v Reading

Loram  and Simota collided coming out of bend 2 [ht 1] resulting in an hour delay. (The accident ended Loram's career). Meeting ended about 10.15 with no tannoy for last 2/3 races.

Yes that was it and unfortunately I witnessed that one standing on bend 2. Getting old so the memory is not what it was but that was one of the worse crashes I have witnessed and the silence while they attended to Mark was awful. 

[topaz325]

1 hour ago, YeOldPitGate said:

Don't let Burnham here you talk about bbq's

World wide ban  

[therefused]

1 hour ago, Aries said:

What about Mondays? The football season finishes in May and Bournemouth will no doubt be knocked out of European competition by the time the Speedway season starts in April.

Speedway Racing Gear

Stop making poor excuses, put your big boy pants back on and start behaving like a big club again and show some ambition.

happy beating the giants of plymouth and scunthorpe in the championship apparently. 

[YeOldPitGate]

12 minutes ago, therefused said:

happy beating the giants of plymouth and scunthorpe in the championship apparently. 

To be fair I get why the Ford's are cautious they have proven multiple times they can replicate what they have done at Championship level also in the premiership.

They currently operate on roughly 30% lower operating costs and by all counts crowds are comparable to the top league days. If they did go back up to an eight team top league the speedway bosses need to somehow avoid a repeat of the Sky days where the number one's hoovered up all the extra cash with nothing left over to reinvest in the clubs.

The risk is we tempt 5-7 top liners back over for 2027 who get paid huge wages crowds don't go up much and rather than eaking out a small profit your looking at a 50-100k loss for the season.

I still think Richard is the best chance of saving the sport in years and he seems to have his eye on making the sport financially sustainable but I do get why the Ford's are uber cautious, equally if they came back up I don't doubt they would put a great side together.

[Phannan]

1 hour ago, DaveWayne said:

Camping is not an option at Foxhall. It is tradition to have camping at weekend stock car meetings, but it has never been allowed at the July weekend at Ipswich. Trust me, if it was an option, the Spedeworth promoter would be cashing in.

 Never  trust a man who says trust me . You can trust me on that. I think it’s an exciting prospect the Ipswich gp. Looking forward to it and would definitely like to attend. 

[TTT]

Always some excuse from Poole.

Cowardly Club that revels in picking on Clubs that can't stand toe-to-toe with them whilst being too frightened to step up to Clubs that would actually compete with them on all fronts.

[Neila]

4 hours ago, Aries said:

There was always a mini bus that took people to and from Foxhall on Thursday evenings that picked up at the Old Cattle Market in town centre. I fully expect they’ll do something similar for this

Probably need a bloomin big mini bus 🙃

[ouch]

 

Clubs often don’t get the support to finance top flight racing. Only one club has maintained the level required to stay in the top league. Even Ipswich have had to drop, like 1989 or more recently in 2011, when support  would only cover second division meetings. Those times though pale into insignificance when compared to 1962 when support couldn’t cover any speedway and the witches shut down completely. Sad times with the only silver lining being Peter Craven’s Ace world championship win. 

I’m sure Ipswich wouldn’t have wanted a barrage of criticism during their too often times of struggle so be a little more mindful when having a pop at others please.

 

[therefused]

49 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

To be fair I get why the Ford's are cautious they have proven multiple times they can replicate what they have done at Championship level also in the premiership.

They currently operate on roughly 30% lower operating costs and by all counts crowds are comparable to the top league days. If they did go back up to an eight team top league the speedway bosses need to somehow avoid a repeat of the Sky days where the number one's hoovered up all the extra cash with nothing left over to reinvest in the clubs.

The risk is we tempt 5-7 top liners back over for 2027 who get paid huge wages crowds don't go up much and rather than eaking out a small profit your looking at a 50-100k loss for the season.

I still think Richard is the best chance of saving the sport in years and he seems to have his eye on making the sport financially sustainable but I do get why the Ford's are uber cautious, equally if they came back up I don't doubt they would put a great side together.

appreciate the costs are going to be higher but Poole currently have 4 premiership riders in there starting 7, not including Kerr who has done mulitiple seasons in the top flight and still could do a job. 

[mikebv]

50 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

To be fair I get why the Ford's are cautious they have proven multiple times they can replicate what they have done at Championship level also in the premiership.

They currently operate on roughly 30% lower operating costs and by all counts crowds are comparable to the top league days. If they did go back up to an eight team top league the speedway bosses need to somehow avoid a repeat of the Sky days where the number one's hoovered up all the extra cash with nothing left over to reinvest in the clubs.

The risk is we tempt 5-7 top liners back over for 2027 who get paid huge wages crowds don't go up much and rather than eaking out a small profit your looking at a 50-100k loss for the season.

I still think Richard is the best chance of saving the sport in years and he seems to have his eye on making the sport financially sustainable but I do get why the Ford's are uber cautious, equally if they came back up I don't doubt they would put a great side together.

The "Poole Business Model" is based on success...

Probably more than at any other track...

Spending another £100k (and maybe more), to not be guaranteed (unlike pretty much now), at least, a top two finish, would be a big question mark for them..

At Poole it appears that the success of their business is about winning, with little regard as to the level who you are beating...

Losing against Belle Vue, Ipswich, Sheffield etc, whilst watching genuine World Class talent, won't be a crowd puller for them based on their current model..

If it aint broken don't fix it must come to mind for their promoters...

Unless, of course, those tier one promoters deliver their division as clearly the place to be for financial reward, and prestige..

A hell of a big leap needed for that though isn't there?..

 

[YeOldPitGate]

54 minutes ago, mikebv said:

The "Poole Business Model" is based on success...

Probably more than at any other track...

Spending another £100k (and maybe more), to not be guaranteed (unlike pretty much now), at least, a top two finish, would be a big question mark for them..

At Poole it appears that the success of their business is about winning, with little regard as to the level who you are beating...

Losing against Belle Vue, Ipswich, Sheffield etc, whilst watching genuine World Class talent, won't be a crowd puller for them based on their current model..

If it aint broken don't fix it must come to mind for their promoters...

Unless, of course, those tier one promoters deliver their division as clearly the place to be for financial reward, and prestige..

A hell of a big leap needed for that though isn't there?..

 

That's it Mike the Ford's are marmite but they have run a successful club for years and as you say the business model is built on winning which seems to still pull in decent crowds against lower quality opposition and people saying the track isn't brilliant.

They also have a great network of contacts if they stay in the championship and points limit is lowered even if they lost Zach Cook they will probably end up with either Beau Bailey or Brady Langdon as a replacement two of the hottest talents in world speedway who should add a point - two points to starting average by end of year one.

Langdon seems more of a trapper like his mentor Hancock where Bailey strikes me as the most exciting aussie on a bike since Darcy Ward, both should be exciting young riders who at some point will be in the GP series.

It will require something to show there's a fairly bullet proof chance they won't bankrupt the club if they move up if the ducks don't align halfway through the top league 2027 season.