Poole 2027

[Steve Shovlar]

Well we may as well start off the conjecture for the 2027 season.

Who will stay and who will go? Who will join the Pirates?

1. Sam Masters in place of Lawson? Feeling Richard Lawson has other priorities in his life and it’s starting to get in the way of his racing. Seems Matt Ford read him the riot act a couple of weeks ago. Lawson thanked Matt on the mic for giving him a chance to redeem himself. Popular with the Pirates faithful. I would prefer him over Masters but just get a feeling that his time is up here.

2. Will Cairns

3. ? Louis Kerr has been better this season than last. But be surprised if he makes it three seasons.

4. Cooper Rushen

5. Feel this is definitely Zach Cooks last year with us. Had an excellent stint and improved every year.

6. Slater Lightcap

7. Beau Bailey

 

[LisaColette]

26 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

1. Sam Masters in place of Lawson? Feeling Richard Lawson has other priorities in his life and it’s starting to get in the way of his racing. Seems Matt Ford read him the riot act a couple of weeks ago. Lawson thanked Matt on the mic for giving him a chance to redeem himself. Popular with the Pirates faithful. I would prefer him over Masters but just get a feeling that his time is up here.

2. Will Cairns

3. ? Louis Kerr has been better this season than last. But be surprised if he makes it three seasons.

4. Cooper Rushen

5. Feel this is definitely Zach Cooks last year with us. Had an excellent stint and improved every year.

6. Slater Lightcap

7. Beau Bailey

 

Interesting. Were we almost in sacking terroirity there? 😬👀. Though i like Sam Masters so no issues with him being in the team. 

Hard to make any predictions til we hear what riders will be doing with the new Polish rules? 🤷‍♀️

Edited 10 hours ago by LisaColette

[topaz325]

I think Lawson will be there nest year.

[Bitza]

28 minutes ago, Steve Shovlar said:

Well we may as well start off the conjecture for the 2027 season.

Who will stay and who will go? Who will join the Pirates?

1. Sam Masters in place of Lawson? Feeling Richard Lawson has other priorities in his life and it’s starting to get in the way of his racing. Seems Matt Ford read him the riot act a couple of weeks ago. Lawson thanked Matt on the mic for giving him a chance to redeem himself. Popular with the Pirates faithful. I would prefer him over Masters but just get a feeling that his time is up here.

2. Will Cairns

3. ? Louis Kerr has been better this season than last. But be surprised if he makes it three seasons.

4. Cooper Rushen

5. Feel this is definitely Zach Cooks last year with us. Had an excellent stint and improved every year.

6. Slater Lightcap

7. Beau Bailey

 

I'd agree with that. If Lawson stays he would surely need to knock European racing on the head. Will be interesting to see how Lawson goes against the Championship's best on Wednesday. Might be crucial in making up the minds of the Pirate's promotion on which way to go? I'm not Master's greatest fan, but he would do a job.

Kerr is simply a matter of value, he has been great for Poole this year, but can't see much potential for further improvement, but might be good for consistency if there were wholesale changes.

The issue with Rushen is maybe where Poole comes on his priority list, he does pack in alot of racing.

Poole's biggest problem is definitely finding a replacement for Zac. Morris is I think an interesting proposition.

Would be more than happy with Cairns, Lightcap and Bailey.

[Neila]

Bit early to start this as points limit not known, league structure not known, heard a rumour due to proposed low points limit in the championship, both Poole and Glasgow going to move up, in order to have top riders in their teams, as fans maybe reluctant to watch many lesser quality riders. Also the proposed polish rule limiting 1 league only needs confirmed 

[STEVEHOLS54]

Couple of things. Will it be continuing at 40 points or will they reduce to 38 as mentioned by a few. Would make a big difference to team selection.

Also if Worky were not to race next season how about Tate Zischke. After all his injuries he definitely has scope to improve being 21 and having lost that first seaswon in 2023 to injury in Aussie then most of 2024 with the near career ending injury at B.Vue. Eased back in 2025 and now sitting on an attractive GSA for 2027.

I thought (and others) he would be the next Darcy Ward prior to his injury in Aussie. Still bags of potential there. 

[SteveArena]

Poole will be bribed into joining the top flight by that geezer Coleman at Ipswich. Lawson, Cook, Rushen and Cairns can all ride with Poole in the Prem.

[Bagpuss]

18 minutes ago, SteveArena said:

Poole will be bribed into joining the top flight by that geezer Coleman at Ipswich. Lawson, Cook, Rushen and Cairns can all ride with Poole in the Prem.

They could but how many are likely to?

[SteveLyric2]

2 hours ago, Steve Shovlar said:

Well we may as well start off the conjecture for the 2027 season.

Who will stay and who will go? Who will join the Pirates?

1. Sam Masters in place of Lawson? Feeling Richard Lawson has other priorities in his life and it’s starting to get in the way of his racing. Seems Matt Ford read him the riot act a couple of weeks ago. Lawson thanked Matt on the mic for giving him a chance to redeem himself. Popular with the Pirates faithful. I would prefer him over Masters but just get a feeling that his time is up here.

2. Will Cairns

3. ? Louis Kerr has been better this season than last. But be surprised if he makes it three seasons.

4. Cooper Rushen

5. Feel this is definitely Zach Cooks last year with us. Had an excellent stint and improved every year.

6. Slater Lightcap

7. Beau Bailey

 

How do you see that working, whatever the points limit is?

[eric i]

35 minutes ago, Neila said:

Bit early to start this as points limit not known, league structure not known, heard a rumour due to proposed low points limit in the championship, both Poole and Glasgow going to move up, in order to have top riders in their teams, as fans maybe reluctant to watch many lesser quality riders. Also the proposed polish rule limiting 1 league only needs confirmed 

This will cause a rider shortage but on the plus side it will mean Premiership will get Wednesday and Tuesday racenights back. Surely Poole will move up to a watered down Premiership on their favoured Wednesday race night.

[mikebv]

2 minutes ago, eric i said:

This will cause a rider shortage but on the plus side it will mean Premiership will get Wednesday and Tuesday racenights back. Surely Poole will move up to a watered down Premiership on their favoured Wednesday race night.

If any TV deal justifies the extra costs seems to be one of the main crieria...

[Bagpuss]

40 minutes ago, eric i said:

This will cause a rider shortage but on the plus side it will mean Premiership will get Wednesday and Tuesday racenights back. Surely Poole will move up to a watered down Premiership on their favoured Wednesday race night.

What about the Danish League?

[mikebv]

3 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

What about the Danish League?

Given the "one extra" league, the better level of riders will have to choose either Sweden, Denmark or the UK, meaning less cross over, so minimal clashes, (if any at all)...

That should mean Poole could, theoretically, ride in the top tier on Wednesdays...

[LisaColette]

2 hours ago, Bagpuss said:

They could but how many are likely to?

I would say 2 out of 4. 

1 hour ago, Bagpuss said:

What about the Danish League?

 

1 hour ago, mikebv said:

Given the "one extra" league, the better level of riders will have to choose either Sweden, Denmark or the UK, meaning less cross over, so minimal clashes, (if any at all)...

That should mean Poole could, theoretically, ride in the top tier on Wednesdays...

Beat me to it Mike! Poland actually helping Poole by default if we move up as only Danes that don't ride in Poland would be affected. Can also do what happens in the Champ, and ride at Poole in July during the Danish break for the teams that have any Danes in. So more doable than it has been recently. 

Just need a tv deal now and could be a go! 👀

Edited 5 hours ago by LisaColette

[crescent girl]

Just to pull in the horses a bit.

If Poole currently attract a crowd of 1,000 in the Championship, how many more holidaymakers, etc, will attend if the Pirates move into the Premiership?

Let's be optimistic, and say another 500.     No more, as regular followers will be there anyway, whatever the level of racing (as long as the team is regularly winning) as  history shows attendances go up very little if a team goes up a league.  In  the past, Scunthorpe, Workington and Plymouth were all running very profitable speedways at NDL level, but found little if any increase when they went up.   When Somerset went up to the top league and signed the World Champion, the increase was minimal.

Simply, Poole is a profitable concern in the Championship.      Why change?     To run as a Premier club, the dramatically-increased wage bill -- probably 4 times that being paid this season -- world have them running in the red in jigtime.

TV money?  Who're you kidding?    Even if a deal were reached, the dribble-down that would accrue to each Premier club wouldn't turn loss into profit.

Take it easy Pirates.    That grass isn't really greener.      

  

[LisaColette]

6 minutes ago, crescent girl said:

Just to pull in the horses a bit.

If Poole currently attract a crowd of 1,000 in the Championship, how many more holidaymakers, etc, will attend if the Pirates move into the Premiership?

Let's be optimistic, and say another 500.     No more, as regular followers will be there anyway, whatever the level of racing (as long as the team is regularly winning) as  history shows attendances go up very little if a team goes up a league.  In  the past, Scunthorpe, Workington and Plymouth were all running very profitable speedways at NDL level, but found little if any increase when they went up.   When Somerset went up to the top league and signed the World Champion, the increase was minimal.

Simply, Poole is a profitable concern in the Championship.      Why change?     To run as a Premier club, the dramatically-increased wage bill -- probably 4 times that being paid this season -- world have them running in the red in jigtime.

TV money?  Who're you kidding?    Even if a deal were reached, the dribble-down that would accrue to each Premier club wouldn't turn loss into profit.

Take it easy Pirates.    That grass isn't really greener.      

  

Not as low as 1,000. Last week vs Plymouth was over 2,000 if a poster is to believed. Also you have the novelty factor for a season as well. 

Matt Ford also said if Poole moved up they would have both Holder and Cook brothers (depending if Jack can get fit again of course) but that would be a big draw. Every season on Poole FB group, fans you always asking if we will ever see Chris or Jack at Poole again. 

Also don't mean this a mean way but the Championship has no challenges for Poole. You can pretty much put Poole in top 2/3 in table straight away, whereas Prem is a bit more unpredictable and more challenging where you would end up in the table.

Although if anyone were to move up, they need to start prepping for it June/July onwards so you don't end up with the cast offs! 

[mikebv]

7 minutes ago, crescent girl said:

Just to pull in the horses a bit.

If Poole currently attract a crowd of 1,000 in the Championship, how many more holidaymakers, etc, will attend if the Pirates move into the Premiership?

Let's be optimistic, and say another 500.     No more, as regular followers will be there anyway, whatever the level of racing (as long as the team is regularly winning) as  history shows attendances go up very little if a team goes up a league.  In  the past, Scunthorpe, Workington and Plymouth were all running very profitable speedways at NDL level, but found little if any increase when they went up.   When Somerset went up to the top league and signed the World Champion, the increase was minimal.

Simply, Poole is a profitable concern in the Championship.      Why change?     To run as a Premier club, the dramatically-increased wage bill -- probably 4 times that being paid this season -- world have them running in the red in jigtime.

TV money?  Who're you kidding?    Even if a deal were reached, the dribble-down that would accrue to each Premier club wouldn't turn loss into profit.

Take it easy Pirates.    That grass isn't really greener.      

  

The counter to that of course is "if" the Championship sees a significant drop in team average, so there is the desired clear difference in standard between the top two tiers, it could result in lower crowds for those teams delivering four figure numbers now...

No longer having each meeting with a large number of top tier riders in attendance, or watching young overseas riders, with growing reputations, being given an opportunity, could easily impact crowds negatively...

As many fans are now accustomed to a certain level of standard of rider on view, for a certain level of admission cost....

[Bitza]

Assuming the reasoning behind squeezing the Championship team averages down, is to create a distinct gap to the Premiership and also persuaded clubs like Poole and Glasgow to move up to make the top League a TV viable proposition. Then it's hard to believe (except that it's Speedway we're talking about) that the whole matter hasn't already been decided in principle at least, with all parties concerned. Bearing in mind the size of the task for clubs swapping leagues.