noaksey Posted Friday at 08:50 AM Report Share Posted Friday at 08:50 AM Lanning in the star says OB costs can be up to 40k per meeting Not difficult to see where the problem lies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Smith Posted yesterday at 10:18 AM Report Share Posted yesterday at 10:18 AM On 9/17/2026 at 4:08 PM, mikebv said: What about a Swedish or Danish system? Sweden gets probably double the crowds, and more, than the UK does, so maybe follow Denmark's operating model given their crowds are more akin to the UK's?.. Guests are just a lazy way of running the sport and does it zero favours from a credibility point of view, which won't help gain sponsors from outside the Speedway bubble.. Doubling Up isn't a problem given, as you say, different leagues exist with no impact to the top tier in the UK, and helps both tiers afford riders, and provides riders with more income opportunity... And given so few riders want to ride over here DU'ing is currently something fundamentally required... Guests is a necessary evil but the solution I've suggested for years is the simplest and fairest way forward. All guests must be from the lower league & not have a team spot in the Premiership. All guests must have an average equal or lower than the No7. If guests are required they come in at No7 and everyone else moves up in the team. What that also does, is speed up the process in finding injury replacements as teams get away with it for to long using better inform guest rider's than the guy injured. 1 missing R/R or guest at No7 2 missing R/R and guest at No7 3 missing, meeting postponed. It should be a ruling that meetings can only proceed if teams have 5 or more riders available from their official declaration. If meetings get cancelled due to availability, 2 league points are deducted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebv Posted yesterday at 10:59 AM Report Share Posted yesterday at 10:59 AM (edited) 21 hours ago, Daniel Smith said: Guests is a necessary evil but the solution I've suggested for years is the simplest and fairest way forward. All guests must be from the lower league & not have a team spot in the Premiership. All guests must have an average equal or lower than the No7. If guests are required they come in at No7 and everyone else moves up in the team. What that also does, is speed up the process in finding injury replacements as teams get away with it for to long using better inform guest rider's than the guy injured. 1 missing R/R or guest at No7 2 missing R/R and guest at No7 3 missing, meeting postponed. It should be a ruling that meetings can only proceed if teams have 5 or more riders available from their official declaration. If meetings get cancelled due to availability, 2 league points are deducted. Guests are 100% not a necessary evil, as, if they were, then all leagues would have to use them.. The very fact they don't shows the sport can be ran without them... The issue is that now it has become part and parcel of the operating model in the UK, and fundamentally ingrained in the way the sport is ran... Providing promoters with lazy, easy to implement options, (and even a chance to improve their team), and it gives riders a chance to earn some decent money, (sometimes more than their own teams guarantee and points money)... In short, everyone is happy... If there are not enough riders then reduce the number of riders per team, (Denmark seem to run well with five per team, and eight teams)... If implemented this could free up 12 riders for next season's current six teams, with these riders, as you suggest, riding in tier two but coming in on short term replacement contracts... Or just implement a fit for purpose RR system which doesn't involve your No1 being replaced by two second strings, (or reserves if the manager chooses).. Riders 5 and 3 should be allowed to cover all the missing No1's rides, (f the manager chooses), and for the rest of the team, then the riders above and below the missing rider can take two each.. With a number eight coming in for a missing number seven.. You still then win or lose as a "proper team" and credibility is maintained.. The way UK runs its Speedway is just lazy and contrived, as they can plan in fixtures, with known clashes, and then just use Guests to cover the missing riders... Removing the Guest "Get out of jail free card" would mean a far more disciplined, and much better thought out, and organised approach, to the whole running of the sport.. Which can only be a good thing... NB. Tier two can still do "whatever they want", but the top tier should always be seen as a credible bona fide, professional, sporting league... Edited 6 hours ago by mikebv 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowboy cookie returns? Posted 7 hours ago Report Share Posted 7 hours ago 20 hours ago, mikebv said: Guests are 100% not a necessary evil, as, if they were, then all leagues would have to use them.. The very fact they don't shows the sport can be ran without them... The issue is that now it has become part and parcel of the operating model in the UK, and fundamentally ingrained in the way the sport is ran... Providing promoters with lazy, easy to implement options, (and even a chance to improve ther team), and it gives riders a chance to earn some decent money, (sometimes more than their own teams guarantee and points money)... In short everyone is happy... If there are not enough riders then reduce the number of riders per team, (Denmark seem to run well with five per team, and eight teams)... If implemented this could free up 12 riders for next season's current six teams, with these riders, as you suggest, riding in tier two but coming in on short term replacement contracts... Or just implement a fit for purpose RR system which doesn't involve your No1 being replaced by two second strings, (or reserves if the manager chooses).. Riders 5 and 3 should be allowed to cover all the missing No1's rides, (f the manager chooses), and for the rest of the team, then the riders above and below the missing rider can take two each.. With a number eight coming in for a missing number seven.. You still then win or lose as a "proper team" and credibility is maintained.. The way UK runs its Speedway is just lazy and contrived, as they can plan in fixtures, with known clashes, and then just use Guests to cover the missing riders... Removing the Guest "Get out of jail free card" would mean a far more disciplined, and much better thought out, and organised approach, to the whole running of the sport.. Which can only be a good thing... NB. Tier two can still do "whatever they want", but the top tier should always be seen as a credible bona fide, professional, sporting league... Totally agree guests are not a necessary evil. Any professional team sport shouldn’t have the option to bring in guests from a rival team who’s performance could have a negative impact on their contracted club. Like wise doubling up needs cutting back & eventually scrapped. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cowboy cookie returns? Posted 7 hours ago Report Share Posted 7 hours ago On 9/17/2026 at 3:08 PM, Daniel Smith said: Nobody, especially new fans would give a 💩 Doubling-Up is a nonsense argument in making the sport look 'Mickey Mouse'. There's no promotion / relegation so there is zero 'conflict of interests'. Guests have been and always will be a necessity of this sport. British Speedway doesn’t have the finances to run Polish type squad systems so that's a no no. This sport has far more important problems than some riding in multiple leagues. As far as I'm concerned, riding in the Premiership & Championship is no different to riding Premiership and Elitserien, it's still 2 different leagues with no conflict on each other. If you want to keep the sport at its current level guests & doubling up makes no difference because no one takes it too seriously. However if you want to grow the sport bring in investment more sponsorship then the doubling up & guest rulings do become a problem. Thats why Poland are restricting where riders can ride outsider of their league to limit the risk of those riders being injured thus damaging their product. I also recall earlier this year reading an article where at least one polish club owner wanted to get to a point where riders competed for one club in one country only. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Smith Posted 4 hours ago Report Share Posted 4 hours ago 2 hours ago, cowboy cookie returns? said: If you want to keep the sport at its current level guests & doubling up makes no difference because no one takes it too seriously. However if you want to grow the sport bring in investment more sponsorship then the doubling up & guest rulings do become a problem. Thats why Poland are restricting where riders can ride outsider of their league to limit the risk of those riders being injured thus damaging their product. I also recall earlier this year reading an article where at least one polish club owner wanted to get to a point where riders competed for one club in one country only. There in lies the problem, comparison to Poland. British Speedway will never ever get to, or even come close to their level. Poland are rightly so, looking to a 1 club model alongside SEC, SGP & World Cups. They have an extensive amount of dollar to keep rider's tied down. The UK, Sweden, Denmark & to a point Germany can only ever be a feeder to Poland's top 2 tiers. We have to accept & embrace that. Instead of being angry, we should be proud of our lads being over in Poland achieving (or atleast trying to) those levels of the sport. For British Speedway, we want to keep, and increase the number of clubs we already have. Also steadily build the numbers that come through the turnstiles. We CANNOT currently hold riders down to 1 league as it's just not financially viable. Doors will close, and rider's lost forever. Without being too political, the white man demographic is shrinking at an alarming rate in this country, it's a problem also in other major European countries. Do you want to guess which country is economically stronger than ever and heavily restricts asylum?? People don't like to see it but these things do go hand in hand. How many black and brown are on the terraces in UK Speedway?? It matters to our sports future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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