2027 - 8 Team Premiership

[SPEEDY69]

40 minutes ago, TigerIain said:

and the same goes for the u21s, especially the British rider(s) as there is a significant difference between the top British u21s and the 7th (or 8th), and if some teams end up with 2 Brit u21s (due to costs) the talent gap just gets bigger as you are already on to riders that weren't good enough for a Championship place in 2026.

And will throwing these youngsters into jobs that they aren't ready for do anything for their careers? Or will they be lost to the sport?

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I agree - it's not about development but about giving young poles more experience so they turn into better riders for Poland.  I think the dictate has come from them and they must be wondering why, after all the money thrown at Polish speedway, they've still only had two world champions in the last 50 years.

Stipulating u21 is pure ageism and if I was denied a team spot, as Joe Thompson reflected upon recently, I'd be considering a case under the equality act.  what they should be doing is counting race experience like pilots hours and using that to offer development places, if it's about development. 

[Youhave2minutes]

1 minute ago, SPEEDY69 said:

I agree - it's not about development but about giving young poles more experience so they turn into better riders for Poland.  I think the dictate has come from them and they must be wondering why, after all the money thrown at Polish speedway, they've still only had two world champions in the last 50 years.

Stipulating u21 is pure ageism and if I was denied a team spot, as Joe Thompson reflected upon recently, I'd be considering a case under the equality act.  what they should be doing is counting race experience like pilots hours and using that to offer development places, if it's about development. 

plane supplied for pilot hours as mentioned.

[FishersGate]

If it is for u21s then why not u24s? That would open up way more possibilities for clubs to recruit decent young riders. I have no issue with the poles giving us more riders for experience but riders under 21 narrows it down massively 

[Aries]

2 hours ago, PhilTheAce said:

pawel sitek possibly

Uncle Artur loves him. Wouldn’t be at all surprised if he directed him to Foxhall. 

[mikebv]

36 minutes ago, YeOldPitGate said:

100% this despite my initial doubts crowds have been good at Northampton even allowing for a weak team but as you say both them and Eastbourne will need help particularly if Eastie have to run on a week night.

The idea of an eight team top league is sound but it might make more sense to stabalise Northampton in 2027 with a view to getting Eastie into the league in 2028.

100%...

The "talent pool" is thin enough already, as is shown by the weakest team each season, therefore stretching it to seven teams currently can only dilute it further...

And bringing in two compulsory U21's will already do that given the lack of U21 talent who are not riding in Poland and are not Scandinavian..

A six team league this season has one team clearly adrift before a wheel was turned, and a seven team league the year before had two...

Wasn't the plan to make the top tier clearly stronger than the second? If so, sticking with six teams would be the more logical way of delivering this..

If Eastbourne do come back, starting on Fridays/Saturdays in the second tier would seem to be the best "first step" to see how that goes..

[mikebv]

30 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said:

I agree - it's not about development but about giving young poles more experience so they turn into better riders for Poland.  I think the dictate has come from them and they must be wondering why, after all the money thrown at Polish speedway, they've still only had two world champions in the last 50 years.

Stipulating u21 is pure ageism and if I was denied a team spot, as Joe Thompson reflected upon recently, I'd be considering a case under the equality act.  what they should be doing is counting race experience like pilots hours and using that to offer development places, if it's about development. 

Wasn't there originally an maximum age stipulation for Doubling Up??

Maybe I am wrong, but I seem to remember it was Scott Nicholls who challenged it...

It used to be only a max two per team also wasn't it?..

And then, of course, promoters saw the benefits of sharing rider costs, whilst now employing a level of riders previously unaffordable, so the floodgates opened .😁

[Arthur73]

One thing to consider is that many of the U21s riding in the Ekstraliga in previous years would have come in on very high assessed averages for an inexperienced rider.

- 24 of the 33 riders who raced any meetings as an U21 this season in Poland would get an average of 6.00 or higher

- The likes of Paluch, Bednar and Parnitskyi would come on over 7.50 averages. 

Maybe U21 riders did want to come over but British promoters did not want them as their averages were way too high to justify it. With the new U21 system and no average to worry about it might change things.

[SPEEDY69]

1 hour ago, mikebv said:

Wasn't there originally an maximum age stipulation for Doubling Up??

Maybe I am wrong, but I seem to remember it was Scott Nicholls who challenged it...

It used to be only a max two per team also wasn't it?..

And then, of course, promoters saw the benefits of sharing rider costs, whilst now employing a level of riders previously unaffordable, so the floodgates opened .😁

It was doubling down that was the issue 😁

[Fromafar]

2 hours ago, Arthur73 said:

One thing to consider is that many of the U21s riding in the Ekstraliga in previous years would have come in on very high assessed averages for an inexperienced rider.

- 24 of the 33 riders who raced any meetings as an U21 this season in Poland would get an average of 6.00 or higher

- The likes of Paluch, Bednar and Parnitskyi would come on over 7.50 averages. 

Maybe U21 riders did want to come over but British promoters did not want them as their averages were way too high to justify it. With the new U21 system and no average to worry about it might change things.

How many want to ride in Uk is questionable.

[tocha]

3 hours ago, SPEEDY69 said:

It was doubling down that was the issue 😁

Yes, and age wasn't the issue it was average. At that time the rules stated that any rider with a premiership/elite average of 6 or more (I think that was the figure) was ineligible to ride in the second tier.

[TigerIain]

5 hours ago, FishersGate said:

If it is for u21s then why not u24s? That would open up way more possibilities for clubs to recruit decent young riders. I have no issue with the poles giving us more riders for experience but riders under 21 narrows it down massively 

Would make sense for the Brit u21 to be a Brit u24 as Brits tend to develop later than Poles and Danes.

3 hours ago, Arthur73 said:

One thing to consider is that many of the U21s riding in the Ekstraliga in previous years would have come in on very high assessed averages for an inexperienced rider.

We'll find out over the next few months. Note that nothing has been said as yet if the u21 foreigner gets a different average to the current rules.

15 minutes ago, tocha said:

Yes, and age wasn't the issue it was average. At that time the rules stated that any rider with a premiership/elite average of 6 or more (I think that was the figure) was ineligible to ride in the second tier.

It was 6 originally, as riders dropping down got their average doubled and couldn't go above 12. Riders going up got their average halved. At the time it was designed to encourage people to step up, but that has long since changed