Sheffield -V- Belle Vue POF Leg 1 Thursday 8th October

[YeOldPitGate]

38 minutes ago, gjcone44 said:

problem is how deep are the customers pockets going to be next season.. 

The support seems to be there although would they wear a weak team two years in a row is a question.

for me Thomson was the most improved rider in both leagues this year. Iverson and Harrison both worth keeping the issue as ever is with the likes of Klindt and Lidsey, they can bang in double figures one week and be awful the next meeting so ideally they only want one of them back next year.

Then 2-3 new faces one of which needs to be a heavy hitting number one in the Doyle, Bewley mould if one can be tempted over.

Flagrag also mentioned well resourced people were interested last year maybe they will decide to step up in 2027 having seen support is there, the other issue seems to be the track which by all counts is a great shape but hasn't been condusive to brilliant racing.

[DaveWayne]

2 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Anyone seen the BBC report today 🤣🤣🤣

Could they get it more wrong, the only thing they got right was Belle Vue won 🤣🤣🤣

Somehow they managed to use the 2022 script, even down to saying that Belle Vue won 91-89 on aggregate despite losing to Sheffield on the day, to a backdrop with the score showing Belle Vue well in front.

[SUPERACE]

What a great night, unbelievable, loved every minute of it. Sell out crowd, wonderful atmosphere in the South stand, great meeting presentation.  

What an amazing season for the Aces, the most dominant since Ipswich 98 id say.  A brilliant team full of average improvers.  Untouchable at home and excellent away.  Top of the league all season, then 4 out of 4 play off legs. 

A recored extending 15th top flight title.

54th top flight trophy.

Capped off with a full Peter Craven suite to welcome the Champions.  I can't even remember what tine i left, but I do know plenty of beer was drunk.

UTA♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️

[Bagpuss]

3 hours ago, Aries said:

He can come up with several, problem is he’s one voice in a sea of many and he’ll probably end up drowning in said sea.

Sounds like Rob Lyon is a fan.

[marko]

The play offs are such a dichotomy, on the one hand they can and often do provide great crowds for the finals BUT for the period between the season starting and then its a lame duck financially wise.

The play offs are here to stay but they simply must find a way of making the qualifying matches actually mean something because one meeting is not going to pay for all the rest, and for those who don't make the finals, they are on a hiding to nothing.

Maybe only meeting the other teams once would help? yep that's just five home league meetings but if your losing money every time you run, the answer is run less often, and if you run less often, people will make more effort to come because now your dealing with limited chances to watch certain terms and sometimes certain riders.

[mikebv]

9 minutes ago, marko said:

The play offs are such a dichotomy, on the one hand they can and often do provide great crowds for the finals BUT for the period between the season starting and then its a lame duck financially wise.

The play offs are here to stay but they simply must find a way of making the qualifying matches actually mean something because one meeting is not going to pay for all the rest, and for those who don't make the finals, they are on a hiding to nothing.

Maybe only meeting the other teams once would help? yep that's just five home league meetings but if your losing money every time you run, the answer is run less often, and if you run less often, people will make more effort to come because now your dealing with limited chances to watch certain terms and sometimes certain riders.

So many of the issues faced goes back to the lack of any real prestige, publicity and financial reward for winning any of the domestic titles..

If that could somehow be fixed then everything else just falls into place...

You could have a "decent prize", and a trophy, (like Rugby League does for example), for topping the table and then a separate "main prize" for winning the play offs..

Meaning each meeting has something riding on it ..

Unfortunately, there appears almost to be not enough relevance to the sport in the UK, other than providing riders with a decent six month income and promoters with an expensive hobby they can indulge in...

Play Off final crowds show there is a more than decent following still for Speedway, they just need to find a way to get, at least, a few hundred of those who attend the play offs only to attend, even only occasionally, during the rest of the season..

Can they do it?...

 

[r8gdp]

For me the play offs are wrong the team that is the most consistent throughout the season and finish’s top should be crowned champions.I would go with doing away with the knockout cup in its present format. To enter it make it just for the teams that finish in the top 4 . You could then draw the teams out of the hat .

[Aries]

3 minutes ago, r8gdp said:

For me the play offs are wrong the team that is the most consistent throughout the season and finish’s top should be crowned champions.I would go with doing away with the knockout cup in its present format. To enter it make it just for the teams that finish in the top 4 . You could then draw the teams out of the hat .

This issue here for me is that you get those like the comments above bemoaning the play off “qualifiers’ as non events with little riding on them, but a top team winning the league would be far worse in that regard so I’ve never understood this argument. 
 

If a dominant team starts to run away with it like Belle Vue this year, then what jeopardy is there for 99% of fixtures from mid-season onwards? 
 

Virtually every team in that scenario is riding for nothing. Lynn’s season for example would have been dead and buried with months of the season left (as well as everyone else’s bar Sheffield) but their season remained alive right up until the final week of the season when Ipswich defeated Leicester. 
 

There’s more meaningful league fixtures in a play off set up than there is in a “top of the table wins” scenario it’s as simple as that. 

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

6 hours ago, Roger Jacobs said:

At last! The end of a short, drawn out season.

Best bit has to be Nikolai Klindt collecting a winners medal and the wooden spoon.

 

Doesn't that just sum matters up perfectly....

[bellevueace]

11 hours ago, Gavan said:

Well done Belle Vue but I’m sure most people are glad to see the back of that season totally boring 

Title winners obvious from early on

2 under strength sides in Ipswich and Northampton 

Leicester weaker than last season 

Sheffield losing arguably the leagues top rider … and unfortunately in their case too late to get Doyle 

The 2025 season was so close and 4 teams that could have won it 

This season take out Doyle Emil Fricke and Holder from 3 of those teams and the other side kept all theirs was obvious where the league would go

Join Leagues

 

Let’s hope 2027 is more competitive 

Ipswich were tipped early doors to win last season, two weak teams in Birmingham and Oxford, lets not pretend last season was a classic season it wasnt the Premiership has been on the slide for a few seasons. A club can only build to win, Louis actions didnt help and then having to rush Northampton in late too wasnt ideal. Will next season be any different? There doesnt appear to be much ambition with clubs wanting to move up, lets see how the mooted Polish rules have an impact. As Kyle Howarth stated even riders are bored with the repetition, will be interesting to see how things are come next spring. Its been the least pleasurable title win but it is what it is.

Edited 1 hour ago by bellevueace