Monarchs hope for exciting 2019
Changes as teams come and go in league set up
Edinburgh Monarchs chairman Alex Harkess and co- promoter John Campbell have been reflecting on plans for the 2019 season following the recent British Speedway Promoters’ Association AGM.
There have been changes to teams in the Championship, but it is ultimately hoped that the league will have 12 members by the time the tapes rise.
Alex commented: “We went into the meeting after a troubled 2018 season for most clubs and it was my hope that we would come out of the meeting with as many teams in our league as we had in 2018.
“As it has turned out, we have lost Lakeside to closure and Ipswich and Peterborough to the Premiership but have, our arch rivals, Somerset coming back to join us with Leicester.
“It is highly likely that we will be joined by two teams from the National League so I hope that we will end up with 12 teams in our league. I will be very happy with that.”
John added: “There has been talk for weeks over the likely points limit and we have ended up at 38. That’s not a figure that I would have picked myself but at the end of the day we’ll do what we always do and build a highly competitive team to that level.
“We’ll be helped a little by a reduction of 2.5 per cent on the average of every rider who started in the National Development League or equivalent.
“New foreign riders will enter the league with a five point average if they have ridden in a professional league - Denmark, Poland or Sweden - before and four if they have not.”
Also ratified at the meeting is the lay-out of league campaign and cup competition. The fixture list for 2019 will see each team race the others once in the Championship, with the top four qualifying for the play-offs.
Three groups of four will contest the Championship Shield with the winner of each group then qualifying for the semi-final to be joined by the best runnerup overall. The Knock Out Cup will also operate as before.
With the normal additional fixtures staged at Armadale Stadium, it is expected that the Monarchs will host 20 meetings during next season.
Alex said he was pleased to see all clubs attempting to pull in the same direction as the sport attempts to come through something of a tricky patch and said he was heartened by the viewing figures with races being shown live on BT Sport.
He commented: “We enjoyed one of the most amicable AGMs we’ve had in recent years with all of the teams concentrating on finding ways of improving the sport.
“I was pleased to hear that the numbers watching on BT Sport have now reached impressive levels and the activity on social media of those that follow our sport nationally is growing. We’ll be doing everything we can to translate that into increased attendances in 2019.”
John added that he is aiming to secure trophies at the Armadale Stadium next term, saying: “I believe that we put on one of the best shows in British Speedway at Armadale and we’ll be looking to enhance that further in 2019.
“Our aim is always to win trophies and we’ll be working hard to make that happen next year.”
There have been talks for weeks over the likely points limit