In the week when the long-awaited Premier League Fixtures were finally officially released, they could be out of date as Hull have made a sensational late bid to join the Premier League.
The Yorkshire track returned to action after a speell in the wilderness when they joined the 'one big league' in 1995. They had big crowds but there team displayed patchy form. The team in 1995, like many other northern tracks such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Middlesbrough, was largely based on second division riders. In 1996, Hull produced a more successful (and more expensive) team that nearly put the track into insolvency.
Hull joined the Premier League in 1997 and initially were one of the strongest teams although they faded somewhat by mid-season. They continued in the Premier League in 1998. Hull had been rescued by Tony Mole but he sold out to a local consortium prior to the 1999 season to concentrate his efforts on launching Workington and reviving Long Eaton.
The new owners took the decision to move up to the Elite League. This was despite the experience on 1996 and the fact that they had no real asset-base of riders capable of hacking things at Elite League level. They managed to loan Joe Screen and Sam Ermolenko and produced a solid enough team that was never going to win anything.
Things were really going wrong in the run up to the 2000 season with the loss of Joe Screen and Shane Parker. The sponsorship money was not forthcoming on a scale necessary to recruite a competitive team. The warning signs were there for all to see. No season tickets were put on sale and there was little action on team building.
These fears were confirmed last week when it became apparent that the Elite League was no longer an option for Hull and that they faced either closure or a move to the Premier League. Hull opted for the latter course as indicated in their press release on Monday:
"Hull Vikings have vowed to mount a serious challenge for championship honours after applying to join the Premier League. The Craven Park club are ready to return to the league where they spent two successive years in 1997 and 1998. ."
I am sure that most premier League promoters, riders and supporters would not wish to block this move by Hull. However the question remains as to why the decision was not taken a month or two back. Now the Premier League face having to reorganize their fixture list. Ironically this is the first time that the Premier League fixtures have been released so early. Also the tone of the press release leaves a bad taste in the mouth since it implies that the Premier League is some sort of second rate organization and that Hull will be trying to get back to the Eliet League as soon as possible:
"But they have also assured fans that the move does not mean the end of their Elite League days as they are hoping to rebuild throughout this year with a view to gaining promotion for 2001."
"Then we can look towards 2001 and we can perhaps look at entering the Elite League in a stronger and more powerful position than ever before."
In other words, the Premier League is good enough to 'slum it' for a year but not good enough to stay in long term. Maybe a bit of respect for the Premier League is called for given the serious disruption that the existing tracks face in recasting fixtures at a very late stage.
Hull are a Wednesday track and none of the existing Premier League teams operate on a Wednesday. Fitting in home matches would not present a problem. The problems will come with away matches since all existing tracks have very full fixtures lists. The southern tracks would have to fit in an extra home while the northern tracks would have to accommodate two extra home matches. In the case of Edinburgh it is hard to see where the matches could be fitted in. Only two weeks have been left open and one of those could be taken up by the British Under-21 Final that Edinburgh have bid for.
One option would be for the Premier National Trophy qualifiers to revert to three groups rather than the current two. Sheffield could be hived off from the northern group to join Hull plus Stoke and Swindon from the southern group to form a new central group. This would leave Edinburgh and the other northern tracks with the same number of home matches althoough some tracks might lose a home match or two.
The BSPA Management Committee has approved the move provided that the Premier League promoters agree. A decision will have to be made quickly.