TIGERS owner Gerry Facenna has vowed that “excitement” will always be the most important aspect of the club.
The Allied Vehicles Tigers chief watched his team suffer a heartbreaking Super Heat defeat to Poole in the Cab Direct Championship Grand Final decider.
But following the barnstorming finale, speedway fans across the UK filled social media raving about the entertainment and exciting racing at Ashfield Stadium.
Despite the loss, Facenna is proud and delighted for the plaudits the club has received. He has also revealed that plans for a bigger capacity have already been explored for future FIM events.
Ahead of tonight’s end of season dinner dance, he admitted: “I would have loved to have won the title. Am I sore about losing? Yes, of course I am sore because I’m a winner.
“But I have to say that the Tigers team have been great to work with this year and could not have tried harder over the two meetings. I’m sure the fans could see that.
“I also had messages from managers and promoters saying that’s what speedway is all about after Friday night.
“We had just under 2,500 paying fans at Ashfield. I know the amount of new ones because we can see from the debit cards, there were 500 new people in that stadium for the final and semi-final.
“We had some new guests in hospitality which included a couple of wives dragged along by their husbands. They didn’t want to be there.
“At the end of the night they said ‘we don’t care what our husbands are doing next year, we are coming back’. They loved it.
“The amount of people who came up to me on the night from clubs all over the UK as well shaking my hand saying it was a great night, the racing and atmosphere was wonderful.
“The bottom line for me is if we don’t have good exciting racing, it will kill the sport.
“I don’t want follow the leader here, I want to see passing, I want to see excitement. That’s what will keep fans coming back.
“We build a team every season that races 100 per cent, guys who put on a show for the paying fans.
“When we bought the stadium over the first few years I could hear the words ‘we have a home track advantage but it’s gate and go here’.
“It’s taken a few changes over the years to get the track condition so it’s fair for all riders and produces the best racing every week.
“Fans tell me every week we are spoiled at Ashfield as we see more passes in one race than at other tracks in one entire meeting.
“At the end of every season we get contacted by many other riders who want to come to us because they are racers and they want to race.”
It’s now been 10 seasons for the Tigers and the Facenna family ownership and he also enthused over the success of his ‘Trust The Fans’ initiative.
The club enabled their own supporters to hand out free tickets to new fans only for the last stage of the season.
Crowd sizes clearly boomed for the final few meetings of the campaign.
He added: “Trust The Fans has been a big winner for me. We will be continuing that in 2026.
“It certainly made a very good profit on Friday night. That’s where we want to be.
“The more profit it makes it all goes straight back into the club.
“Now we are starting to see the stands full, next year is about continuing Trust The Fans.
“Over the three meetings we ran the offer, only three of our existing fans tried to use the free tickets and that was because they did not understand the offer. Other than that it was all new fans. It’s been a wonderful success.
“You are offering tickets to people who weren’t coming anyway. If you then show off a great product, you have a great chance of them coming back as paying customers.
“The amount of new fans at the stadium in September and October was just fantastic, totally incredible.”
There are further exciting times ahead for the club. Ashfield Stadium looks set to return as a venue for major FIM events in 2026.
But sensationally it seems almost certain that the club will stage a Grand Prix in the near future.
This would be an incredible Cinderella story for Ashfield, just over a decade since the Facenna family took over the stadium and club in a totally run down and dilapidated state.
Facenna added: “We had a meeting last week with a company that builds temporary grandstands, they do major events at golf courses.
“We just need to see what capacity we can get into Ashfield. That’s the only thing that is missing.
“Once we have that information, then we can see the economics involved and the cost of ticketing for a Grand Prix.
“Longer term, if I can fill this stadium every year then I will look at building a permanent stand. That’s the ultimate goal.
“So many people at Glasgow have worked so hard over the past decade. We have outstanding volunteers, staff and fans and they are the lifeblood of the place.
“It was a great season for us. We came within 60 seconds of the title. We had a great team of riders who were a pleasure to deal with and so exciting on the track. That’s all we want at Glasgow.”