OXFORD'S shock demise this week has rocked British speedway to the core and should be seen as a major blow to the future of the sport in this country.

Average crowds, to quote departing Cheetahs promoter Colin Horton, "in the region of 400-500" are way too short of what an Elite League club needs to successfully operate on.

Horton admitted: "The harsh reality is that we need attendances of double those figures to even stand a chance of breaking even and I just don't envisage that happening here."

With a side struggling near the bottom of the league, and with little hope of finishing any higher than ninth out of 11, he clearly made the right, gut-wrenching, personal decision to close Oxford down three days ago.

If Horton hadn't taken that action, he himself would have been looking at "losing several thousand pounds each week" and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work that one out.

But was it really such a surprise that Cheetahs have bitten the dust, unless a 12th-hour rescue package can be put together by some of the other more established promoters like Terry Russell, Matt Ford or the like?

Even with Sky Sports' excellent television coverage giving the Elite League invaluable publicity, I don't think it was a surprise because the warning lights have been shining brightly for several years now.

It's not just Oxford, which has never been a speedway town' in the true sense of the words, who have been struggling to pull in the punters during that period.

In fact, crowds have been down at tracks all over the country, with Reading, Ipswich and Belle Vue particularly hard hit this year.

Even at Poole, where Ford and Mike Golding have put together as exciting and talented a team as you could wish to watch, attendances have clearly dipped - and if ever there was a speedway town' then it is Poole.

These days, a 2,000 crowd at Wimborne Road is still considered poor, and the breakeven figure is probably somewhere around the 1,500 mark.

Let's be honest, the days of regular 4,000 crowds inside Poole Stadium are long gone.

But the Castle Cover Pirates still have the ability to pull in more than that figure for the big one-off showpiece occasions, like the title play-offs and cup finals.

They can probably also nudge 3,500 during the long summer school holidays when whole families, including away fans, both British and foreign, and curious tourists, boost the number of regulars on the terraces and in the stands. That's why Poole have long since been labelled The Manchester United of Speedway'.

But even the Man Uniteds' of this world need other football clubs to play against to survive.

British speedway's best-supported clubs, and consequently also the top clubs, such as Poole, Coventry, Peterborough and Swindon, would do well to remember that.

The Pirates, Bees, Panthers and Robins need at least six other clubs to form an Elite League each year, otherwise they would end up racing themselves week in, week out. No one wants that.

Maybe Oxford's mid-season demise, the first by a top-flight club since Wimbledon in 1991, will make British speedway take a good, long, hard look at itself in the mirror. It ought to.

With more and more of the world's top riders giving the Elite League a miss because there are too many meetings, ala Gollob, Holta, Jonsson, Lindback, Jagus and Hampel, is it time to cut back individual clubs' home meetings to once every fortnight - just like in Sweden and Poland?

Maybe that is the way forward, although it would take a brave promoter to forgo 30-odd meetings a year for only 15 or 20.

With the individual World Championship Grand Prix series forever looking to expand, is it time to introduce home and away meetings on an alternative weekly basis in the British top flight, and for a squad system as in Sweden and Poland to be introduced here?

Maybe that would attract all the top riders again, and boost crowds rather than deter people coming. Stop fans handpicking the best meetings to save money rather than attending every one.

Whatever happens, it seems certain that something radical needs to be done, and soon.

Otherwise the likes of Reading, Ipswich and Belle Vue might be tempted to do a Sheffield or King's Lynn, drop down to the Premier League and run successfully each year in front of good crowds, but on a far lower annual expenditure budget.

Where would that leave Poole, Coventry, Peterborough and Swindon, in a league of four?

Oxford's closure could yet prove to be a major turning point for British speedway. The catalyst for sweeping changes.

But which way will British speedway chiefs decide to go?