Jon Cook: This is the best sporting show in Sussex

And he is enjoying proving it to bigger numbers as the club return to the professional ranks.

Cook says Eagles can match any other Sussex clubs for support now Albion have knocked off for their summer break.

He would love to see another big turnout when Glasgow Tigers visit in the SGB Championship tomorrow (7.30pm).

Cook is back promoting Eagles this year and has seen them get off to a flyer in Shield and Knockout Cup events.

They lost their opening home league fixture to much-fancied Leicester but only after Richard Lawson lost his footrest and fell just 50 yards from completing the win.

But Cook, below, is delighted see crowds well into four figures and believes his side are leading a renaissance for the sometimes maligned shale sport.

He said: “We know what our attendances are and we know what other sporting teams get in Sussex and we are clearly right up there.

“We are easily top five and, away from football, we are No.1. We knock cricket into a cocked hat.

“I know a lot of people have picked up on admission prices and how ours are very competitive as well and we see a lot of people from various speedways come down.

“We have people from Chichester way who can choose between us and Poole and that’s tremendous.”

Cook accepts Sussex pull in crowds of 5,000 and more for some white-ball cricket matches.

But he puts Eagles above them when it comes to more routine Championship action at Hove.

Albion are, the county’s sporting giant. That was why Cook was so pleased to pull in 1,200 fans for the opener against Birmingham, which clashed with the Seagulls’ trip to Wembley in the FA Cup semi-final. But he believes his own sport is under-rated in terms of entertainment.

He added: “People say you only see 15 minutes of action. Well you don’t get 15 minutes of action at a football match. You sit there for 90 minutes and you’re lucky if you see five or ten minutes of action, really.

“What always strikes me about a football match is, when they pan to one of the footballers who is injured or dropped, he is invariably on his phone, texting his mates or Googling something or whatever.

“With speedway, from the moment everyone is pushed off from the pits, particularly with heat one, you aren’t looking at your phone until that race is finished.

“If your rider has won, you are celebrating with him and giving him a high-five if he is coming around the stock car track.

“I believe we are getting that message across. I see a lot of happy people enjoying a day out.

“The catchment area here is immense. It has been nice for us to be so positive at a time when I guess the Albion were struggling a little bit. It has been some good news.”

Cook is aiming to keep attendances around the 1,400 mark although he knows commercial colleagues might be aiming higher.

Eagles are currently in the second tier but, with only seven tracks in the top-flight Premiership, change could come.

Cook wants Eagles to be ready to be a big part of any restructure.

He said: “Who knows where speedway will be next year?

“I saw a bit of the top league on telly and it leaves me cold.

“That’s not having a knock. It’s just the way the sport has gone.

“The top superstars don’t need Britain and there probably aren’t that many top superstars either.

“Speedway is evolving internationally as well as nationally and I think the league we are in at the moment points the way.

“The entertainment is fantastic.

“Two weeks ago I saw one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in speedway which was when Richard Lawson crashed out on the last bend, costing us the meeting.

“He was absolutely devastated, walked back by the main grandstand and the main grandstand almost to a man and women rose to their feet and gave him a standing ovation.

“Richard said to me after the meeting, ‘ I expected them to throw things at me, I can’t believe it’.

“Afterwards, his part of the pits was mobbed by people and he said it really touched him.

“He didn’t expect it and he didn’t realise what sort of club this is.”

Eagles: Kennett, Morley, Bowtell, Kerr, Lawson, Wood, Brennan.

Glasgow: Cook, Serjeant, Jensen, Starke, Vissing, Stoneman, Bickley.