THE DEAN MACHINE

So sad, had a catch up with big al 2 days before his accident, we chatted about speedway and crashing as I had one myself a few days before, I knew how bad his injuries were but somehow held the hope that he would pull through, a lovely bloke who was motorcycles through and through and had some great stories from his career that we listened to up the man cave over a brew, a very humble man, a great loss. R.I.P my friend

I’m all for the pointless posts, this forum is getting very bitter lately

Sorry for having an opinion, not quite sure how I’m in some way jealous of the NSS, yes they have a stadium and I errr don’t??? but I can go there whenever I want, I just choose to travel 1000s of miles to go to other stadiums that make me want to go them instead, that’s madness yes but jealousy ???

By knowing the right people

I’m not digging anything, it’s just my opinion that it’s uninspired as a stadium design

And you should be rightly proud of it but comparing it to the stadiums I was talking about in poland it’s not in the same league and that’s the point of the topic isn’t it ?

Yes I did miss it cause the place doesn’t make me want to go, wasn’t that the meeting that was a gate and go in the race off, I’ve stopped going to the swc or son since it’s moved to Belle vue, i only really go now if I do a job there, (I used to go to Kirky Lane quite a bit)it’s a great race track but as a stadium it’s bland and it’s the people that made that atmosphere it doesn’t create one by itself like the polish design does, the racing isn’t great at Ipswich but I like the bowl feel to the stadium

I would argue that Toruń stadium complete minus the car parks takes you less space than the NSS, the stands are not as wide as the NSS, the track is similar size but Toruń stands are tiered and over lap so not as wide, with the exception of the first/second bend I see no reason why a similar design to Toruń, gorzow or Łódź couldn’t of been done, it wasn’t cause of space

Wow factor needs imagination , the three stadiums Toruń gorzow and Łódź are very basic in design, if you look a Toruń it is basically a roof put over concrete steps and the gap in between is just blue and yellow boards but what a place, BV is far superior in quality of build but doesn’t even compare in wow factor as Toruń

It’s not envy, I just feel with a blank piece of paper and the money spent it is very underwhelming, it doesn’t say wow when you see it , take a look at Łódź new stadium, it’s fairly basic in design but looks amazing,, I think Ipswich since they had the extra stands because it reminds me of a bowl like odsal

I did, it cost me a fortune over 20 years but I didn’t care, I just wanted to race speedway and being in a team was fantastic, I had some really crap deals financially like at Berwick but I didn’t care I loved every minute, to me there are things in life that money can’t buy and winning races for your team is one of them, I came into speedway with nothing, left with even less but those memories are worth a million

Me, great track but stadium does nothing for me, hence the only time I go is when I’m working there either mechanic or other job, think I’ve been once just to watch

Łódź stadium is only slightly bigger capacity than Belle vue and is rarely over half full but has that wow factor about it, Belle vue is nice but no wow about its design, a speedway stadium should be like a gladiatorial arena, it should make you feel part of it and Belle vue doesn’t capture that although I will say it’s better on the back straight than in the seats

Now is the time for the uk to go it’s own way, take a step back, change the sport, appeal again to its working man’s audience again, stop trying to be something it isn’t, it’s apeal has always been its rawness it’s connection to its fans , change the engines, stop lining the pockets of the tuners, nothing is gained by the pursuit of speed in our sport, there was a quote in the polish section of the SS a couple of weeks ago where a guy said polish speedway has lost its soul and as much as I love polish speedway it’s true it has, the balance has tipped in favour of business, when we finally get through this covid crap, the world will have changed and if people think speedway will just pick up and carry on as normal then they are in for a shock, now is the time to change the sport for the better, I honestly believe poland won’t be far behind us

I always felt that with the NSS they had a blank piece of paper and that’s the best they could come up with ? When you see something like Toruń or gorzow or even Łódź which are very basic in design but very effective and creates their own atmosphere even when you walk into them when they empty they give you a sense of a special place ,the NSS doesn’t do that,