Rosie76

Reference the Unipart Car Park, it is about 10 minute walk from the stadium or you can get on the free coach from the car park. Enjoy your first visit of the new era. Having lost at home to Birmingham, I will avoid making any predicitions but would be hopeful of a win.Any more home losses will probably end what looks like slim chances of making play offs.

Last season in top flight was poor, and resulted in mid season pull out and theConference league finishing the season under the new ownership of Alan Trump. Alan wanted to continue with second division the following season, but landlords wanted to stop speedway at the stadium. The top flight team was poor it was unable to find a star rider as they wanted to ride for teams that already had stars. The new promotion have invested heavily in changes to make the racing better, and if they can also maintain a competitive team the 2 factors will help with crowd levels. Like every track in the country they will have the challenge of the cost of living crisis.

Before the owners of Oxford Stadium agreed to the current lease the Council were saying they would consider allowing the owners to build houses on the car park by the pits, providing the leisure facilities were saved. May be the lease does not include this parking area hence the Unipart plan. Also for several years the top end of the stadium (1st bend) seems to have been used for parking so may be these cars will be moved to the lower end on a deal nothing to do with the current leaseholder of the stadium complex. It is concerning that some people seem to being put off by the proposed arrangements. Living locally there does seem lots of interest in the re-opening so I think anyone not pre-booking could be taking a chance, but who knows. After the first week a lot of fans would probably just turn up, so the management need to clarify Unipart parking as the statement at the moment appears to apply you can only park there if you have pre-booked. If someone turns up and is refused Unipart parking I feel providing you are prepared to walk and check parking restrictions you will find somewhere.

Would they be eligable to change nationality. If they became Polish it could cause problems as the FIM appear not to like to many representatives from one country, Also some years ago I seem to remember soneone suggesting on the forum that the Laguta's had an uncle high up in the Putin regeime.

Reference the poor crowds in 2007 Oxford started the season under Colin Horton some teams named top heavy sides preventing Oxford having no number one and a poor team Colin withdrew mid season and Alan Trump kept the Conference team going. Alan was prepared to run the next season (I think in the 2nd tier), but was stopped by the stadium owners GRA who did not want the stadium to be succesful so they could justify building houses. Thanks to lots of hard work by speedway, greyhound fans and supportive MP'S and councilors we are in the situation we are now. The new leaseholder is certaintly making moves to ensure that speedway and the stadium has the best chance of succeding.

Yes the Belle Vue situation of 2016 was what I had in mind. I was certainly not suggesting you should put someone in an NDL team who is not safe or competitive, The potential rider would have to prove this on track before they go in the team.

i would not be surprised to see the 3 pointers will be riders from other motorbike sports that have not tried speedway yet. That would fit the academy idea. Who else with speedway experience would be available on 3.00 average?

You might be interested in listening to the interview on the Oxford subject under general discussion, A grehound promoter has taken lease on Oxford and Mildenhall, His interview with someone only mentions Dog Racing, but I am pretty sure he said he plans to run Sunday lunchtime dogs at Mildenhall upgrading the restaurant to do Sunday lunches. Hope this does not jeapordise the future of Mildenhall Speedway running on Sundays,

Hi Racersand Royals, I am quite happy to write or e-mail the director if you would like to let me know the details. Sorry I could not see how to do private messages on here. Being a Racers fan you might be interested in my comments I made tonight regarding the leasing of Oxford Stadium on the general discussions, Oxford page.

Just listened to the new leaseholders interview above. Ok he was interviewed by someone in the dog racing world, but there was no mention of him running other sport such as speedway. He said, he plans to run Friday and Saturday nights, Friday night seemed the only sucessful night for speedway in later years. He has got a 10 year lease on the site but that leaves the site owned by the same owners that have tried to put houses on it for the last 15 years. They have got nothing to lose land prices will increase, dog racing will probably be even more unpopular, and the odds are speedway crowds will be even less. Sadly this lease probably finishes off the idea of the chap that wanted to purchase and redevelop Oxford Stadium as a sporting complex for speedway, greyhounds and other good community usages. The new leaseholder also mentioned he has done a deal to lease Mildenhall stadium and he plans to have Sunday lunchtime meetings there so he can do meals in the restaurant, so this could be trouble for Speedway there. We can only at this stage see what the new leaseholder does, but if speedway does not materialise at Oxford and Swindon in the next couple of years and no land found in Reading, is there any potential promoter willing to look at land in the Newbury area? That is central to pick up the fanbases from Oxford Swindon and Reading. I expect land would be expensive or would it be worth them approaching Newbury Showground to see if they would build a set up like Peterborough have, although there one or two houses nearby that might not be to happy.

I do not think it can be Jack Smith, I seem to remember him signing for Glasgow.

I seem to remember that 71 matches is the number of matches the Polish Ekstraliga League sold the rights to at a massive amount more than they received before, so Premier are probably showing all that is available to them. If you are a speedway junkie like me and watch all that is available it still seems price worth paying. I think to get every meeting filmed last year (except a couple of postponments) we would be looking at alot higher fees.

In 2019 Isle of Wight put on a match against Oxford. Oxford took a coach of fans + others making their own way. The team had some riders with an Oxford link and Gordon Kennett as team manager. Would it have been attractive to the Isle of White Management to run if they could have had there NDL matches + several matches against ghost teams from the South. Think of the team options in the South, Oxford, Reading Wimbledon, Hackney, Milton Keynes, Lakeside even Swindon and Somerset + others. Cradley and Coventry and Newport could also bring travelling fans These meeting could have been pitched at NDL level or higher by IOW using some of their former riders to strenghen their team. For this to happen it would have required the lifting of the ban on ghost teams. This rule really hurts fans of teams that no longer have tracks of their own. It would also only work if the IOW thought it was feasible. Mildenhall could also being the option to do this.

The suggestion was the IOW would have had a team in the league as well, but also could have added former riders of theirs for some of these matches if the oposition was stronger. Yes I see the point about the opposition could mean several riders would appear for different teams. When Oxford rode there it was also peak holiday season which may have compensated for some of the regulars missing who choose not to travel to challenge matches. IOW seemed to have quite a few non league meetings in recent times. Obivously for this to have happened the promoters would have needed to felt they could make it feasible.

Not sure it is good news. I assume this advert is placed by the current owners. The question could be who wants to lease the stadium in its current state? The situation of selling the stadium is a much different situation, a new owner can invest in the property, a tennant is less likely to invest in the property and the owner could choose not to do so. Personally I hope no wants to lease it from the current owners and that the council continue to push for the stadium to be sold to someone like Nick Burdir who wants to run the stadium for Sports and Community use. We need to hope that if the owner's cannot find someone to rent the stadium, they cannot use this as an argument to say the stadium is not viable.

Getting back to the serious side I attended the public meetings regarding the stadium last year. Parking issues were discussed. I seem to remember there would still be some parking so that would probably cover people with walking difficulties. If somewhere such as Unipart was used then proper transport not golf carts would be used. Nick Burdir the proposed buyer even said a small muti storey could be considered on site. There is a railway line behind the back straight, a station there was mentioned as a possibility. Nick would need to act on the parking issues as his company would be running the dogs so he would have the same parking issues as the speedway promoter. Building houses on part of the current parking area is important as it generates income to pay for bringing the stadium back to a useable standard. It also helps the City Council with its housing shortage. Without the support of the council and its former MP (who still supports the campaign although now retired) have given the stadium would be long gone. The City Council also has a green policy so that would be why public transport is probably part of the plan. The biggest negativty should be the concern that the current owners of the site will actually go through with the sale. By the way see my comments on page 20 regarding the impressive plans which the proposed owner says he has secured the funding for. These plans include moving the pits to the second bend along with renewing the kennels. already there, For some reason my comments got delayed and when they appeared others had posted afterwards so readers may have missed them. Steve Roberts you will see I asked about your uncle on page 20. if you want to keep the humor of a golf theme going lets hope the plans dont get stuck in the bunker or I think their is considerable drive to get these plans through. By the way was does a golfer wear two pairs of trousers? In case he gets a hole in one.

I had not remembered your uncle Keith was on the committe but I remember him doing the photos 76 time. I come from Abingdon, during the SOS my dad realised he drank in the same place as Bernard Craper and they were both photographers. They became good friends and Bernard got me to run a junior supporters club part of this involved me selling rosettes, I am wondering if your uncle took some of the photos for the rosettes or whether it was Mike Patrick. I notice your uncle has produced some books in recent years, did he disappear from the speedway scene for a while between the late 70's and the book publications?

The man who wants to buy the stadium Nick Budir was on Radio Oxford in the summer, he wants a 24/7 venue. When Nick outlined what he had planned last year he showed a book of his plans that was impressive. The book included a page by Hans Nielsen supporting his plans. Nick is a dog owner but said he would look for a Speedway promoter he seemed confident that there were people interested in taking the role on.

It was on BBC South 6.30 News that the owners of Oxford Stadium have put it up for sale. Could this mean they are fishing for a better deal that NicK Burdir is offering. Nothing on the Oxford Mail site. Hopefully it means the current holders have finally given up on building houses on the site. If this means the stadium is saved it will be second time it has escaped from the developers the first being in the winter of 1975/76 when the SOS with the late Bernard Crapper being one of the commitee leaders.