Coventry Stadium Sold

[Tommy Sweetman 480]

I thought Mr Horton is the promoter? Or is Mr Horton the manager of the team? Mr Sandhu must be receiving rent if Mr Horton is the promoter. Mr Sandhu is a businessman he must be getting something out of owning a stadium, but now wants to cash in his chips, as he has likely received an offer he can't refuse. If the sale value is substantial, he might be in a position to use part of it to relocate the activities. However, we need to know the figures otherwise the debate is, virtually, meaningless.

Yes Ray,understand what youre saying,but this is not about Coventry speedway.

My argument is this the right time to invest youre own money in speedway.

Ive got a fairly profitable engineering company,but im also a big speedway fan.But if you ask me,is the time right to invest money(starting from scratch) in forming a speedway club,and all that it entails financially,sorry, but unless you have very deep pockets,it would have to be a categorical no.

Its alright saying you want to do something,but its totally diffferent getting it done.

.

[Ray Stadia 1,064]

Yes Ray,understand what youre saying,but this is not about Coventry speedway.

My argument is this the right time to invest youre own money in speedway.

Ive got a fairly profitable engineering company,but im also a big speedway fan.But if you ask me,is the time right to invest money(starting from scratch) in forming a speedway club,and all that it entails financially,sorry, but unless you have very deep pockets,it would have to be a categorical no.

Its alright saying you want to do something,but its totally diffferent getting it done.

.

You are right Tommy, speedway at present, if ever, is not a 'money spinner' for a promoter. It's probably, at best, an expensive hobby. But maybe, Mr Sandhu feels obliged to stump up some cash to keep the activities going and perhaps Mr Horton, stocks people and dogs people also have the desire to keep the activities going. But the whole thing hinges on what is in the coffers, if anything! If Mr Sandhu is willing to put up, say, £250k, it is probably not even enough for a track in a field or perhaps just about.

[mdmc82 2,878]

Maybe even fans could contribute to a collection towards the new stadium resulting in them having a fan share.

Could maybe have fundraising speedway event with past and present bees riders.

 

Lets hope somewhere is found to build a new stadium though, lets all keep searching

Edited February 28, 2014 by mdmc82

[Ray Stadia 1,064]

Maybe even fans could contribute to a collection towards the new stadium resulting in them having a fan share.

Could maybe have fundraising speedway event with past and present bees riders.

 

Lets hope somewhere is found to build a new stadium though, lets all keep searching

If a new stadium is built from scratch, maybe Buildbase could help with materials at cost? And then perhaps new stadium could be known as the Buildbase Stadium?

[Pirate Nick 1,801]

If a new stadium is built from scratch, maybe Buildbase could help with materials at cost? And then perhaps new stadium could be known as the Buildbase Stadium?

I'm sure Matt would contribute a few bricks ;-)

 

INCOMING!!!

[A ORLOV 8,628]

I'm sure Matt would contribute a few bricks ;-)

 

INCOMING!!!

BY the sound of it you may need them down there Nick

[Pirate Nick 1,801]

BY the sound of it you may need them down there Nick

Hopefully not. I wouldn't want anything to do with Eddie Mitchell.

 

Would quite like a new stadium though. I think this smacks of Mitchell stirring the mud, sitting back and waiting for someone else to pay for it and wangling his firm in to build it.

[dorset delight 209]

Hopefully not. I wouldn't want anything to do with Eddie Mitchell.

 

Would quite like a new stadium though. I think this smacks of Mitchell stirring the mud, sitting back and waiting for someone else to pay for it and wangling his firm in to build it.

 

Hole in one Nick

 

Back on track,best of luck to you Coventry fans keep fighting

[Skidder1 7,632]

Hopefully not. I wouldn't want anything to do with Eddie Mitchell.

 

Would quite like a new stadium though. I think this smacks of Mitchell stirring the mud, sitting back and waiting for someone else to pay for it and wangling his firm in to build it.

There are a few wealthy Russians now living in Sandbanks - as AFC Bournemouth found to their benefit!!

[Pirate Nick 1,801]

There are a few wealthy Russians now living in Sandbanks - as AFC Bournemouth found to their benefit!!

All with legally obtained fortunes no doubt ;-)

[Skidder1 7,632]

All with legally obtained fortunes no doubt ;-)

Not that bothered where/how they obtained it - its where they spend it that is of more immediate interest!!

[brianbuck 928]

I sincerely hope that a new venue can be found to keep Coventry Speedway afloat but although I don't doubt that there are many suitable plots of land in and around the City which would be ideal, I know from experience that it will be extremely difficult to relocate the club.

 

It is well known that we laboured for 21 years to get speedway back to Birmingham but no one should imagine that nothing was happening during those 21 barren years. That wasn't the case at all. There were four viable alternative sites available, these being Hall Green Stadium, Perry Barr Stadium (where we were eventually successful), The Wheels Park at Bordesley Green, and Salford Stadium, so on the face of it, it shouldn't have been too difficult a task to move in at one of these - but it certainly was, and frustratingly too!

 

The owners of Hall Green would have jumpoed at the chance of having speedway back there but they were petrified of upsetting a very powerful residents association which has long been waiting for the chance to shut down the greyhound operation there. The then owner of Perry Barr Maurice Buckland was so anti-speedway that although he had numerous verbal discussions with various would-be speedway promotors (because a condition of his tenancy was that he must make the stadium available for "other sports"), he declared privately that he would rather go bankrupt than have it back there! (In the end he did go bankrupt and that paved the way for us to get back in!).

 

At Bordesley Green, plans were presented for the construction of a new track completely separate from the old one there which had been tarmaced over for the stock cars and was no longer suitable), but for some reason they would never reveal, the Wheels Company's directors set their faces against having speedway there again, and even though they did come under pressure from the City Council who owned the site, they wouldn't budge and always hid under the supposed fact that the objectives of the Wheels Park operations was the rehabilitation of young offenders and apparently, speedway didn't meet this criteria although stock cars did!

 

Tremendous efforts were made to relocate to Salford Stadium, a little virtually disused venue about a mile from Perry Barr in Aston. It was a small stadium with accomodation for only about 2,500 but with scope to be able to easily double this, and was ideally situated on the Lichfield Road, close to Spaghetti Junction, within walking distance of Aston Rail Station and had 11 bus routes passing it. As well as that, there was also a narrow cinder running track in place which could easily have been widened to provide an ideally shaped speedway track. There was also a tarmac cycling veldrome surrounding the running track, and the only users were Salford Cycling Club who paid £20 a week between May and September to use it for two hours on a Thursday night, being restricted to this by the fact that the track lighting hadn't worked for years.

 

The stadium had been given as a gift to the City by an unknown benefactor in celebration of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and was costing the Council £6,000 a year to maintain (just to get £400 in income from the cycling club!) By all that was reasonable, the Council should have snatched the hands off the prospective speedway promotors who would have upgraded the stadium, repaired the lighting, paid a realistic rent, used it on approximately 30 nights a year for speedway, leaving the Council to offer it to other potential users on the other 335 days of the year. Noise tests were carried out (in a district where there were very few residential houses, yet every conceivable obstruction was then put in the way of it's use as a speedway venue.

 

After considerable pressure, the Council eventually decided to offer the stadium out to private tender under four conditions (the first being that the activities of Salford Cycling Club must be safeguarded). The only tenderer of the five subsequently received who could comply with all four of these conditions were Birmingham Speedway, yet the Council then accepted the bid from a company which operated a commercial five-a-side football arena which couldn't comply with any of them - blandly stating that they had done so because "the criteria had changed!"

 

I tell of this saga to give an idea of how difficult it can be to make progress with a potentially new speedway site. Tacid support might be forthcoming from a Council's Sports and Leisure Officers, but when the proposals move on to try to get past departments such as Environmental Services, Housing Officers or transport and road services, that's when the real opposition begins to surface and it can be frustratingly difficult to overcome their objections especially when they just replace one obstacle with another, but having said all this, I really do wish Coventry well in their efforts and would be happy to help in any way I can if the experiences I had in the past could be useful.

 

Good Luck Bees.

[remembertheracers 171]

Thank you Brian for that insight and I hope the Brummies crowds go up.

 

In Reading we have a council that has really wanted speedway. But stadium owners with an appalling record in Bristol and Milton Keynes who a few years ago wanted to kick out the Swindon Robins from Blunsdon and have them ride home matches at Reading.

 

Two clubs might now be closed had that happened. Sadly I expect to see pigs fly before speedway returns to Reading . And sadly BSI were a promotional disaster with their Bulldogs, overspending and embarrassing PR.

 

Clarke Osbourne always wants others to build a new greyhound stadium for him. Be glad his company only lease Poole Stadium from the local authority!

Edited March 1, 2014 by remembertheracers

[Steve0 5,517]

Not that bothered where/how they obtained it - its where they spend it that is of more immediate interest!!

Really? It really bothers me where/how they obtained it. I suppose that's the difference between a Swindon fan and a Poole fan - we have scruples!

[philfromcov 326]

I sincerely hope that a new venue can be found to keep Coventry Speedway afloat but although I don't doubt that there are many suitable plots of land in and around the City which would be ideal, I know from experience that it will be extremely difficult to relocate the club.

 

It is well known that we laboured for 21 years to get speedway back to Birmingham but no one should imagine that nothing was happening during those 21 barren years. That wasn't the case at all. There were four viable alternative sites available, these being Hall Green Stadium, Perry Barr Stadium (where we were eventually successful), The Wheels Park at Bordesley Green, and Salford Stadium, so on the face of it, it shouldn't have been too difficult a task to move in at one of these - but it certainly was, and frustratingly too!

 

The owners of Hall Green would have jumpoed at the chance of having speedway back there but they were petrified of upsetting a very powerful residents association which has long been waiting for the chance to shut down the greyhound operation there. The then owner of Perry Barr Maurice Buckland was so anti-speedway that although he had numerous verbal discussions with various would-be speedway promotors (because a condition of his tenancy was that he must make the stadium available for "other sports"), he declared privately that he would rather go bankrupt than have it back there! (In the end he did go bankrupt and that paved the way for us to get back in!).

 

At Bordesley Green, plans were presented for the construction of a new track completely separate from the old one there which had been tarmaced over for the stock cars and was no longer suitable), but for some reason they would never reveal, the Wheels Company's directors set their faces against having speedway there again, and even though they did come under pressure from the City Council who owned the site, they wouldn't budge and always hid under the supposed fact that the objectives of the Wheels Park operations was the rehabilitation of young offenders and apparently, speedway didn't meet this criteria although stock cars did!

 

Tremendous efforts were made to relocate to Salford Stadium, a little virtually disused venue about a mile from Perry Barr in Aston. It was a small stadium with accomodation for only about 2,500 but with scope to be able to easily double this, and was ideally situated on the Lichfield Road, close to Spaghetti Junction, within walking distance of Aston Rail Station and had 11 bus routes passing it. As well as that, there was also a narrow cinder running track in place which could easily have been widened to provide an ideally shaped speedway track. There was also a tarmac cycling veldrome surrounding the running track, and the only users were Salford Cycling Club who paid £20 a week between May and September to use it for two hours on a Thursday night, being restricted to this by the fact that the track lighting hadn't worked for years.

 

The stadium had been given as a gift to the City by an unknown benefactor in celebration of the Festival of Britain in 1951, and was costing the Council £6,000 a year to maintain (just to get £400 in income from the cycling club!) By all that was reasonable, the Council should have snatched the hands off the prospective speedway promotors who would have upgraded the stadium, repaired the lighting, paid a realistic rent, used it on approximately 30 nights a year for speedway, leaving the Council to offer it to other potential users on the other 335 days of the year. Noise tests were carried out (in a district where there were very few residential houses, yet every conceivable obstruction was then put in the way of it's use as a speedway venue.

 

After considerable pressure, the Council eventually decided to offer the stadium out to private tender under four conditions (the first being that the activities of Salford Cycling Club must be safeguarded). The only tenderer of the five subsequently received who could comply with all four of these conditions were Birmingham Speedway, yet the Council then accepted the bid from a company which operated a commercial five-a-side football arena which couldn't comply with any of them - blandly stating that they had done so because "the criteria had changed!"

 

I tell of this saga to give an idea of how difficult it can be to make progress with a potentially new speedway site. Tacid support might be forthcoming from a Council's Sports and Leisure Officers, but when the proposals move on to try to get past departments such as Environmental Services, Housing Officers or transport and road services, that's when the real opposition begins to surface and it can be frustratingly difficult to overcome their objections especially when they just replace one obstacle with another, but having said all this, I really do wish Coventry well in their efforts and would be happy to help in any way I can if the experiences I had in the past could be useful.

 

Good Luck Bees.

thanks for this, its pretty much what ive been saying, although not as well!

with an election coming up nothing will happen until after that so we already into june 2015, half way!