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Leicester Lions 2017

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I haven't read the article but am hoping it's Saturday as that's the best option for continuing to encourage children to be in attendance with their parents, also away fans and occasional visitors. So presumably DH, Glynn, Norrie Allen and Mrs DH have gone. Has the Lion mascot survived?

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Reading the Speedway Star article I see DD has dropped a very strong hint that Lions will race on Saturdays...is that anybody's else understanding?

I never read like that at the time but having re-read, I see where you're coming from when DD rubbishes the idea of Coventry using BP he refers to Coventry on a Thursday impacting on a Saturday attendance.

 

I'm hoping it was a scenario he was using rather than suggesting it as a chosen race night.

 

 

Separate issue but how many kids go? The number of kids seem limited. Why do no other tracks want kids to go?

Edited by Glennylion

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I never read like that at the time but having re-read, I see where you're coming from when DD rubbishes the idea of Coventry using BP he refers to Coventry on a Thursday impacting on a Saturday attendance.

 

I'm hoping it was a scenario he was using rather than suggesting it as a chosen race night.

 

 

Separate issue but how many kids go? The number of kids seem limited. Why do no other tracks want kids to go?

So what your saying is that speedway is no longer a family sport ?

 

Saturday night or late Sunday afternoon should be the chosen days to race, sod Poland let's put British speedway first and bring back families at affordable prices.

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So what your saying is that speedway is no longer a family sport ?

 

Saturday night or late Sunday afternoon should be the chosen days to race, sod Poland let's put British speedway first and bring back families at affordable prices.

Did I say that?

 

If Saturday was so crucial and necessary to kids in attendance or crowds generally, why do so many others not have Saturday race nights? Either they don't agree or aren't necessarily seeking to attract kids.

 

Don't know the answer, just asking a question or 2.

 

If Saturday nights were the best night for kids, why are the attendees significantly of an older generation?

 

Do under 16's not attend other tracks?

 

Did under 16's not attend blackbird road?

 

As a percentage of gate, how many are kids? Would the percentage be the same as at other tracks?

 

Saturday evenings are times to be spent with families. I agree. That however presents choices. My family aren't interested in speedway despite my attempts so if I want to spend Saturday evenings with my family (as you imply) then it's away from speedway.

 

That doesn't take into account other activities that impact more so on a Saturday than other days to do with not being at work such as in my case cricket.

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Separate issue but how many kids go? The number of kids seem limited.

DH use to use the argument that Saturday night meant more kids and hence more families would attend. Clearly there has always been a divided opinion between us fans on whether or not this is true and to what extent. Looking at other clubs venues I don't see any significant difference in the profile of attendees no matter what the race night.

The arguments for and against Saturday nights are well known and both hold water, but looking at the sport overall I am not sure we all agree on what we mean or imagine by the term kids. Kids are by definition those under 16 and although I can imagine some mums Dads would like to bring much younger folk we should consider just how many very young children (say under 10) do come on Saturday who wouldn't come on a midweek night v how many 11 - 16 year olds would also stay away.

With speedway being a summer sport sharing light nights and school holidays this must play a part in negating those fears of DH and frankly the truth is whatever race night the Lions do run, then more than likely it will please some and not others. The bigger factor to increasing attendance is not what night but what team and how good the experience is...As the saying goes "build it and they shall come"

Edited by 1 valve

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The whole, we will get more on a Saturday night is rubbish.

A lot more choice of things to do at weekends, Get a decent team and track and you will get as many mid week.

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I don't think in the next few years that any club that races on a weekend will have any great problems. We have seen the sport being slowly watered dowm. Not many teams out there now need to worry about the problems they had with riders rushing after meetings to get to Poland on a Sunday. I must say I have not looked at the make up of any of the teams, but every year the big names of the sport get less and less as the years go by.

What a big change from the late 70's and the 80's when it was the place to be seen as a rider in the EL. Then they started getting greedy and wanted to expect money the promoters could not afford, quite a few clubs where nearly on the point of closing down.

They the promoter said enough, you ride over here at the wages we can afford to pay you. The rest was history.

Will be very interesting to see what happens in the next couple of years. Will speedway over here be teams made up of a majority of British riders. With some young first time overseas riders to make up the numbers.

Be great to see all the clubs packed to the rafters so to speak, but they need to get the sport advertised and some big name sponsers. Even to get a fan base close to they used to be would be a welcome change from the poor crowds we see now. I think that Sky TV had to keep the cameras at ground level so they did not show the people who came to some meetings, it must have been very close to 100 at some meetings.

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As others have said and even at the might Poole stadium, it doesn't matter what night you race on if the team is getting a shlacking every week no one is going to come and add to it processional races makes it even worse.

 

I hope everything works out this season for the Lions as they need all the help that they can get, at least you have a secure future unlike a number of teams around the country.

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As others have said and even at the might Poole stadium, it doesn't matter what night you race on if the team is getting a shlacking every week no one is going to come and add to it processional races makes it even worse.

 

I hope everything works out this season for the Lions as they need all the help that they can get, at least you have a secure future unlike a number of teams around the country.

Certainly it affected travelling away. It's sad that people have to win and with all this bragging rights stuff. Much better to just have fun but I have to admit it was much more fun in PL

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I can back you up on this Jonathan. I was on the LSSC committee during your involvement. And I remember the likes of Ken Naylor, Robert Ball, Andy Joyce and myself working extremely hard to get a decent Lions following at the NA that night. It was a cracking meeting, despite the 38-40 loss! ;-) We were thrilled you managed to get the likes of Chris Holder, Lewis Bridger, Kevin Doolan and David Howe to represent the Lions and I remember well the tv news cameras being there.

Our LSSC committee held the displays at Radio Leicester, made various media approaches and organised various supporters events such as the Q&As you did at The Blackbird Pub and an xmas party in town. As you know, all of these events supported by yourself, including the aforementioned council meetings, enabled us to eventually put in for the eventual planning application in early 2009. DH never did fully explain to the LSSC committee why your involvement came to an end, other than some vague issue regarding funding part of the application. Whatever it was, that’s between you and him.

Planning approval was achieved at a Council meeting in August 2009 and Sam got involved soon after, being presented to the fans at a Supporters Club event in November 2009. Personally I was happy with that because following your departure we’d lacked anyone with any credibility from within the speedway industry itself. Sam had a definitive vision and used to use my city centre office space for various meetings and was working hard behind the scenes to get local business involvement and funding. As the campaign’s chief designer I did numerous presentation documents and materials for his meetings with local business leaders, large companies and various enterprise groups. It should also be pointed out, we had NO money at this point. The money for the planning application had wiped out what budget we had left, and that includes DH. At one point he even wanted to introduce an ill-advised share scheme, that bombed. I remember the LSSC writing him a cheque at this time for over 2k just to cover a legal bill he had. And don’t forget we also raised £5.5k to enable a concrete terrace on the back straight.

To support the new initiatives and to make the planning approval a reality a ‘Leicester Speedway Organising Committee’ was set up. The first meeting took place in the summer of 2010 in the dilapidated changing rooms at Beaumont Park. Present were DH, Sam, Alan Jones (who had been brought in by DH to look after the PR), Ken, Andy Joyce and myself. Maybe Linda Jones too, though I can’t recall for certain. However, Sam only attended that first meeting as his fall out with DH came soon after when DH got impatient and moved the goalposts after striking a deal to tip construction waste on site. This wasn’t what Sam had spent all his time working towards and he felt it had been deliberately done behind his back. That tipping deal is what actually funded the ‘stadium’ being built - and is the reason why it was done on the cheap and ended up nothing like the plans we had originally presented to the Council and the public at various open meetings. The promised ‘sports village’ ended up being a red herring and I honestly believe planning would never have been granted had the present set up been put before the City Council. They were expecting much more, a multi-purpose sports village that featured a cycling velodrome, 12x 5-a-side football pitches, BMX and a purpose-built pavilion/grandstand in fact.

Once Sam had gone, it soon became apparent that the whole project was fast losing it’s “team” ethos, something which had worked so brilliantly for us during the 4 year campaign. Whilst on the face of it people still ‘volunteered’ for particular tasks, such as checking the lorries doing the tipping all day every day, behind the scenes it rapidly became the DH show with a “my way or no way” attitude, something he quite vociferously enforced. That soon resulted in people such as Ken, who’d spent so many years fighting for this dream to be realised to walk away. He and I ceased our involvement with Leicester Speedway Ltd in February 2011 just prior to the opening meeting, though I carried on as LSSC Chairman for another couple of months to facilitate one or two things we’d had in the pipeline. I haven’t been to BP since 2011. We still follow what goes on up there because like you say in a later post, there’s an emotional attachment, and wish the new people all the best, finally relieved that the person who without question did so much to get it back, but sadly even more to ruin it, is no longer running it. There is a lot of goodwill to repair with the many supporters and sponsors now lost. Effectively they need to start again.

Anyway, just thought I’d add this to provide a historical timeline following some earlier posts where the information was a shade cloudy.

Steve Chilton

 

Thank you very much for frank and honest account of things as they were

 

I can understand why it's taken so long for someone to come on here with factual information

 

Perhaps it may stop people coming on here spouting drivel

 

Once again thank you Steve

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I can back you up on this Jonathan. I was on the LSSC committee during your involvement. And I remember the likes of Ken Naylor, Robert Ball, Andy Joyce and myself working extremely hard to get a decent Lions following at the NA that night. It was a cracking meeting, despite the 38-40 loss! ;-) We were thrilled you managed to get the likes of Chris Holder, Lewis Bridger, Kevin Doolan and David Howe to represent the Lions and I remember well the tv news cameras being there.

 

Our LSSC committee held the displays at Radio Leicester, made various media approaches and organised various supporters events such as the Q&As you did at The Blackbird Pub and an xmas party in town. As you know, all of these events supported by yourself, including the aforementioned council meetings, enabled us to eventually put in for the eventual planning application in early 2009. DH never did fully explain to the LSSC committee why your involvement came to an end, other than some vague issue regarding funding part of the application. Whatever it was, thats between you and him.

 

Planning approval was achieved at a Council meeting in August 2009 and Sam got involved soon after, being presented to the fans at a Supporters Club event in November 2009. Personally I was happy with that because following your departure wed lacked anyone with any credibility from within the speedway industry itself. Sam had a definitive vision and used to use my city centre office space for various meetings and was working hard behind the scenes to get local business involvement and funding. As the campaigns chief designer I did numerous presentation documents and materials for his meetings with local business leaders, large companies and various enterprise groups. It should also be pointed out, we had NO money at this point. The money for the planning application had wiped out what budget we had left, and that includes DH. At one point he even wanted to introduce an ill-advised share scheme, that bombed. I remember the LSSC writing him a cheque at this time for over 2k just to cover a legal bill he had. And dont forget we also raised £5.5k to enable a concrete terrace on the back straight.

 

To support the new initiatives and to make the planning approval a reality a Leicester Speedway Organising Committee was set up. The first meeting took place in the summer of 2010 in the dilapidated changing rooms at Beaumont Park. Present were DH, Sam, Alan Jones (who had been brought in by DH to look after the PR), Ken, Andy Joyce and myself. Maybe Linda Jones too, though I cant recall for certain. However, Sam only attended that first meeting as his fall out with DH came soon after when DH got impatient and moved the goalposts after striking a deal to tip construction waste on site. This wasnt what Sam had spent all his time working towards and he felt it had been deliberately done behind his back. That tipping deal is what actually funded the stadium being built - and is the reason why it was done on the cheap and ended up nothing like the plans we had originally presented to the Council and the public at various open meetings. The promised sports village ended up being a red herring and I honestly believe planning would never have been granted had the present set up been put before the City Council. They were expecting much more, a multi-purpose sports village that featured a cycling velodrome, 12x 5-a-side football pitches, BMX and a purpose-built pavilion/grandstand in fact.

 

Once Sam had gone, it soon became apparent that the whole project was fast losing its team ethos, something which had worked so brilliantly for us during the 4 year campaign. Whilst on the face of it people still volunteered for particular tasks, such as checking the lorries doing the tipping all day every day, behind the scenes it rapidly became the DH show with a my way or no way attitude, something he quite vociferously enforced. That soon resulted in people such as Ken, whod spent so many years fighting for this dream to be realised to walk away. He and I ceased our involvement with Leicester Speedway Ltd in February 2011 just prior to the opening meeting, though I carried on as LSSC Chairman for another couple of months to facilitate one or two things wed had in the pipeline. I havent been to BP since 2011. We still follow what goes on up there because like you say in a later post, theres an emotional attachment, and wish the new people all the best, finally relieved that the person who without question did so much to get it back, but sadly even more to ruin it, is no longer running it. There is a lot of goodwill to repair with the many supporters and sponsors now lost. Effectively they need to start again.

 

Anyway, just thought Id add this to provide a historical timeline following some earlier posts where the information was a shade cloudy.

 

Steve Chilton

Great post Steve,

 

Just wondered Who owns the stadium now Mr or Mrs Hensley?

 

The tipping of waste was an eyesore but as you said it was an income needed by DH ,still surprised the council allowed it.

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I can back you up on this Jonathan. I was on the LSSC committee during your involvement. And I remember the likes of Ken Naylor, Robert Ball, Andy Joyce and myself working extremely hard to get a decent Lions following at the NA that night. It was a cracking meeting, despite the 38-40 loss! ;-) We were thrilled you managed to get the likes of Chris Holder, Lewis Bridger, Kevin Doolan and David Howe to represent the Lions and I remember well the tv news cameras being there.

 

Our LSSC committee held the displays at Radio Leicester, made various media approaches and organised various supporters events such as the Q&As you did at The Blackbird Pub and an xmas party in town. As you know, all of these events supported by yourself, including the aforementioned council meetings, enabled us to eventually put in for the eventual planning application in early 2009. DH never did fully explain to the LSSC committee why your involvement came to an end, other than some vague issue regarding funding part of the application. Whatever it was, that’s between you and him.

 

Planning approval was achieved at a Council meeting in August 2009 and Sam got involved soon after, being presented to the fans at a Supporters Club event in November 2009. Personally I was happy with that because following your departure we’d lacked anyone with any credibility from within the speedway industry itself. Sam had a definitive vision and used to use my city centre office space for various meetings and was working hard behind the scenes to get local business involvement and funding. As the campaign’s chief designer I did numerous presentation documents and materials for his meetings with local business leaders, large companies and various enterprise groups. It should also be pointed out, we had NO money at this point. The money for the planning application had wiped out what budget we had left, and that includes DH. At one point he even wanted to introduce an ill-advised share scheme, that bombed. I remember the LSSC writing him a cheque at this time for over 2k just to cover a legal bill he had. And don’t forget we also raised £5.5k to enable a concrete terrace on the back straight.

 

To support the new initiatives and to make the planning approval a reality a ‘Leicester Speedway Organising Committee’ was set up. The first meeting took place in the summer of 2010 in the dilapidated changing rooms at Beaumont Park. Present were DH, Sam, Alan Jones (who had been brought in by DH to look after the PR), Ken, Andy Joyce and myself. Maybe Linda Jones too, though I can’t recall for certain. However, Sam only attended that first meeting as his fall out with DH came soon after when DH got impatient and moved the goalposts after striking a deal to tip construction waste on site. This wasn’t what Sam had spent all his time working towards and he felt it had been deliberately done behind his back. That tipping deal is what actually funded the ‘stadium’ being built - and is the reason why it was done on the cheap and ended up nothing like the plans we had originally presented to the Council and the public at various open meetings. The promised ‘sports village’ ended up being a red herring and I honestly believe planning would never have been granted had the present set up been put before the City Council. They were expecting much more, a multi-purpose sports village that featured a cycling velodrome, 12x 5-a-side football pitches, BMX and a purpose-built pavilion/grandstand in fact.

 

Once Sam had gone, it soon became apparent that the whole project was fast losing it’s “team” ethos, something which had worked so brilliantly for us during the 4 year campaign. Whilst on the face of it people still ‘volunteered’ for particular tasks, such as checking the lorries doing the tipping all day every day, behind the scenes it rapidly became the DH show with a “my way or no way” attitude, something he quite vociferously enforced. That soon resulted in people such as Ken, who’d spent so many years fighting for this dream to be realised to walk away. He and I ceased our involvement with Leicester Speedway Ltd in February 2011 just prior to the opening meeting, though I carried on as LSSC Chairman for another couple of months to facilitate one or two things we’d had in the pipeline. I haven’t been to BP since 2011. We still follow what goes on up there because like you say in a later post, there’s an emotional attachment, and wish the new people all the best, finally relieved that the person who without question did so much to get it back, but sadly even more to ruin it, is no longer running it. There is a lot of goodwill to repair with the many supporters and sponsors now lost. Effectively they need to start again.

 

Anyway, just thought I’d add this to provide a historical timeline following some earlier posts where the information was a shade cloudy.

 

Steve Chilton

 

I went to one of the functions with JC, met with DH during the day to look over all the plans etc and then the get together in the evening (have the pictures somewhere), and from what I saw of the enthusiasm that was around it's a shame to see that so many who helped Leicester Speedway get back off the ground are no longer involved.

All the clubs need people with enthusiasm, it keeps things going.

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Maybe a lot of the anti-DH brigade will come back now..... I don't see any reason why they wouldn't, it's about as DH-LESS as it possibly can be now......

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Maybe a lot of the anti-DH brigade will come back now..... I don't see any reason why they wouldn't, it's about as DH-LESS as it possibly can be now......

So who owns the stadium now Mr or Mrs Hemsley?

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