Oxford

[Guest compost]

5 minutes ago, Matt Davis said:

Yes there are, we tried the lights on the first and second bend a few weeks back and 8 of them even still work!

Thanks (tried clicking on the thanks icon but it won't work for me).

[noggin 1,388]

Pictures look very promising, used to love my trips to Oxford, good speedway.

[Matt Davis 156]

21 hours ago, compost said:

Thanks (tried clicking on the thanks icon but it won't work for me).

Found a photo from a few weeks back 

[Hawk127 1,359]

All looks very promising and seems to be progressing well.

Given what is, or more to the point is not, going on elsewhere what are the chances of the Swindon licence transferring to Oxford?

[Ray Stadia 1,071]

3 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

All looks very promising and seems to be progressing well.

Given what is, or more to the point is not, going on elsewhere what are the chances of the Swindon licence transferring to Oxford?

Sad thing is, that would be 'one out, one in'. 

[Triple.H. 1,986]

7 hours ago, Hawk127 said:

All looks very promising and seems to be progressing well.

Given what is, or more to the point is not, going on elsewhere what are the chances of the Swindon licence transferring to Oxford?

I'm all honesty can anyone see Swindon reopening ?

As far as I know they still haven't started the Stadium rebuild and with the houses encroaching ever nearer. It's going to be a very sad day for the Towns Sporting legacy. Maybe they can find some land reasonably local on a brownfield site. 

Oxford have made more progress with a team of volunteers in a couple of months than Swindon have since they reshaped the track.

[Hawk127 1,359]

7 minutes ago, Triple.H. said:

I'm all honesty can anyone see Swindon reopening ?

As far as I know they still haven't started the Stadium rebuild and with the houses encroaching ever nearer. It's going to be a very sad day for the Towns Sporting legacy. Maybe they can find some land reasonably local on a brownfield site. 

Oxford have made more progress with a team of volunteers in a couple of months than Swindon have since they reshaped the track.

Agree it will be extremely sad if another historic team is lot to the sport but the sport and those in charge have done little to ensure clubs survive and collectively work with clubs facing adversity. It is a case of look after number one and given that it is a minority sport speedway needs every club to work for the good of all but that simply does not happen. You only have to look at the imposition of race nights for the benefit of everyone outside the sport and internally the riders, yet the fans can go screw themselves and be taken for granted. Run your business as a few may dictate (BSPL committee) but you as the club owner accept the consequences if it does not pan out. No wonder the sport is dead in the water. Back to watching the cricket 100 on BBC 2 to appreciate what can be achieved with forward thinkers.

[Humphrey Appleby 13,954]

48 minutes ago, Hawk127 said:

Agree it will be extremely sad if another historic team is lot to the sport but the sport and those in charge have done little to ensure clubs survive and collectively work with clubs facing adversity. 

Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall for Swindon the day Gaming International got involved. You only have to look at its erm... track record to see it was naive in the extreme to have believed any of the promises.

Not sure what could have been done in the practical terms though as the sport is unlikely to have the money to buy up stadiums to keep them out of the clutches of asset stripping developers. Probably just a concerted PR campaign to raise awareness of Gaming International's proven behaviour... 

[Humphrey Appleby 13,954]

52 minutes ago, Hawk127 said:

Back to watching the cricket 100 on BBC 2 to appreciate what can be achieved with forward thinkers.

Cricket is very different to speedway though, in having marketing and financial contacts in high places, and talented people wanting to be associated with the sport. It does also have a much wider grassroots base, being more widely played and at very least, more people actually having heard of the sport. 

[Humphrey Appleby 13,954]

1 hour ago, Triple.H. said:

Oxford have made more progress with a team of volunteers in a couple of months than Swindon have since they reshaped the track.

I think Oxford has been a bit different in that it's always had quite a supportive local council who were wise to the games of the stadium owner, and effectively safeguarded the facility against housing development. It's been a battle of wits over the past more than decade as the owner has allowed the stadium to fall into disrepair in the hope of having it condemned, but for some reason the traditional arsonist never managed to visit to help get the job done, and the council has consistently failed to to cave in.

By contrast, Swindon Borough Council has a different political make-up that you'd think wouldn't have much time for working class sports but more time for housing developers...

[Grachan 7,362]

1 hour ago, Triple.H. said:

Maybe they can find some land reasonably local on a brownfield site. 

 

I felt they should have done that years ago. The one thing Swindon has in its favour, I feel, is a proactive promotion who will probably do that if they cannot re-open, but it would have been better to have it all ready to go now. Maybe there is the possibility of making a speedway track by Foxhill Motocross track?

Is it financially viable to build  speedway stadium these days though? I do wonder how many people will go to Oxford, too, if they re-open.

[Humphrey Appleby 13,954]

1 minute ago, Grachan said:

I felt they should have done that years ago.

I believe there's now a disused car factory just down the road...? 

[Matt Davis 156]

8 minutes ago, Grachan said:

 I do wonder how many people will go to Oxford, too, if they re-open.

Would depend on many factors such as race night/league etc but given that there’s no Swindon, Reading, Coventry I would say Oxford would be sitting pretty sweet in attracting a crowd from further a field

[Grachan 7,362]

1 minute ago, Matt Davis said:

Would depend on many factors such as race night/league etc but given that there’s no Swindon, Reading, Coventry I would say Oxford would be sitting pretty sweet in attracting a crowd from further a field

They might attract a few remaining hardcore supporters, but I can't see many people coming from far afield the way speedway is at the moment. They might get a few if they go into the top league, but to say they would be sitting pretty is a bit optimistic.

Having said that, I'd probably go a few times, but then I live as near to Oxford as I do Swindon and only went to Swindon a few times a year in recent seasons so it wouldn't be a regular thing.

 

[orion 7,615]

33 minutes ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

Unfortunately, the writing was on the wall for Swindon the day Gaming International got involved. You only have to look at its erm... track record to see it was naive in the extreme to have believed any of the promises.

Not sure what could have been done in the practical terms though as the sport is unlikely to have the money to buy up stadiums to keep them out of the clutches of asset stripping developers. Probably just a concerted PR campaign to raise awareness of Gaming International's proven behaviour... 

They were warned by a lot of fans about Gaming internationals proven behaviour but failed to listen  the local  Mp pretends  to be the  fans freind but really does not  give a rat ass    ... it wont be long before he tells them that he is looking for a new site etc  what of course he wont be  .

The local press have been the  worst .. they really should have been  reporting on the timeline of lies and taking Gaming to task but have  done nothing . As it stands most of the  houses have been built and gaming can just  wait Swindon out making them close