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StevePark

Newcastle Diamonds 2021

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19 minutes ago, enotian said:

In 2018 I was involved in the purchase of waste land, probably big enough to build a speedway track on, from North Tyneside Council.  It's in between a rubbish tip a motorway and a railway line and cost £1m. With all councils struggling for cash and planning for housing developments much easier I just can't see any public authority making a significant plot of land available for leisure, especially motorsports.

There's plenty of grant funding out there to stimulate the construction industry but you've got to prove that your investment will benefit the local economy.  They obviously did that in Manchester with the promise of National and World Finals attracting visitors to the city.  Something like that would be great for an authority like North or South Tyneside or even Gateshead, to have world class sport staged in their area but the promise of attracting up to at best 1,000 people once a week for 20 weeks of the year for a noisy motorsport is a tough sell.   

Yep I know where you are coming from and I have noticed that the land at Seaton Burn is rapidly deminishing as it is being developed now as what looks like more industrial units and you need a minimum of 12 acres to set up something decent on land speedway wise...

It's a knacker job for a site around here as the value of land is going only one way and one thing is for sure they ain't making any more of it...

For all the points you have put they are the very reasons that councils won't support it... they make very sympathetic noises and nod their heads but they won't do anything... Rob and the club are between a rock and a very hard place unfortunately....

Regards 

THJ

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Hopefully he will give it one more season.

He has just started up links with 2 football teams, he will have season ticket money next year, and hopefully more sponsors will come on board.

I just hope with the early statement it does not hinder the attendances for last 3 matches as we really need the fans to turn out in force.

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If Newcastle were to look for a new track and stadium and if that meant building from scratch, and it were to be a multi-use stadium for various other sports, would there not be a sporting grant to help pay for the costs. 

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27 minutes ago, screm said:

If Newcastle were to look for a new track and stadium and if that meant building from scratch, and it were to be a multi-use stadium for various other sports, would there not be a sporting grant to help pay for the costs. 

 I suppose there would be but these things don't happen overnight and take a awful lot of organising, drive and commitment by/from people and still require a sizable investmment from the end users. It aint easy...

Regards 

THJ

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One other thing I want to mention that I've noticed about other tracks is that the average age seems to be a lot older at Newcastle (and Birmingham) both tracks who seem to be struggling for crowd numbers, seems to be a lot older than some other tracks, such as Poole, Ipswich etc... Something to look at perhaps? There's an awful lot of young people seems to go to them tracks, which are the types who need to be attracted... What's so attractive about Ipswich and Poole that isn't about Newcastle?

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9 hours ago, TotallyHonestJohn said:

 I suppose there would be but these things don't happen overnight and take a awful lot of organising, drive and commitment by/from people and still require a sizable investmment from the end users. It aint easy...

Regards 

THJ

Hi John out of interest I wondered what the cost of set up was at redcar. That's been built up over the years, and by all means is doing well. 

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30 minutes ago, Trackerman48 said:

Hi John out of interest I wondered what the cost of set up was at redcar. That's been built up over the years, and by all means is doing well. 

Scroll back and Wee Eck has done a post ^^^^^

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2 hours ago, Trackerman48 said:

Hi John out of interest I wondered what the cost of set up was at redcar. That's been built up over the years, and by all means is doing well. 

 

2 hours ago, soupy said:

Scroll back and Wee Eck has done a post ^^^^^

 

22 hours ago, Wee Eck said:

The cost of getting Redcar speedway from a brownfield site to being open for racing in 2006 (in a very basic stadium) was in excess of £250,000 which equates to nearly £400,000 now. On that basis, when you add in the cost of an air fence, if the existing one can’t be used (and something that wasn’t required in 2006) you are looking at £425,000 for a basic set up. 
The other end is a purpose built stadium like Belle Vue. It cost in excess of £9m.

I’m really not sure what you’d get for £150,000, but I doubt it would be anything like the proposed Newcastle set up 

There you go.  Saves scrolling!!

Edited by StevePark

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12 hours ago, TotallyHonestJohn said:

 I suppose there would be but these things don't happen overnight and take a awful lot of organising, drive and commitment by/from people and still require a sizable investmment from the end users. It aint easy...

Regards 

THJ

Thoughts that was proposed at one point, do you think the BSPL would entertain  a fan owned club?

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22 hours ago, Diamonds85 said:

One other thing I want to mention that I've noticed about other tracks is that the average age seems to be a lot older at Newcastle (and Birmingham) both tracks who seem to be struggling for crowd numbers, seems to be a lot older than some other tracks, such as Poole, Ipswich etc... Something to look at perhaps? There's an awful lot of young people seems to go to them tracks, which are the types who need to be attracted... What's so attractive about Ipswich and Poole that isn't about Newcastle?

Maybe big cities have more leisure alternatives to Speedway whereas maybe Ipswich and Poole dont have so many choices, how could a small place like Cradley Heath have so many fans back in the day or even recently ?, possibly the answer is not much else to do except local pub, Bingo back in the day now closed,  or go to Brum for the nightlife, Its also true that many couples met at the Speedway in Cradley Heath, for sure when i was a teenager it was known as being somewhere that you could meet the opposite sex, mind i couldnt manage to get my leg over a push bike these days never mind anything else ;).

 

Talking of brownfield sites, Wheatley Hill in County Durham has an old Greyhound Track currently doing nowt, but probably a bit to far away from Newcastle and Sunderland to be suitable.

Edited by heathen52
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1 hour ago, heathen52 said:

Maybe big cities have more leisure alternatives to Speedway whereas maybe Ipswich and Poole dont have so many choices, how could a small place like Cradley Heath have so many fans back in the day or even recently ?, possibly the answer is not much else to do except local pub, Bingo back in the day now closed,  or go to Brum for the nightlife, Its also true that many couples met at the Speedway in Cradley Heath, for sure when i was a teenager it was known as being somewhere that you could meet the opposite sex, mind i couldnt manage to get my leg over a push bike these days never mind anything else ;).

 

Talking of brownfield sites, Wheatley Hill in County Durham has an old Greyhound Track currently doing nowt, but probably a bit to far away from Newcastle and Sunderland to be suitable.

Not having a Premiership football team soaking up all the local media coverage is a big plus. It was noticeable the extent to which speedway got pushed to the sidelines in Reading when the Royals made the Premiership, and I recall similar complaints from Matt Ford when AFC Bournemouth hit the big time.

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I think you have probably hit the nail on the head there when you get 50,000 at Newcastle and 25,000 at Sunderland plus footballs not cheap either so you can only do one of them plus the local papers aren’t really that bothered about speedway any more and it only gets a mention on the news when Geoff Brown is on.

I do think a competitive team has a massive influence also a winning team will always be better supported football being the greatest indicator  ,I appreciate everything that has gone on this year and you have to cut your cloth accordingly , in my personal opinion I think the change of race time has had a massive effect especially for me as I can’t now make it and I think that will be the same for a lot of families 

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Agree it's a football centric region even at a time when all the clubs are at best also rans and don't look like winning anything.  Other professional clubs (rugby union, basketball, cricket) do survive in the same environment. However they do have a much bigger national/international appeal than speedway and that's before all of the other none sport related leisure opportunities which are easily accessible. On a hot summers day (not that there are many) ideal for speedway there are amazing beaches just a short train journey away.

Not sure why young people in the region would know the sport exists let alone give it a go. There's a massive student population in that area of Newcastle but if it's pitched to a family audience and takes 2 hours plus for 15 mins of action I can't see how that would appeal to students. Maybe if the beer was cheap and it was next to nowt to get in.

They're more likely to attend non league football which is 7th or 8th tier stuff rather than watch the 20th best speedway team in the country.

At Newcastle it's either got to be a premium winning team product to have a chance of attracting attention and crowds (the last one 20 years ago didn't, although the football team was almost successful at that time) or be something cheap and cheerful that can operate within its means. Which isn't at a costly facility like Brough Park or with a team at current Championship level.   

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33 minutes ago, enotian said:

Agree it's a football centric region even at a time when all the clubs are at best also rans and don't look like winning anything.  Other professional clubs (rugby union, basketball, cricket) do survive in the same environment. However they do have a much bigger national/international appeal than speedway and that's before all of the other none sport related leisure opportunities which are easily accessible. On a hot summers day (not that there are many) ideal for speedway there are amazing beaches just a short train journey away.

Not sure why young people in the region would know the sport exists let alone give it a go. There's a massive student population in that area of Newcastle but if it's pitched to a family audience and takes 2 hours plus for 15 mins of action I can't see how that would appeal to students. Maybe if the beer was cheap and it was next to nowt to get in.

They're more likely to attend non league football which is 7th or 8th tier stuff rather than watch the 20th best speedway team in the country.

At Newcastle it's either got to be a premium winning team product to have a chance of attracting attention and crowds (the last one 20 years ago didn't, although the football team was almost successful at that time) or be something cheap and cheerful that can operate within its means. Which isn't at a costly facility like Brough Park or with a team at current Championship level.   

Im sure when visiting around 2000/2001/2002 with Newport the crowds were more than decent?

 

that would of been when Bjarne and Bjerre were there , rememeber a meeting gettint fogged off after 10(?) heats with Wato and Smart unbeaten then we got well beaten in the rematch no doubt THJ or Tsunami will have more details. The management knew with Smart and Watson out in heats 13 and 15 they had no chance. 

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3 hours ago, Pinny said:

Im sure when visiting around 2000/2001/2002 with Newport the crowds were more than decent?

 

that would of been when Bjarne and Bjerre were there , rememeber a meeting gettint fogged off after 10(?) heats with Wato and Smart unbeaten then we got well beaten in the rematch no doubt THJ or Tsunami will have more details. The management knew with Smart and Watson out in heats 13 and 15 they had no chance. 

May 2002, scores were level at 30-30.  I remember Andre Compton saying afterwards that he "couldn't see a thing when in front and was basically guessing where he had turn turn for the corners". It was the first abandonment by fog since the end of season four team challenge in 1975.

In the re-arranged match the Diamonds won 48-41and also won at Newport 47-43.

 

Edited by StevePark
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