Little Thumper

Yes, fancy directing us to a Farcebook page and there's nothing to see. Not very constructive, was it?

gustix has a style of posting that some people may find a little irritating in that he can be a bit heavy on the cut and paste technique! But gustix has been around speedway for a very long time and has a great knowledge of the sport and indeed other forms of oval racing. Some people seem unable to exercise a little tolerance and find themselves unable to look for a person's positive points rather than their negative ones. It's all a bit of a game really, gustix will post something and the usual suspects will wade in and have a go at him. Don't worry about it Mike0310, it just adds to the fascination of this wondrous place.

Yeah!

Well, thanks for nothing!

Unfortunately, I am not a customer of Farcebook so perhaps you would be kind enough to elucidate? Many thanks.

I quite like at bit of handbags stuff. Certainly livens up some of the rugby matches when they all wade in. Probably worth trying out in t'interval.

Apparently, young Mr Terry-Daley is Stoked to be returning to Gloomy Road. Haha, a play on words, like it! Perhaps this injection of humour is the first step on the revitalization road for our friends from Staffordshire. Couple of points, Ryan, you'd have done better at the speedway track in the clouds and if I were you, if you are planning on going back to NZ, I'd put your air fare money to one side, if you know what I mean. Stoked! :rofl:

Perhaps petrol was a little cheaper in those days. And what about Elf and Safely? Don't think my 5 litre jerry can would go very far.

Nice one, Neil! I don't know that one. Hum a few bars for us.

In what way do you think the other parties could be more suitable? Mr Pairman appears to have a bob or two in the bank, he is financially capable, Manchester City Council liked the cut of his jib and Mighty Mort was involved. All I can say is that the other interested parties must be pretty damn impressive if the BSPA believes them to be worthy of the support they they were reluctant to give to Pairman and Morton. As PHILIPRISING says, all will be revealed in the very near future.

Land of Hope and Glory and Come All Ye Faithful are two of my faves!

What day does the Speedway Star come out? I think this might be the week that I renew my acquaintance with this journalistic masterpiece.

Originally, the stadium was operated by Arena Coventry Ltd, which comprised the City Council and a charity. This is probably a similar set-up to the Manchester Velodrome which is operated as a trust. Wasps bought the stadium from the trust.

Well, Dean's favourite haunt the Hanley Casino sure looks a pretty grand place. Funny isn't it that a speedway track can be struggling to get a couple of hundred people through the gate yet people seem to be thronging into this place to lose loads of dosh? I've nothing against Hanley, Newcastle or Stoke but it isn't the most affluent place in the Northern Hemisphere, so you would have to assume that our gambling friends are coming from out of the area. Perhaps, Dean's lady friend could put a few speedway posters up in the vestibule to encourage some of the punters to drop by Gloomy Road and put a shout out for the Poachers.

Incompetence

PHILIPRISING has said that, "The BSPA were not supportive and seem to prefer an alternative solution". So clearly, the BSPA have received an alternative proposal which is more to their liking, for some reason. We shall wait to hear why one proposal is favoured over another but for the BSPA's sake, they had better be 100% confident in the validity of this other proposal because if they mess this up then they might just have one or two questions to answer.

Thank you for your candour, PHILIPRISING. With regard to Manchester City Council, they might quite like speedway to continue at the Belle Vue Arena but when push comes to shove, the Council and more specifically the elected councillors will follow a course of action that saves their own skins. If that means other parties have to be hung out to dry, then that is just unfortunate. Clearly, the fate of the Belle Vue Arena will be decided by the BSPA and we must therefore put our trust in their judgement and believe that they will, in all matters, act in the best interests of British Speedway in it's entirety.

Thank you for that PHILIPRISING. Why do you think that the BSPA would not support a solution which comprised a financially viable and financially competent person, supported by a person who has a comprehensive knowledge of speedway and a proposal that was acceptable to the venue owners, Manchester City Council? It is hard for us mere mortals to understand why the BSPA believe that some other proposal might be a better solution. Does the alternative proposal have more money behind it or does it deliver a longer term plan? I am sure that this is not the case but if speedway at Belle Vue were to be lost due to a clash of personalities or anything to do with the furtherance of personal interests, financial or otherwise, then I find it hard to believe that the speedway fan in general and the Belle Vue fan in particular would forgive the BSPA and all those involved with any such failure. I note that PHILIPRISING has not stated that he is LESS optimistic, so we must maintain our faith in his judgement and continue to believe that he is correct when he says that speedway will definitely run at Belle Vue in 2017.

PHILIPRISING suggested that the speedway operator could just rent the venue for speedway events and the City Council would operate the venue for the rest of the time. I was merely trying to ascertain how PR thought that this might work, as clearly it is not within the City Council's remit to to commercially promote events where this is already catered for by the private sector and where there is no discernible benefit for the council tax payers of the area. Does he, for example, think that the model adopted for the Velodrome might be followed in as much as the running of the venue is placed in the hands of a specially established Trust? I feel sure that PHILIPRISING will be able to provide us with a little more information here in order to clarify the situation as we approach the announcement of the new promoters and management.

As HT says, nobody in their right mind is going to pay £15 to watch 15 minutes of National League racing. I believe that £12 is the absolute maximum basic admission charge for racing at this level. And there should be promotions and incentives to get people to pitch up on a regular basis.

PHILIPRISING, in the light of recent developments are you - as confident, less confident or more confident that the future of speedway at the the Belle Vue Arena is assured? You hinted that all will be settled shortly. Are you able to say whether this will be days or weeks? Thanks

Owning a building and running a business centred on that building are completely different things. Manchester City Council build a venue and then lease it to a viable tenant thereby recovering their investment over a period of time, whilst at the same time providing some viable benefit to their inhabitants. They are not in the entertainment or sports leisure business where they would be in direct competition with commercial concerns in the same field. But PHILIPRISING has indicted that this policy may well have changed so we look forward to hearing further news.

I wasn't aware that Manchester City Council was in the business of running stadia. I thought their function was to provide services for their residents. And even if MCC did go into the stadium management business, I'm not entirely sure what kind of events they would be putting on. But PHILIPRISING is closer to the horse's mouth than most of us and he has stated that speedway will definitely be taking place at Belle Vue Arena in 2017, so we will just have to accept what he is saying and await good news in the not too distant future.

But surely the Covchester Cut 'n' Shuts were meant to be the fall-back position if either Belle Vue or Coventry weren't viable operations. The scenario where neither is a viable operation was perhaps not built into the original strategy. Anyway, let's hope that Mark Hennessey might prove to be the club's saviour.

Here you go:- http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/other-sport/new-deal-boosts-belle-vue-882920