Belle Vues National Speedway Stadium

[arthur cross 492]

The article should not have been published and Please ignore and refraim from posting anything about it until an official announcement has been made via the council or belle Vue speedway

Unless you can come up with a detailed explanation of why "the article should not have been published", it's daft to ask anyone to ignore it or avoid commenting upon it !!

 

Similarly, as the Belle Vue Aces haven't made any official announcement for ages about how the project's going, it's ridiculous to ask anyone to await them finally getting round to doing that !! ... even if it's been much slower progress than expected/hoped, it's surely not that difficult for someone at the Aces to write an update explaining any delays in as positive a way as possible.

 

Much of the scepticism and frustration over the time it's taking to get this building project underway has built up due to the wretchedly poor lack of official information about it ... by the looks of it, even the Manch-Evg-News have reached the stage where they're prepared to run what may well be as vague an article as last night's one, simply because there's no official news emerging about a project that they clearly think is of interest to their readers.

 

In any subject, not just the building of a new speedway stadium, doubts and criticism boil up far more easily if there's no official news to cool them down.

[Phil The Ace 2,860]

Unless you can come up with a detailed explanation of why "the article should not have been published", it's daft to ask anyone to ignore it or avoid commenting upon it !!

 

Similarly, as the Belle Vue Aces haven't made any official announcement for ages about how the project's going, it's ridiculous to ask anyone to await them finally getting round to doing that !! ... even if it's been much slower progress than expected/hoped, it's surely not that difficult for someone at the Aces to write an update explaining any delays in as positive a way as possible.

 

Much of the scepticism and frustration over the time it's taking to get this building project underway has built up due to the wretchedly poor lack of official information about it ... by the looks of it, even the Manch-Evg-News have reached the stage where they're prepared to run what may well be as vague an article as last night's one, simply because there's no official news emerging about a project that they clearly think is of interest to their readers.

 

In any subject, not just the building of a new speedway stadium, doubts and criticism boil up far more easily if there's no official news to cool them down.

Full details and official press releases will be out tomorrow

[Steve Shovlar 10,439]

So the new by stadium is going to cost over 5 million quid? For a field with a shale track and a stand on one side and grass banking around the other parts?

 

April Fools day has already gone.

 

Someone is seriously taking the P with these figures. Eddie Mitchell isn't the builder, is he?

[fredbogge 40]

Full details and official press releases will be out tomorrow

Where in Speedway Star ???

[SCB 0]

Lol!

 

You should record 'Homes Under the Hammer' or 'Location Location Location', then you might realise why it is a bit more expensive to build 'another Peterborough' within a mile or two of a major city centre compared to building one in a farmers field or on the edge of a provincial town like the Richo.

 

As far as the Richo is concerned, what are Coventry Speedway waiting for?

That fine then, it costs more to build a stadium in Manchester so the people of Manchester will pay more to watch their speedway then. After all, Manchester is a major city.

[PHILIPRISING 7,298]

So the new by stadium is going to cost over 5 million quid? For a field with a shale track and a stand on one side and grass banking around the other parts?

 

April Fools day has already gone.

 

Someone is seriously taking the P with these figures. Eddie Mitchell isn't the builder, is he?

IT'S more than just a speedway stadium and more than just a stand. The facility, including bars, restaurant, conference facilities, etc, will be open throughout the week and not just on speedway nights. All of which will add significantly to the revenue stream.

 

£5 million seems very reasonable when you look at what is involved apart from the actual stand ... pits, car parking, drainage around the track, etc.

Five million doesn't go far these days.

Where in Speedway Star ???

TOO late for SS this week

Edited April 9, 2014 by PHILIPRISING

[MattK 3,447]

Previously, it's been reported that the Aces would need to payback a £4.5-million stadium-building loan over 60 years ... hence, the calculation of £75,000 "rent" per year even though it would actually be a loan repayment to the city council rather than the usual concept of paying rent to a landlord.

 

Yesterday's Manchester Evening News report explains that the Aces will also now have to repay most of the extra £1.3-million the council needs to borrow to build this stadium ... but, crucially, says this extra repayment will cover just 24 years instead of the previously reported 60 years ... hence, a calculation of £50,000 "extra rent" for the first 24 years would produce £1.2-million which would fit the description of the Aces paying back most of these extra costs of £1.3-million.

 

[ EDIT: If it's just an extra £750,000 that the Aces have to find over 24 years, as John Leslie reports, then that's roughly £30,000 extra per season. ]

 

So by my reckoning, that means the Aces will be paying back about £105,000 a season until roughly 2040 (£75,000 plus £30,000) and then the previously reported £75,000 a season until the mid-2070's ... that's a hefty burden in itself but here's a further question about the costs of the whole project.

 

 

You're forgetting one minor detail. Interest. I don't think Manchester City Council are going to effectively loan a private company a £5m stadium interest free.

 

If you factor in 5% interest per year, then Belle Vue will be paying back £278,720 per year for 24 years followed by £225,000 per year until year 60.

[arthur cross 492]

You're forgetting one minor detail. Interest. I don't think Manchester City Council are going to effectively loan a private company a £5m stadium interest free.

 

If you factor in 5% interest per year, then Belle Vue will be paying back £278,720 per year for 24 years followed by £225,000 per year until year 60.

I'm not really forgetting the potential impact of interest ... I just haven't included in any figurework I've sketched out for a couple of reasons.

 

Firstly, because this loan might be close to interest-free (if not completely so) as the council do finally seem once again to be heavily linking this project to all their other sporting developments just over a mile north of Kirky Lane around Man City's Etihad Stadium ... I've wondered lately whether those other developments had become a much greater priority for the council than the speedway project so it was a pleasant surprise to seem them both included in the same Manch-Evg-News article this week (even if that article's not impressed Phil The Ace !!)

 

Most (if not all) of those other developments are eligible for Sport England funding (in partnership with the city council) because they're either for Olympic sports or mass-participation sports.

 

Speedway's always going to find it tough to drum up much Sport England funding anywhere because it doesn't tick either of those Olympic or mass-participation boxes ... however, given the Aces' great place within Manchester's sporting heritage, there's a strong and special case for this city's council justifying whatever helpful style of funding it's providing near the Etihad also being applied to its funding of the new speedway stadium.

 

Secondly, I try to keep any figurework as basic as possible to avoid it getting too complicated for most readers of this forum ... you've plucked a perfectly realistic 5% rate of interest to illustrate by how much the repayments could jump once any interest's factored in but I doubt the exact terms of any loan between Manchester City Council and the Belle Vue Aces would ever be made public and, therefore, I've just stuck with the amounts of money and timescales that have been reported.

 

Arguably, the most significant difference between this week's newspaper report and any previous ones is this introduction of a 24-year repayment plan for at least the extra costs instead of the previously reported 60-year repayment plan for the whole project.

[pandorum 1,259]

What will happen when the people running the club go bust?

It's hardly something beyond possibility as the sport is pretty much losing money and customers.

Not much to persuade a new owner to come in saddled with debt like that.

If figures being bandied about here are anywhere near the mark then I would be amazed if anyone would want to get involved in that with speedway pretty much dying on it's feet in this country.

£5000+ per week 52 weeks a year without taking into account any other cost is fantasy speedway with a business plan a lunatic would baulk at taking on.

Where will the customers come from to fund this in a sport where weather is an even bigger factor than admission price?

The opening night may well be a decent crowd but most of them won't be there a month later.

This is even crazier than selling bricks for 50 quid.

Edited April 10, 2014 by pandorum

[Aces51 2,778]

Latest update here http://www.bellevueaces.co

 

Still a way to go but another positive step forward.

 

Those concerned about the ongoing costs seem to ignore what the Belle Vue management and others have explained about the income stream the stadium will create from non speedway activities and that the business plan has been approved by respected auditors.

[one of clubs 117]

I really cannot believe what I read on here sometimes. It seems rather than getting behind the project like everybody should do, people seem to take great delight in sewing the seeds of doubt over and over again. Those seeds may blossom one day, let us hope that those seeds of doubt never germinate in the centre green. It is unsurprising that our sport is where it is at the moment.

[westhamboy66 599]

To be honest i couldn't care less how much,what type, who's paying, how will they pay etc. Belle Vue Aces are, like it or not, the biggest name left in British Speedway and to that end I'll be delighted to see them in a decent home at long last. The Kirky lane track has long held them back and i for one have felt sorry for whoever has attempted to run speedway from there. I am happy to watch speedway from a farmers field but if a brand new stadium comes from this then great I'll pop up to see some racing there. This is great news for BV and for once a bit of general support from the forum should be forthcoming. Sadly all that seems to come forth is stupidity generated by some jealous deranged "fans" who should be grateful that speedway can look forward to some good news on the horizon. As a tiny kid i was taken to New Cross where i caught the bug, saw a PL final at Harringay, lived quite near Walthamstow, supported West Ham while spending my formulative years living in Custom House and following the Hammers to places like Wimbledon and Hackney. Notice a trend? All of Londons tracks gone with Coventry probably on the way soon too so i rejoice when hearing something positive for once.

Good luck to those involved with Belle a Vue and their fans

[BWitcher 12,453]

It is 'great news'... but its the same news as 6 months ago.. and 6 months before that.. and a year before that.. and 6 months before that.. and so on.

 

Still no sign of any planning permission, which means nowhere closer to building work commencing.

 

Now there is going to be a 'public consultation'.. what does that involve one wonders?

 

I repeat, I don't think anyone wants to see this fail, it would and hopefully WILL be bloody fantastic for both the Aces and the sport in the UK. The problems have all risen from the unrealistic time scales given in the initial press releases.

[Skidder1 7,642]

A full page colour advert for the National Speedway Stadium 'Buy a Brick' campaign in last nights Poole matchday programme, so continued support for the stadium from the south coast!!

 

Any other clubs showing constructive support?

[pandorum 1,259]

I really cannot believe what I read on here sometimes. It seems rather than getting behind the project like everybody should do, people seem to take great delight in sewing the seeds of doubt over and over again. Those seeds may blossom one day, let us hope that those seeds of doubt never germinate in the centre green. It is unsurprising that our sport is where it is at the moment.

Why because people on a daft forum question stuff. Surely the point of such threads is to discuss things not agree with each other endlessly?

The sport is in a mess because of the clowns that run it not having the slightest bit of forward thinking for the last 40 years not because of anyone here failing to fall in line and sing the praises of something that probably won't happen.

Of course I hope it does and I hope it gets 10s of thousands of people supporting it and makes millions.

But the seeds of doubt were sown by the fools that told us it was going host the WTC what seems like a lifetime ago

Edited April 10, 2014 by pandorum