a4poster 82 Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) I don’t think anyone is surprised. Should Torquay United be worried - https://www.devonlive.com/sport/football/football-news/torquay-united-scrap-plans-new-3412818 - sounds similar to the infamous Reading Racino! Club appear from the outside to be being wound down! Lost their Football League status in 2014 and now sit at the bottom of the National League and attendances around the 1700 mark. Of course nothing as grandiose as those plans will be required if the direction they are going in continues. Edited September 28, 2022 by a4poster Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,094 Posted September 28, 2022 3 hours ago, arnieg said: You should, Oxford's return has been (largely) a roaring sucess and my transition to Cheetahs fan is going smoothly. Although I'm sure for both of us we'll always be Racer/Robin at heart. You should know, once we have our team, that's it. Whether they still exist or not is irrelevant... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thecoombdog 2,367 Posted September 28, 2022 26 minutes ago, Toady said: Swindon Motorsports ltd Edwards,Osbourne,Park,Russell I just looked at their website. Wow f*cking wee. What a p*ss take that is. Lists the clubs Osborne was involved in and they all are defunct!!! Some absolute comedy there on a bad day. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,094 Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) You know, people keep blaming the speedway authorities for all our problems, but really, they don't have much say in the existence of our sport. The fact that most clubs don't own their stadiums (and we have lost our status as a "city-centre" sport), the ever-increasing demand for housing and business parks, the great British NIMBY, and speedway not being "cool' anymore, they are what is really destroying the sport in the UK. If somebody wants to buy the land, and flatten the stadium, what do we do? Edited September 28, 2022 by chunky Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hawk127 1,359 Posted September 28, 2022 28 minutes ago, Toady said: Swindon Motorsports ltd Edwards,Osbourne,Park,Russell Probably a smoke screen. £4 share capital and two of the four have 33 other directorships between them. Interesting that it was set up today and probably cost no more than £100 to establish the company. So sell out to Gaming International, make a few bob on the side and pretend to be interested in building a new arena elsewhere when in reality they could/should have looked at this year’s back. Another historic venue and club sold down the line by a few spivs. Would you trust any of those four to do the right thing? It will be interesting to read what the local MP’s take is on this news. You can hear it now how he did everything he could etc. Some dodgy dealings gone on here and no one will ever find out who got what. How many more clubs will the sport lose? Where was the top table of this prominent sport of speedway while all this was going on? They are another bunch who you cannot trust, they cannot even get fixtures completed in summer months let alone oversee the sport in the U.K. for the benefit of all, Too much self interest. Today this is a loss for the whole of speedway. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikebv 10,282 Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) 14 minutes ago, chunky said: You know, people keep blaming the speedway authorities for all our problems, but really, they don't have much say in the existence of our sport. The fact that most clubs don't own their stadiums (and we have lost our status as a "city-centre" sport), the ever-increasing demand for housing and business parks, the great British NIMBY, and speedway not being "cool' anymore, they are what is really destroying the sport in the UK. If somebody wants to buy the land, and flatten the stadium, what do we do? Get that to a degree, but... Many of the teams now defunct are in medium sized towns and cities and were able once to deliver a sizeable proportion of the local populace to attend each week.. Meaning they had influence... Those who run the sport over the past 3 decades have destroyed their very own fan base in lots of areas... 5000+ a week at these tracks and many would have stayed open.. I would suggest that there are considerably more fans of the sport, (like me), who cannot take it seriously, and therefore dont attend regularly, than those who do.. It wouldn't surprise me if there are more on here who dont regularly attend than those who do.. But are still ultra passionate fans of the sport, willing to spend plenty to watch it (when done properly), here and overseas, but dont see UK Speedway worthy of their regular patronage.. That is not the fault of any housing developer... Edited September 28, 2022 by mikebv 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
orion 7,615 Posted September 28, 2022 19 minutes ago, thecoombdog said: I just looked at their website. Wow f*cking wee. What a p*ss take that is. Lists the clubs Osborne was involved in and they all are defunct!!! Some absolute comedy there on a bad day. I think that confirms that Tr paid off for stepping aside..Why would Osbornne be involved in finding another site ? Makes no sense..The whole deal is bent Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chunky 6,094 Posted September 28, 2022 2 minutes ago, mikebv said: Get that to a degree, but... Many of the teams now defunct are in medium sized towns and cities and were able once to deliver a sizeable proportion of the local populace to attend each week.. Meaning they had influence... Those who run the sport over the past 3 decades have destroyed their very own fan base in lots of areas... 5000+ a week at these tracks and many would have stayed open.. I would suggest that there are considerably more fans of the sport, (like me), who cannot take it seriously, and therefore dont attend regularly, than those who do.. It wouldn't surprise me if there are more on here who dont regularly attend than those who do.. But are still ultra passionate fans of the sport, willing to spend plenty to watch it (when done properly), here and overseas, but dont see UK Speedway worthy of their regular patronage.. That is not the fault of any housing developer... Which is why I added "business parks"... Let's look though: what is on the site of Plough Lane? Housing... what is on the site of the County Ground? Housing... what is on the site of Custom House? Housing... what is on the site of Kingsmead? Housing... what is on the site of Groveway stadium? Housing... what is on the site of Harringay stadium? Housing and Sainsbury's... what will be on the site of Abbey Stadium? Housing... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
racers and royals 8,730 Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) 4 minutes ago, chunky said: Which is why I added "business parks"... Let's look though: what is on the site of Plough Lane? Housing... what is on the site of the County Ground? Housing... what is on the site of Custom House? Housing... what is on the site of Kingsmead? Housing... what is on the site of Groveway stadium? Housing... what is on the site of Harringay stadium? Housing and Sainsbury's... what will be on the site of Abbey Stadium? Housing... Plough Lane- mainly a football ground Reading - F all !!!! Edited September 28, 2022 by racers and royals Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thecoombdog 2,367 Posted September 28, 2022 20 minutes ago, orion said: I think that confirms that Tr paid off for stepping aside..Why would Osbornne be involved in finding another site ? Makes no sense..The whole deal is bent It's the final insult after years of lies. If people get their hopes up for a new site now then there is no hope for them! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cowboy cookie returns? 747 Posted September 28, 2022 26 minutes ago, orion said: I think that confirms that Tr paid off for stepping aside..Why would Osbornne be involved in finding another site ? Makes no sense..The whole deal is bent Must have been some left over brown envelopes from the sky era 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JessicaJones 15 Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) Speedway teams relying on greyhound racing have no future. Far better for speedway to decouple from greyhound racing especially as Dogs Trust, the RSPCA and the Blue Cross did a joint press release yesterday calling for a nationwide ban on greyhound racing within five years. (This has been some time coming.) I found the snippet from the minutes of the BSPA meeting in the Twitter feed of a greyhound trainer in Ireland. I was surprised the news hadn’t made its way into the public domain already. I hope the speedway team manages to find another venue although I saw above that the company mentioned in the press release had only been set up today and it has Clark Osborne as a director. If that‘s true, then I don’t hold out much hope for it as anything that Osborne is involved with turns to houses. He is a director of tens of companies and most of them seem to be dormant. Perhaps the fans need to take control and approach the council for help? It was the council who stipulated that the site couldn’t be redeveloped until the stadium was refurbished and they have not held GI to this condition. The Dogs Trust press release is here: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/how-we-help/the-future/cut-the-chase Pleaae do not (metaphorically) throw rotten veg at me. Our group always supported the speedway team but not the greyhound racing. Edited September 28, 2022 by JessicaJones 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cowboy cookie returns? 747 Posted September 28, 2022 33 minutes ago, mikebv said: Get that to a degree, but... Many of the teams now defunct are in medium sized towns and cities and were able once to deliver a sizeable proportion of the local populace to attend each week.. Meaning they had influence... Those who run the sport over the past 3 decades have destroyed their very own fan base in lots of areas... 5000+ a week at these tracks and many would have stayed open.. I would suggest that there are considerably more fans of the sport, (like me), who cannot take it seriously, and therefore dont attend regularly, than those who do.. It wouldn't surprise me if there are more on here who dont regularly attend than those who do.. But are still ultra passionate fans of the sport, willing to spend plenty to watch it (when done properly), here and overseas, but dont see UK Speedway worthy of their regular patronage.. That is not the fault of any housing developer... Spot on. If the sport had a bigger fan base & a higher profile then some of these tracks wouldn't have closed & there would have been more of a fight to keeps the ones that have opened or relocated elsewhere. When you're a developer who wants to build on a site used by a few hundred people for half a year that are involved in an event that has no profile it's very easy to get what you want. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grachan 7,362 Posted September 28, 2022 9 minutes ago, JessicaJones said: Speedway teams relying on greyhound racing have no future. Far better for speedway to decouple from greyhound racing especially as Dogs Trust, the RSPCA and the Blue Cross did a joint press release yesterday calling for a nationwide ban on greyhound racing within five years. (This has been some time coming.) I found the snippet from the minutes of the BSPA meeting in the Twitter feed of a greyhound trainer in Ireland. I was surprised the news hadn’t made its way into the public domain already. I hope the speedway team manages to find another venue although I saw above that the company mentioned in the press release had only been set up today and it has Clark Osborne has a director. If that‘s true, then I don’t hold out much hope for it as anything that Osborne is involved with turns to houses. He is a director of tens of companies and most of them seem to be dormant. Perhaps the fans need to take control and approach the council for help? It was the council who stipulated that the site couldn’t be redeveloped until the stadium was refurbished and they have not held GI to this condition. The Dogs Trust press release is here: https://www.dogstrust.org.uk/how-we-help/the-future/cut-the-chase Pleaae do not (metaphorically) throw rotten veg at me. Our group always supported the speedway team but not the greyhound racing. To be honest, I expect that if you hadn't posted it then it still wouldn't have made its way into the public domain. Because you put that here, they had no choice but to announce it. I'm assuming that the snippet that you posted was from 30 August judging by the numbers at the top. That's a week before they started moving the crates out of the car park and saying that reports of the end of Greyhound Racing at the Abbey were not true. Once you made that post and people became aware of it, they had to make the announcement. It's quite shocking that we had to hear it from you rather than anyone involved with speedway - either the club or the BSPA. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JessicaJones 15 Posted September 28, 2022 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Grachan said: To be honest, I expect that if you hadn't posted it then it still wouldn't have made its way into the public domain. Because you put that here, they had no choice but to announce it. I'm assuming that the snippet that you posted was from 30 August judging by the numbers at the top. That's a week before they started moving the crates out of the car park and saying that reports of the end of Greyhound Racing at the Abbey were not true. Once you made that post and people became aware of it, they had to make the announcement. It's quite shocking that we had to hear it from you rather than anyone involved with speedway - either the club or the BSPA. Yes, the speedway management should have been open about it from before they went to that BSPA meeting. I found that snippet purely by chance. I phoned my contact at the Adver today and he chased it up which may have forced the press release. It is now in the Swindon Advertiser. Since I researched the history of Gaming International, I thought it highly unlikely that the stadium would ever get redeveloped. And that, coupled with the growing unpopularity of greyhound racing, made me even more convinced. But every time I came on here to say, I was very unpopular….I debated whether to post that snippet at all because every post I have made got shot down in flames! https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/22808306.abbey-stadium-closes-doors-swindon-speedway/#comments-anchor Edited September 28, 2022 by JessicaJones 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
