New Club for 2024?

[Broadsider 67]

Some really underwhelming suggestions on here. I mean Weston Super Mare?, Brafield? Good lord, the BSPL are really hell bent on shoving British Speedway into the backwaters! How about making a serious statement about the sports future in this country by making a collectively ambitious move to reinstantiate racing at Odsal, Bradford? After 26 years in the Speedway wilderness, the interest generated at the return of such an iconic venue would be tremendous. A track is already in place and it’s surely not beyond the wit of man to relocate pits and perhaps utilise otherwise now defunct starting gate/ air fence facilities from sadly demised Wolves/ Panthers? Think about what an attraction it would be to have the Dukes/ Tigers/ Aces northern rivalry back in full swing! Get Discovery Sports in there with their sponsorship to take a look and visualise what could be done in a proper larger stadium to truly reenergise the British Speedway product! Come on BSPL grasp the nettle, make a genuinely progressive statement and start actually promoting the sport for once!

[RogerM22 95]

21 minutes ago, Broadsider said:

the backwaters!

Bradford 

 

[HGould 2,213]

23 minutes ago, Broadsider said:

Some really underwhelming suggestions on here. I mean Weston Super Mare?, Brafield? Good lord, the BSPL are really hell bent on shoving British Speedway into the backwaters! How about making a serious statement about the sports future in this country by making a collectively ambitious move to reinstantiate racing at Odsal, Bradford? After 26 years in the Speedway wilderness, the interest generated at the return of such an iconic venue would be tremendous. A track is already in place and it’s surely not beyond the wit of man to relocate pits and perhaps utilise otherwise now defunct starting gate/ air fence facilities from sadly demised Wolves/ Panthers? Think about what an attraction it would be to have the Dukes/ Tigers/ Aces northern rivalry back in full swing! Get Discovery Sports in there with their sponsorship to take a look and visualise what could be done in a proper larger stadium to truly reenergise the British Speedway product! Come on BSPL grasp the nettle, make a genuinely progressive statement and start actually promoting the sport for once!

You might have got that reaction 25 years ago but not now. 

With a dwindling supporter fan base and tracks in Redcar, Scunthorpe, Sheffield and Manchester is there enough slack in a cost of living crisis to entice the 2000 per meeting it would take to cover investment and make it pay from the fan base that supports those existing tracks. 

 

[Broadsider 67]

40 minutes ago, HGould said:

You might have got that reaction 25 years ago but not now. 

With a dwindling supporter fan base and tracks in Redcar, Scunthorpe, Sheffield and Manchester is there enough slack in a cost of living crisis to entice the 2000 per meeting it would take to cover investment and make it pay from the fan base that supports those existing tracks. 

 

We travel the 120 mile trek to Scunny every week! It’s even further still to Redcar and both Sheffield/ Belle Vue involve a 70 mile round trip! All of these are stretching it, from a cost point of view, for most fans in the North/ West/ East Yorks belt. The supporter interest generated both old and new in those regions would comfortably sustain the Odsal investment in my opinion. The problem with British Speedway is that promoting nous and ambition has been at virtual zero for decades. Supposed promoters have focused inwardly and even their ability to do that is questionable. I’m certain that financial investment in the sport has never been higher than currently brought by Discovery Sports. With British Speedway withering to the point of extinction before our very eyes, l see it as a great opportunity to utilise some of that funding to collectively reinvest in a proper stadia/ track to help sustain/ grow  the sport. If you think back when we had real entrepreneurial promoters, then if one door closed they just moved on and opened up in another Town/ City. The sport kept moving forward and expanding. As it stands we have a total of 14 tracks left and potentially more in that number on the brink due to potential land development. If we don’t counter this by getting out there, promoting and opening up new venues then Speedway is dead and buried in this country for sure. 

[Broadsider 67]

59 minutes ago, RogerM22 said:

 

Steady! 

[Skidder1 7,637]

58 minutes ago, Broadsider said:

We travel the 120 mile trek to Scunny every week! It’s even further still to Redcar and both Sheffield/ Belle Vue involve a 70 mile round trip! All of these are stretching it, from a cost point of view, for most fans in the North/ West/ East Yorks belt. The supporter interest generated both old and new in those regions would comfortably sustain the Odsal investment in my opinion. The problem with British Speedway is that promoting nous and ambition has been at virtual zero for decades. Supposed promoters have focused inwardly and even their ability to do that is questionable. I’m certain that financial investment in the sport has never been higher than currently brought by Discovery Sports. With British Speedway withering to the point of extinction before our very eyes, l see it as a great opportunity to utilise some of that funding to collectively reinvest in a proper stadia/ track to help sustain/ grow  the sport. If you think back when we had real entrepreneurial promoters, then if one door closed they just moved on and opened up in another Town/ City. The sport kept moving forward and expanding. As it stands we have a total of 14 tracks left and potentially more in that number on the brink due to potential land development. If we don’t counter this by getting out there, promoting and opening up new venues then Speedway is dead and buried in this country for sure. 

So where are these new venues then?

[Deano 1,318]

51 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

So where are these new venues then?

I think the point he’s making is promoters found a way. Yes we have more going against speedway in terms of venues these days. If there was money to be made by promoting speedway tracks would open.

[The Dog 413]

Is it not possible that Morris was saying this just to add weight to the Coventry cause and putting speedway in a positive light, knowing that nobody can prove him right or wrong....? 

[Skidder1 7,637]

22 minutes ago, The Dog said:

Is it not possible that Morris was saying this just to add weight to the Coventry cause and putting speedway in a positive light, knowing that nobody can prove him right or wrong....? 

Well he repeated it in last week's Speedway Star so there has to be some truth in it whether 2024 or '25.

[The Dog 413]

3 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

Well he repeated it in last week's Speedway Star so there has to be some truth in it whether 2024 or '25.

I'd like to think so but I'm not sure we can look that far ahead anymore. 

[Deano 1,318]

Interesting, although a little confusing, all the same.

[1Tsunami 33]

On 10/8/2023 at 11:14 AM, 25yearfan said:

Spedeworth need speedway at Foxhall to make the venue financially viable and I believe have a decent relationship with the MIldenhall speedway promotion at West Row Stadium which they either own or have the lease for.

 

Brafield raceway was shaled over a few years back and staged speedway in the 50's and 60's. I always wondered why this venue was never opened up in the late 60's and early 70's when the success and viability of the new 2nd Division saw many would be (and already existing ) promotors  look at all sorts of different venues and locations to run a 2nd tier team out of? 

 

Spedeworth are only tenants at Great Yarmouth but the owners aren't against speedway indeed they are the same family who owned it when speedway was staged there in the 40's - 60's and former Bloaters rider Billy Bales opened the new restaurant there about a decade ago. - That said the track would be extremely small and the speedway closed there in 1961 cause they could only get a viable crowd in the holiday period. 

Hednesford did stage a few open meetings and speedway practise sessions after the war so would it qualify as a new speedway venue? - Not far out of the Birmingham/Black Country conurbation speedway hotbed which is just about to lose another track in Wolves. Could this venue work as a speedway venue?  

 

I hope Phil Morris' words of hope about a new track bear fruition! 

 

 

 

Brafield was one of 6 clubs, along with Newcastle, who were active to try and start a parallel second league in 1996. BSPA got wind of it and created the new  Premier League. Teams were invited to join, and only after we had joined,. were we informed that they would not agree to our pay rates and we all found we had to run with  higher points money level.  

[1Tsunami 33]

On 10/8/2023 at 3:29 PM, Broadsider said:

We travel the 120 mile trek to Scunny every week! It’s even further still to Redcar and both Sheffield/ Belle Vue involve a 70 mile round trip! All of these are stretching it, from a cost point of view, for most fans in the North/ West/ East Yorks belt. The supporter interest generated both old and new in those regions would comfortably sustain the Odsal investment in my opinion. The problem with British Speedway is that promoting nous and ambition has been at virtual zero for decades. Supposed promoters have focused inwardly and even their ability to do that is questionable. I’m certain that financial investment in the sport has never been higher than currently brought by Discovery Sports. With British Speedway withering to the point of extinction before our very eyes, l see it as a great opportunity to utilise some of that funding to collectively reinvest in a proper stadia/ track to help sustain/ grow  the sport. If you think back when we had real entrepreneurial promoters, then if one door closed they just moved on and opened up in another Town/ City. The sport kept moving forward and expanding. As it stands we have a total of 14 tracks left and potentially more in that number on the brink due to potential land development. If we don’t counter this by getting out there, promoting and opening up new venues then Speedway is dead and buried in this country for sure. 

Rumour had it that the Stocks promoter Steve Rees I think, was asking too much rent for speedway when he opened it again and not forgetting the 3/4th bends would not comply with current track regulations and also the need for new pits, riders car park, new electrics and mandatory air fence.

[eric i 619]

2 hours ago, 1Tsunami said:

Rumour had it that the Stocks promoter Steve Rees I think, was asking too much rent for speedway when he opened it again and not forgetting the 3/4th bends would not comply with current track regulations and also the need for new pits, riders car park, new electrics and mandatory air fence.

The main problem was something to do with the safety fence, it would have to be a special bespoke fence. The track is too narrow for FIM so international events wouldn't work but league racing would be fine.

[Skidder1 7,637]

Anyone know anything about the regeneration of the Crystal Palace Sports Stadium? It seems there is a Sports Consortium (with money) bringing the derelict stadium back to life??