What about Northampton?

[tom]

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Edited 7 hours ago by tom
moved content to the post with the quote, which I'd meant to do in the first place

[tom]

On 3/13/2026 at 6:32 PM, Chadster said:

Good point about the police initiative. Are there any tracks that participate in these schemes? I guess it would have to be a track like Leicester or Scunthorpe where there's more or less continuous access. Running schemes like these ould be a good way of encouraging a positive view of the sport by local councils.

I don't think the visits to schools would be to encourage participation, except as spectators. Again, can the sport offer something to schools? I think Zach Cook was on one of the school visits at Poole. Could he talk to them about life in Australia as part of a Geography lesson, could someone from the club talk about the track and the sport as part of local history? A stats based sport should have some relevance to Maths lessons.

The impression I get is that, at the club I've had conversations with at least, there just isn't anyone who has the capacity, contacts and experience to set that kind of thing up. I know that certain major cities have police initiatives focused on bike crime, not all of those have speedway but Manchester is one. I imagine that when it comes round to noise complaints or fending off developers, being the in council's good books would come in handy.

 

As you say as much as anything that kind of project is about building good relations with the local community and local government, rather than directly attracting fans or even riders (although it might do those things too!). This is obviously massively important for speedway, because fundamentally, the thing that separates British and Polish speedway, and the thing that has secured Belle Vue ther stadium, is local government support. But I can imagine how these kind of long-term, diagonal strategies might seem like luxuries if you're flat-out fighting crisis on all fronts.

 

One angle that has only just occurred to me, and could well be a good seller in the current educational contexts, is that I've got a little hunch that both in terms of spectators and participants, speedway might be a sport that favours neurodiverse people. The connection to ADHD is obvious: massively intense, massively sensory, short bursts of violent action; impossible to ignore; regular hits. I think there are connections to some points on the autism spectrum too. All the numbers, the averages, then the physics, the immersion again. As a spectator it's a very attention grabbing all-senses experience (apart from the food). I would imagine it's exactly the kind of job for someone who needs to be in-the-moment. Speaking as someone who has these conditions. So... this line of argument could be used in schools and universities to students. That is a growing proportion of students (up to around a quarter in some universities) who might respond very well to a welcoming community that invites them in, especially if they've got a mega-exciting entertainment at the centre of it.

 

But again developing these kinds of projects and arguments requires a certain kind of mindset and experience which, if you haven't worked in those kinds of areas, you might not have. Which I imagine is the main reason they haven't happened. Certainly to actually get funding you need to be able to speak their language.

 

From the perspective of speedway it would be about: how can we solve a problem for someone else? That's basically how you lever them into being willing to solve yours.

 

Once you get started down that path there's all kinds of places you can take it though. Arts council? Performing rights society foundation?