New tracks ?

[singy13]

Sadly speedway keeps losing tracks and it's possibly the final countdown for the great sport.

What occurs to me, rightly or otherwise, is that speedway is short of top promoters - guys with funds and ideas to introduce new parties to the ranks.

I see there are over 400 non league soccer grounds in existence. Plus more rugby stadiums. So can't a wealthy promoter (if they exist of course) find at least 5/6 stadiums capable of joining the speedway world? Ok it would need soccer's permission to build a track around a pitch but why not? I mean for approx 30 years I enjoyed seeing the Comets race 398 yards around Derwent Park's rugby pitch with minimal problems and great speedway. Surely down South or in the Midlands some stadia exist awaiting a promoters call?

[W9 Lion]

Because times have changes to such a degree that my Tier 9 local football club have just spent £1,000,000 on a new pitch. They are not going to want to contaminate it with shale when they have specific rules on what type of studs can be used. 

[singy13]

12 minutes ago, W9 Lion said:

Because times have changes to such a degree that my Tier 9 local football club have just spent £1,000,000 on a new pitch. They are not going to want to contaminate it with shale when they have specific rules on what type of studs can be used. 

Okay 1 down....400+ to go.

[poole keith]

Think the FA would stop it

[singy13]

58 minutes ago, poole keith said:

Think the FA would stop it

Yeah suppose....but the shale is automatically thrown away from any pitch i.e. left to right.....then of course fans get hit, so programme boards at the ready....why is speedway so difficult to maintain.

[W9 Lion]

1 hour ago, singy13 said:

Yeah suppose....but the shale is automatically thrown away from any pitch i.e. left to right.....then of course fans get hit, so programme boards at the ready....why is speedway so difficult to maintain.

But the rain runs off the track taking shale with it and then contaminating the playing surface on the inside. 

Multi Sport stadiums will not entertain speedway as it makes a mess, leads to moise complaints, and a large amount of the stadium footprint is only used for a monority sport.

The way to develop new facilities is find brownfield sites where you can develop a number of motorsport activities in a model not disimiliar to the Redcar facility.  However the larger the town/city tend to have the most valueable land so perhaps Speedway future is more aligned to smaller towns like Kings Lynn or Workington with between 20-50,000 locals.

[mikebv]

Where would riders come from for any new tracks? 

Six teams seems to the maximum to be even semi competitive in the top tier...

Andt seven, maybe eight, in the 2nd tier...

All the tracks lost over the past few years, and still doubling up is fundamental to the sport...

[singy13]

1 hour ago, mikebv said:

Where would riders come from for any new tracks? 

Six teams seems to the maximum to be even semi competitive in the top tier...

Andt seven, maybe eight, in the 2nd tier...

All the tracks lost over the past few years, and still doubling up is fundamental to the sport...

That's a good question.  No supply but plenty of rider demand if new tracks did appear (and doubling up would probably prosper). There are training tracks ongoing I believe. So maybe a couple of years as now until expansions? I just think that 6 and 7 team leagues are not exciting the evermore dwindling support. And while I confess to not helping any positive outcome I like to post here to see if anyone can help the dying sport.