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Covid and now this is a perfect storm for Osbourne and gaming to close the stadium and build houses on the site . sadly i think maybe we seen the last speedway at the abbey . the really stupid bit is saying that part of the reason they cant run is because the pie in the sky stadium was going to be built when the season was on . Anyone with any common sense would build it close season. The local mp justin tomlinson and co should hang there heads in shame letting get this far as the stadium should have been built years ago and we should never have got to this stage .

If this was actually going to end with Swindon taking their place next season in the new stadium then it would be a positive step. Unfortunately I think we all know how this is really going to end. Always seemed unlikely it would ever happen and now Covid is the perfect excuse for Stadia UK to not go through with it

Absolutely no chance of speedway returning to Blunsden. Never trust anything coming from the mouth of Clarke Osborne. Stadia UK make their money from closing venues and selling them on for redevelopment. Stadia UK have never opened a new venue, in all their years of operation.

With Clark Osborne involved the only thing that would surprise me is if they end up with the promised new stadium.

why not run a league on a 4TT basis, with 4 riders + reserve, 4 teams in each meeting .. is this how Denmark ran/run their league?

Exactly. A few pictures of this stadium in storage and everyone would shut up for a while! Suppose you can't photograph something that doesn't exist!

I'll give you a clue , it was spelt ending in borough and should of been brough

Got so much time for those guys. Swindon through and through. But even they must know deep down its the end . Myself and my mates I stand with accepted a long time ago the new stadium was never happening but we could accept that whilst the old girl was still standing. Osborne has said no one will be back at the old stadium and to me that says it all.

Part of life mate but it makes it hard to swallow when its avoidable; but I know where you are coming from... No Problems... Regards THJ

Saddened to hear of the passing of Ken Middleditch. He was a fine rider and showed great loyalty to Poole for whom he was the leading scorer for many years. Most of these years were as a Second Division man but when Poole were promoted to Division One in 1956, he soon showed thast he was well capable to matching and beating most of the established First Division men. In addition to being a very good rider, Ken was widely regarded as a gentleman and a sportsman and was highly thought of by those of us who had the pleasure of watching him ride. His death, whilst not unexpected for he was well into his 90's, ends another link with speedway's illustrious past. Rest in the peace of the Lord Ken.

might not open it at all . has stadia uk got any other plans for use of the stadium yet ?. i presume it is still only the car park money which keeps it open now ?

If there is a Premiership this year i think its highly likely Doyle will be Stars No 1.

Don't think this is directly attributable to anything other than Stadium Development being planned in summer period when Covid most likely in retreat (as it was in 2020 lets not forget) and with certainly delayed start to probably May and possibility of not being able to get enough Fixtures in. Of course music to the ears of the British Speedway is dead doom-mongers

With the BSPA only meeting next week and everywhere else in Europe all sorted for whatever Speedway offering they will provide in 2021, a lot of talk in the UK is that Speedway is doomed, but for me some form of Speedway in 2021 while looking to build into 2022 with a structured long term fixed plan can do wonders for the Sport in the UK - only my opinion but instead of trying to punch above our weight class, we need to understand our place in the rider market, and our plan should be to develop our next future World champions, even if that means in the future they no longer ride in the UK. For 2021 I would forget all about Premier League, Championship, National League and just get 8 clubs together who can form a "British League" Championship, purely focusing on showing some form of Speedway in 2021. For example 2021 British League Belle Vue Ipswich Kings Lynn Peterborough Sheffield Swindon Wolves Glasgow could form together to make an 8-team Championship, the other clubs etc. can get together and provide some form of speedway throughout the year with individual meetings or area championships but these would be run at a semi=pro/amateur setting. So we take our 8 teams, and we have each team running on their own chosen race night, home and away once so 14 league meetings, the team finishing top of the league are Champions, the top 4 sides go into an end of season KO Cup (two legged meetings) so a potential for 14-20 meetings of Speedway. The Top 12 average British Riders at the start of the season and the top 8 U23 averaged British Riders go into a "British Riders Championship" with one round hosted at each of the 8 venues in the league over the duration of the season so a split GP style series which will crown a "British" champion and a "British U23" champion at the same meeting so the 12 Main Championship riders would compete over 12 heats no final The 8 Under23 riders compete over 8 heats no final As the BSPA have left it so long to decide what is happening for 2021 and so much uncertainty make the league up of the following riders Adam Ellis Alex Spooner Alfie Bowtell Anders Rowe Ashley Morris Ben Barker Ben Morley Cameron Heeps Charles Wright Chris Harris Connor Bailley Connor Coles Connor Mountain Craig Cook Dan Gilkes Dan Thompson Danny King Danny Phillips Danyon Hume Drew Kemp Edward Kennett Henry Atkins Jack Thomas James Sarjeant James Shanes James Wright Jason Edwards Joe Lawlor Joe Thompson Jordan Jenkins Jordan Palin Josh Auty Josh Bates Kye Thomson Kyle Bickley Kyle Howarth Kyle Newman Leon Flint Lewis Kerr Luke Riddick Matt Marson Matthew Wethers Max Clegg Nathan Greaves Nathan Stoneman Paul Starke Richard Andrew Richard Lawson Rob Ledwith Ryan Kinsley Scott Campos Scott Nicholls Simon Lambert Stefan Nielsen Steve Worrall Tom Bacon Tom Brennan Tom Woolley William Lawson Obviously taken out a dozen or so names that may still ride in 2021 so could be a stronger field available. Then for 2022 look to keep an 8-team British League where we could welcome back riders who missed 2021 such as Tungate as one example and then create a "National League North & South" which is open to Continental riders (riders 6&7 have to be British) but opens the door up for more Aussies to come over to fill spaces and each team are allowed to track 3 non-Continental riders so you could see some old hands like Ostegaard riding or some young up coming riders from Germany etc. National League North Bradford Berwick Birmingham Edinburgh Leicester Newcastle Redcar Scunthorpe National League South Eastbourne Kent Somerset Isle of Wight Mildenhall Plymouth Poole each club ride home and away in their leagues to definite Northern & Southern Champions, both champions race off home and away for the "National Title" there can also be a regional KO Cup and an overall "National Cup" where all teams are drawn out of a crash helmet.

Laughable reading that back now!!!

The stadium is probably the best looking building in Port Talbot and its still in its box

He never finalised the purchase of the Witches and it just reverted to the status quo

If the new stadium is actually built then to suspend this season makes perfect sense as building work at present can continue during the Lockdown. Unfortunately the track record of CO and his cronies and what has happened when they have been involved with other tracks doesn’t bode well for the future of the Robins although I hope for all Swindon supporters I am wrong.

Yeah he couldn't wait to be pictured outside the stadium with a shovel or be interviewed over the PA at a meeting when apparently good news has come out. Ask him a question about the delay tho and he's not interested. Can't wait to see what rubbishe he comes out with when the housing is announced.

I had many spats with him about the subject .. he always makes excuses like Gaming do ... as i said to him he just become an apologist for them . what makes me angry is when hes been doing this you get Robins fans saying thanks etc like he on there side .unreal

Yeah how hard it is to build a stadium that's sat in storage and ready to be put together. I did ask Tomlinson on twitter which was in storage longer, the stadium or his pre written statement about why houses are now going on the site but he didn't respond!

Just once I'd love to see Clarke Osbourne keep his promise. So many times with so many clubs he has let us down with his ongoing bull. I fear for Poole as well.

Done it.

Buster only owns two of the remaining six clubs

Pretty bleak when you consider the same happened at Workington

Well that would mean Buster has a 50% chance of winning the league lol. No wonder he wants it to go ahead.

I expect he'll get a team place much closer to home.......

Contracts signed in 2020 lapsed when the season officially ended on 31 October. 2021 starts with a clean sheet. Whatever is in writing the contract does not legally exist until the rider rides his first races and qualifies for payment.

Was going to put a like by your post, but would feel guilty with the death of a couple of friends. But as always light the touch paper, stand back and get a great reply.

Would imagine maybe it'll stay 6 in the Premiership, and with a short season, maybe easier to arrange a meaningful one with 6 teams anyway and complete it. Talking of the vaccine have you had yours yet John? If not must be imminent I imagine?

The alleged new stadium won’t happen now I’d have thought wasn’t it going stage a round of WU21 a few season ago ? and why with houses surrounding the existing stadium would you build in the car park ? That said it’s a very sad day for the sport sadly I feel others will follow Swindon with everything so uncertain how can any club plan for the season ahead how can riders plan ? by not running in 2021 there is certainty .

Indeed. A statement by Clarke Osbourne that must set alarm bells ringing. For years there have been excuses for the stadium not being built. Will we, from 2022, be seeing excuses for the sport not returning, with the same statements about the stadium being built soon and that speedway will be back once it is built, and these statements going on for a few more years? I think that in Rosco and Lee Kilby we have a promotion who would bust their balls to help find a new location for the sport if it was needed, but they can't do that until this one is finished with. I hope that speedway will be back in Blunsdon next year, but there has to be doubt from that statement. To quote directly: "we do not anticipate any public attendance until the new customer facilities are in place." Think about that. How long ago was it that they all sat on a digger in the car park and indicated that work was due to start?

Team v team example racecard https://rs.dmusport.dk/loeb/4308 final example racecard https://rs.dmusport.dk/loeb/4301

Why are Poole looking to follow suit? There may yet be an attempt to entice them back into the Premiership?? Who knows

Very specific reasons at Swindon though!!

How much has been spent on storage since 2017?

Go to Swindon robins website

Why even consider a Premiership. If there’s any league racing, it will surely be one league of teams that are able/willing to operate

It depends who you believe. Apparently the new stadium is "all but complete" and is sat in storage in Wales. Now, if you look closely, you'll see the date on that article is May 2017. You can make up your own mind about the validity of those comments. Personally, I wouldn't build a new stadium in any financial climate. The land designated for the new stadium could hold around 200 houses. If you assume a house costs £100k to build and sells for £300k, that's £40m of potential profit from building houses. On the other hand, let's say a new stadium makes £1m profit per year (which sounds wildly optimistic), it would take 40 years of stadium operations to make the same profit as building houses. Which one would you choose?

New stadium development? Right-o Mr Osborne!

https://www.swindon-speedway.com/_mobile/news.php?extend.3490.1

i think theres a realistic chance of speedway this yr jenga, Im taking a punt that a government which has pretty much got everything wrong or at best timed most things badly, must eventually get lucky and get something right ! that something being the vacc rollout,heres hoping.The only things that would dampen my optimism would be matt hancock saying he was in control and confident or bojo saying we are the best in the world at vaccinating !!!

I would urge everyone who reads this thread to please object. We have lost far too many tracks and can’t afford to lose anymore. You never know it could be your local track next

Think if the rest ship out a league of 2 won't be very good.

Why on earth would the sport seek to exclude any club that has the finances in place to compete at their chosen level for a full season of fixtures whether we start in May or not? I really don't get all the continued sniping about past BSPA decisions. The BSPL now have some of the 'younger' promoters on board so hopefully some fresh ideas and proposals for the wider good of the sport. Why won't the likes of Messrs Bates, Louis, M's Hancock etc do better than previous attempts? Promoters continue to be blamed for 'self-interest' but isn't that exactly what the missing top riders are doing? No blame directed at either group from me,

That would be a first if they did...

i think getting work permits may be the issue, new rules and all that. and i agree that they should only concentrate on those 100% committed, that's the only way forward from here on

Just goes to show, there is no "One size fits all". The injuries you describe to Holder, Doyle and Brennan, would not have happened with the same accident situation at Kent, so he fence there can be different to other places Clearly, where those riders got hurt needed a different design of fence so that riders cannot slide under. Maybe it is time for a campaign to make that happen ? No one likes seeing riders hurt.

I would highlight the exceedingly-severe (season-ending) injuries incurred by (for example) Chris Holder at Coventry, Jason Doyle at the Torun GP in 2016 and Tom Brennan at Eastbourne. In each case a bike lifted the fence and the following rider slid through unimpeded to hit an immovable object. Had there been regular foam-fences at these tracks, these accidents might not have had such severe consequences.

I would say yes, the Berwick foam-fence has needed virtually no maintainance since installation some years ago. I believe the same is true at Glasgow (and King's Lynn, where the first such fence was installed, and like Arlington, is also a stock-car venue). There is no tedious inflation/deflation time required before or after matches and no delays where a punctured air-fence segment is removed and replaced. At Berwick, the fence just sits there all week, gets a quick power-wash after a meeting, and is ready to go next race, next meeting, next season even, without any setting-up work. Much-more importantly, I have seen several huge impacts into the foam-fence over recent seasons -- Shielfield is a high-speed circuit -- yet I can recall no serious injuries which came from a rider hitting the fence. Equally, when there have been such impacts, there has been no damage to the fence, either! No hold-ups to racing. In short, a foam-fence -- in my estimation and opinion -- is a worthwhile investment.