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Lourdes Stadium Drogheda

Harrold's Cross The closure of Harold’s Cross Greyhound Stadium is a short term blow to sport in Dublin City but one which had been flagged as inevitable given the sport’s financial debt burden. Nevertheless it still came as a serious blow when announced this week as happening with immediate effect. There will be no impact on the amount of racing with Shelbourne Park, only 2 kilometres along the canal, expanding to race on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Places will also be offered to the twelve staff members employed at Harold’s Cross and Savill’s Estate Agents have already been appointed to explore the opportunities for sale of the site. In a sporting context this is a blow with the history of the track stretching back to 1928 as the original home of the Irish Greyhound Derby and the occasional host to other sporting moments including an appearance in Dublin of George Best. Best played three games for Cork Celtic after leaving Manchester United, charging a £1,000 match fee but attracting a crowd of 5,000 to Harold’s Cross when playing against Shelbourne in the last of those in 1973. In financial terms though it does make sense. The Irish Greyhound Board has a €20 million debt to service since the redevelopment of Limerick Stadium and with such prime real estate in the middle of the City, there is a realistic, if painful, out. The sale was recommended in an Indecon Report for Government back in 2014 and since that time the axe has hovered. This week it fell and while there is talk of action to reverse the decision, and local anxiety over what will take its place, there is a sense of time passing, as it did with the Phoenix Park Racecourse in 1990. At the time there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth but now apartments crowd where once were sporting dreams. The flip side though is that horse racing did not suffer. Leopardstown now plays host to one of the biggest racing weekends in the world and the sport not only survived but thrived. Hopefully the same will be true of Greyhound Racing with the focus for Dublin now on Shelbourne Park. The recent announcement of a new three year sponsorship arrangement with Boylesports, totalling €1 million is a good sign for that future. The IGB statement announcing the closure concluded with an acknowledgement of “the long and proud tradition of greyhound racing at Harold’s Cross” and that “the unavoidable closure will be regretted by its many patrons in the greyhound industry, who will be accommodated in Shelbourne Park.” “IGB will work to promote Shelbourne Park in every way possible to ensure its success. The Harold’s Cross closure will avoid the dilution of scarce resources across two locations and makes long term strategic sense from a logistical, financial and organisational perspective.” “Stadia are capital intensive and require ongoing investment. Put simply, IGB has not been in a position recently to invest in the future of Shelbourne Park, the industry’s flagship venue.” That will now change and hopefully the net gain for the sport will be sufficient to ease the transition of Harold’s Cross from live venue to a footnote in history. https://sportforbusiness.com/farewell-harolds-cross/

Shelbourne Park today

I did see this a few days ago an thought it was the real Emil. Who knows, maybe both are or none

It is sad, but inevitable Many Ukrainians, between a million and two, so i heard live in Poland. Plus many polish people don't paricularly like Russians anyway, and even more now. One of my colleagues lives around 50km from the Belarus border. Well he has a house there and his parents live in the same area. He has genuine worries about the future etc. And i hate to say it, but people travelling in recognisable Russian vehicles will be the target of some abuse and attacks. That is the reality

A good question. Something I hinted at on another thread as to whether it would be safe for Russian riders to travel through Poland for example in sponsored vans. The tensions will be very high and an attack on individuals can’t be dismissed. After Russia left Rast Germany many military personell were attacked on their way home through Poland. I hope they are ok traveling around

You would have thought he would have thanked you for that tip by now .

Tbh I don’t have the stomach to watch sport in Russia atm I did. mention a few times when that biker gang close to Putin were sponsoring Ufa ice speedway and the military style videos and music that they played during the break seemed like another world

Good luck to him. Remember he was the only one who really gave it a slide on the last occasion the riders went round the Plough Lane track

Finnish Championship on saturday will be shown live. For €2.90 https://pilvi.ohotv.fi/register/?fbclid=IwAR1cvB-TnTsuZkXtHL_SgcqiL207mQBjDAT6XCRiHe2qsVorDn50ctpID5A

End of Shelbourne Park ? Sadly it seems Harrolds Cross stadium has also gone https://www.irishtimes.com/business/shelbourne-park-greyhound-racing-track-owner-seeks-to-develop-site-for-housing-1.4809506

I sort of fear, if war does break out, then maybe it wouldn't even be safe for a Russian rider to be travelling around Poland and possible other countries as well. Certainy not in a nice painted van with their name and flag etc over it. The way things go, it only takes one nutter As for international meetings in Russia, well that would be a total no go, as most countries are telling people to leave

Doesn't seem to have done himself any favours in Poland https://sport.onet.pl/zuzel/zuzel-czy-marcus-birkemose-wroci-do-stali-gorzow/x4gd75x

Rene Deddens signs for Vojens !!!

Wyniki: 1. Richard Geyer (2,2,2,2) 8 + 1 miejsce w finale 2. Ronny Weis (2,2,2,2) 8 + 2 miejsce w finale 3. Hynek Štichauer (2,2,2,2) 8 +3 miejsce w finale 4. Nicklas Clausen (1,1,1,0) 3 + 1 miejsce w biegu barażowym + 4 miejsce w finale 5. Patrick Hyjek (0,0,1,1) 2 + 2 miejsce w biegu barażowym 6. Jacob Bukhave (0,1,0,1) 2 + 3 miejsce w biegu barażowym 7. Roman Andrusiv (1,1,1,1) 4 + upadek w biegu barażowym 8. Sergej Malyschew (1,0,0,0) 1 9. Julian Bielmeier (0,0,0,0) 0 Bieg po biegu: 1. Štichauer, Malyschew, Bukhave 2. Geyer, Andrusiv, Bielmeier 3. Wies, Clausen, Hyjek 4. Weis, Bukhave, Bielmeier 5. Geyer, Clausen, Malyschew 6. Štichauer, Andrusiv, Hyjek 7. Geyer, Clausen, Bukhave 8. Štichauer, Hyjek, Malyschew 9. Weis, Andrusiv, Bielmeier 10. Weis, Hyjek, Bielmeier 11. Štichauer, Andrusiv, Malyschew 12. Geyer, Bukhave, Clausen Bieg ostatniej szansy: Clausen, Hyjek, Bukhave, Andrusiv (W/U) Finał: Geyer, Weis, Štichauer, Clausen https://www.speedwaynews.pl/aktualnosci/item/77146-richard-geyer-najlepszy-w-niesky?fbclid=IwAR3iVXZRoQNfg2Iq9GMAO2I-GCeqR5HQIrQ4EZYv8B9CzZaQreYCh5vPTg4

Franky just posted he has an injury to the L3 section of his back !!

Further to Franky's gloomy look at the sport, Speedweek have another piece The leading ice speedway nation has also been weakening in terms of numbers for years, at least since the Covid 19 restrictions. While there used to be around 200 active riders and the Russian national championship was held in four qualifying rounds with a total of 72 riders, today there are two semi-finals with 36 riders, plus two handfuls of juniors. While in Western Europe, with the exception of Scandinavia, exactly one ice race was held in the last 24 months due to the official corona bans (Berlin 2020), the races and the active clubs in Russia are also decreasing: This year there was only one World Cup run nor Togliatti, the former stronghold of Shadrinsk has been on the back burner since the death of the stadium manager and due to financial problems. It is no longer possible to drive in Kransnogorsk and Saransk, Kamensk-Uralskij and Ufa only hold national races. Even with the previous croesus of track sports in Russia, Mega Lada Togliatti, the trees no longer seem to grow into the sky: in the 15,000-seat Anatoli-Stepanov Stadium, hardly more than 3,000 fans strayed to the two World Cup races at the weekend. And that despite the fact that entry, at the equivalent of three euros, was also affordable for Russians. https://www.speedweek.com/eisspeedwaygp/news/188132/Russland-Fahrer-ausser-Lebensgefahr-der-Sport-nicht.html

Franky a bit peed off i think Just posted this After rubbish Weekend in Togliatti… everything was prepared for EM Poland! Training was perfekt but next Day in the Race Heat 3 next Crash… again in Hospital now I think FIM must give warning to some Riders!!!

We haven't actually lost White Hart Lane. It has been modernised/redeveloped, but the stadium is still on the same site as it was

League meettings at the weekend in Togliatti have been called off i think. Due to weather and covid restrictions

Patrick Fiecker wrote this. Not too good, but at least they can be on the way to recovery now. I will let you translate it Also.... Mich haben aus Russland diese Infos erreicht... Toloknov hat ein ziemlich zerfetzen Fuß und ihm mussten 2 Zehen amputiert werden. Kuzhin hat es eine Arterie aufgerissen bei der es infolge von 3 l Blutverlust zu einem Herzstillstand kam. Beide wurden aber erfolgreich operiert und es geht ihnen den umständen entsprechend gut.

Well, if only Russians qualified. But the fact is, they aren't allowed to, and are allocated a few places to stop that happening

Further interview with Franky and the bleak future for the sport There have always been two worlds in ice speedway, but the gap between the sport in Russia and that in Western Europe has been widening for years. While Russia has a long season and many races, especially in the junior sector, it is getting smaller in Western Europe - and not just because of official corona bans. There are many reasons why the sport is dying, the main one being a lack of organizers. And as a result, there is a lack of riders who cannot find any starting opportunities to develop further. «Stingagaden is gone, St. Johann is gone. What's next?" Franz Zorn asked in an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com. «And what if it's ice again in St. Johann? Even if you then want to drive a race, you have to ask yourself by now, with which riders? It's already bad that you struggle to get 16 riders together. The young Swedes no longer come in at over €2 for a liter of diesel. A trip to Austria and you'll have a thousand for the trip. Then you have to hope that the bike doesn't have any problems/damage. There are no more Swiss and only a handful of Czechs. We have Harald Simon and I, and there are only a few among the Germans." If you look at the situation in the ice speedway in the recent past, it is noticeable that events on natural ice no longer take place for various reasons. There were races in Steingaden, St. Johann, Weißenbach and also in the Czech Republic. There were events on artificial ice in Dresden, Innsbruck, Frankfurt and Erfurt, which all disappeared again. “There are other and many stadiums. The weather for the event in Zell was good for us, we had enough ice. But the climate won't get any better and we won't be able to avoid the artificial ice, but that's a fact," explained Zorn. Open races for youngsters were scarce even before Corona. Apart from the races before the GP in the Netherlands and the German Championship, starting opportunities were and are virtually non-existent. A development that worries Zorn: “We actually had a good time, it was really great. But at the moment everything is going down the drain if it keeps going like this. We've already discussed what to do in an ice rink, there's nothing cooler and harder than ice speedway. When there's ice skating, there are 100 or 200 spectators, but when there's ice speedway, the stadium is full." https://www.speedweek.com/eisspeedway-racing/news/187890/Franz-Zorn-in-grosser-Sorge-um-den-Eisspeedway-Sport.html

Harald Simon will not make it to Togliatti in time and will miss the Ice Speedway GP. Franz Zorn is also angry at how preparations for the World Cup in Russia are going. Franz Zorn is extremely upset before the Grand Prix in Togliatti. The reason for this is that the invitation from the organizer was too short and as a result the visa was received late. "I don't care whoever didn't make the organization the way it should be," fumed Anger. "In any case, it's not well organized with the invitations and visas for Russia." The Inn-Isar Racing Team, which supports Zorn's Austrian compatriot Harald Simon, announced that the man from the Waldviertel will only get his visa on Wednesday, making it almost impossible to get to Togliatti in time. Zorn confirmed in conversation with SPEEDWEEK.com. "I will not receive my visa before Wednesday either, and that requires an express or lightning visa, which costs extra," reported the Salzburger. "I'm supposed to pay for the fact that others organize something badly. I get the visa on Wednesday, there's no chance of getting across normally by car. I have organized something for myself. I drove two races in Sweden, a driver colleague takes my equipment to Russia and I fly. » The two races in Sweden went well for Zorn with two podiums. From there he went to Berlin, where his material was reloaded. Franky goes back to Austria and then by plane to Russia. He can only hope that his material will arrive in Togliatti: "If they say stop at the border in Russia, or my motorcycles don't come, then I'll watch a race and fly home again." The problems are not due to a lack of lead time. Zorn: «I applied for my invitation since December after the wildcard was fixed for me. I had contacted my federation and also the Russians and have been struggling for two months to get my invitation. Whether it's the Russians or the FIM, I don't know. I have heard from others that they also received the invitation very late. It's very badly organized - and it's getting worse." The annual problems at the Russian border add to the late invitations. "It's very badly organized for athletes and we've been talking about the federation having to do something with the government for 20 years. But apparently that's not possible," criticized Zorn. "I can't get the visa on Wednesday and then stand there with the car on Thursday, let alone contest a race. My heart aches when I see how something like this is organized https://www.speedweek.com/eisspeedwaygp/news/187806/Franz-Zorn-klagt-Russland-Organisation-ein-Desaster.html