Daytripper

If the BSPA have unpaid debts they should be cleared before they are allowed to administer another season, but they won’t be. Makes a mockery to the club or clubs that are owed money. Then Lakeside , and possibly others could clear their debts.

Whether they should or should not have been allowed is not the point. The fact is they WERE allowed and approved by the same Mr Godfrey who later pulled the plug. Once the figures were approved and published season tickets were bought on the strength of it, holidays and other arrangements were booked around it, clubs and more inportantly some members of the paying public were out of pocket or inconvenienced because of it. When Speedwáy Star published the interview with Godfrey, spread over two pages there was not a single word, not even a hint of apology to the fans whose money keeps the sport alive, just columns of self justification and banging on about protocols . As ever the BSPA behave as if the customers are just an inconvenience they could do without.

I don't know whether you are just trolling and trouble making in your usual way or whether you are just dim but rather than make such unhelpful comments, why not leave the matter to those who are working with, and to some extent being guided by Thurrock Council on what the petition should or should not include. The fact that the petition includes the signature of a former World Champion is one of the things that adds weight , for example. Speedway might be a minority sport nationwide but it attracts the biggest crowds in Thurrock.

It's rather more complicated than that. As I said we were given a lot of background to a lot of matters, which I am not going splash out all over the forum. You can either believe it or not believe it , but take it from me the BSPA have treated Stuart. Douglas apallingly, and although I dont have all the facts about Rye House, it does seem they have had a rough deal as well. Ask yourself this :. With the state of speedway in this country why have we lost two promotions and an existing track without the BSPA bending over backwards to keep everyone on board? Last season three clubs, Lakeside , Peterborough, and Workington had serious financial problems and the sport was made a laughing stock because Rob Godfrey pulled the plug on fixtures that had previously been approved . When Godfrey was asked about it in Speedwáy Star he just kept on about his protocols. That's the mentality of these people. Never mind the fans, never mind the riders let's stick to the protocols. In any other business the customers are paramount. If you start losing customers you make changes to accommodate them. In BSPA world you stick to the protocols and if the paying public don't like it they can lump it. Crowds at almost every club are down. How many fans have been lost to the sport in the last 5 years alone. They call themselves an "Association" but some of those at the helm don't even know the meaning of the word.

2500 signatures on the petition so far, which as these things go, is said to be quite impressive . A number of riders have given their support, including Jason Doyle. The target is 3000 signatures. If you haven't signed it yet , pleas e do so , and if Auntie Lil and Uncle Bert haven't signed it see if you can get them to support it, to help the club get it over the line. Thanks..

2500 signatures on the petition so far, which as these things go, is said to be quite impressive . A number of riders have given their support, including Jason Doyle. The target is 3000 signatures. If you haven't signed it yet , pleas e do so , and if Auntie Lil and Uncle Bert haven't signed it see if you can get them to support it, to help the club get it over the line. Thanks..

Just back from the Lakeside fans forum. Well attended. Someone said around 200 there but I didn't count them myself. The meeting lasted about 1hr 45 min and a lot of detail was given which I am not going to repeat on here. Suffice to say there is hope . Lots still to be done but there was an hour long meeting with the developers a week of two back, and the Thurtock Council are tangibly supportive . There are sponsors interested in giving support if things come to fruition and at the moment at least there seem to be funds available to build a basic Leicester style track. The council are doing their assessment/planning of sports facilities in a few months and Speedwáy seems to be on the agenda. The behaviour of the BSPA towards Stuart Douglas has been atrocious, and wrangling are still going on. No criticism was made of Rye House who did there best to help but reading between the lines it seems the BSPA's treatment of them has been abysmal as well. It just seems incredible to me that given the present state of speedway the BSPA are not bending over backwards to keep Speedwáy at that facility instead of obstructing it . All the riders will be paid by Stuart but it is the BSPA that are preventing it at the moment. It seems to me that that, the BSPA continue to believe that it is they , not they riders, nor the fans, that are the most important people in Speedwáy.

Everybody has to sign in for the referee, ie track curator , track doctor, team managers, machine examiners and team captains. The team captains don't specifically have to confirm the team has been paid but a lot make a comment on the form that there is money otstanding. I have know several team captains to say on the form that monies are outstanding but I have never heard of the BSPA doing anything about it. However, since the BSPA themselves are often horrendously late paying Team GB riders they are not really in a strong position to take action against anybody else. I personally knew a former Team GB rider who said it cost him £1500 last time he road for his country.

No good having discounted admission if the product is no good. Ironically Lakeside had an attractive and successful team in 2018 but we still had the usual clowns running the sport, with great gaps in the fixture list even before Godfrey started tampering with it and making it worse, and that's without all the other cheating and manipulation that goes on. I loved it at Arena but when it moved to Rye House it was like watching paint dry. Now that I don't have a team to support , I find the sport has very little to commend itself to me as a neutral .

Alfie's trump card is that he is a pretty good gater, and as he gained experience over the season, a lot ofsecond strings found him very difficult to pass . I think he will,increase hi s average over the season but his ragged style will limit how far he improves. A good bloke and good team man though, is Alfie. Worth a place at reserve in any Championship side.

I think was more to do with the food outlets and shops. The rent they paid the stadium owners was absolutely exhorbitant. With falling crowds overall in both Speedwáy and stock car the shops weren't making so much money which meant the stadium owners couldnt screw so much rent out of them. I noticed towards the end of the season that two or three of the shops weren't even bothering to open.

If goes to hell right now it would be even better.

Perhaps not formally , possibly because development is at a preliminary stage but my firm understanding is tha planning permission is/will be linked to provision of motor sport facilities ( for now at least, but whether that changes in the future remains to be seen). All I can add is that Jon Cook told the fans that the promotion have done all they can and the matter is now in the hands of the developers and the politicians, both of whom have given a commitment to wanting Speedwáy to return to Thurrock. Of course that doesn't imply certainty and who knows what the future holds, but at least the intention is there.

The approximate scenario that I have gathered from various sources including people who rent the shops on the site is this : 1. The stock car crowds have been falling for years and it's has taken a handfull of big meetings per year to balance the books.There are 5 members of the Woodroffe family that inherited the site from its founder , the late Chick Woodfoffe, so profits all have to be cut 5 ways. None of them are particularly stock car enthusiasts and the place is just a cash cow to them . For several years they have been apparently screwing the Speedwáy club and the shops foe every penny they could get before bailing out. One of the shop tennents told me the rent the has to pay. I forget the actual figure but it is absolutely eye watering. The rent for the Speedwáy track is said to be the highest of ant Speedwáy track in the country, despite the poor facilities. basically it seems the owners have just been trying to fill their pension funds for sometime and sell the stadium before things start falling down. 2. Representations by the Hammers have been going on by the Hammers promotion to Thurrock Council and the local MP for several years now. A mere Speedwáy club it may be but it still draws the biggest crowds in Thurrock. There was talk at one time of the name being changed to Thurrock Hammers at the councils request . So planning permission has been given for developing the site subject to the developers allowing some facility for "Motor Sport". 3. Apparently there was buyer for the site when the club nearly closed in 2016, but he pulled out. 4.As I understand the present position, there is a buyer interested but he would like to buy off the provision for motor sport and help facilitate it being transferred to another site. To that end Thurrock Council have two possible sites under consideration, within the Thurrock boundaries . I.e.not Southend, Chelmsford, Colchester or these other places people have speculated on here. 5. It may well be some time before the present site is built on, because being a former gravel pit there are things like risk assessments for pollution to be carried out and a range of other things to be done before anything can start. As far as I know Speedwáy could possibly have squeezed another season or two out of Arena but of course once the owners decided to cut and run it meant it would be financially impossible for the Hammers promotion to run the place on their own. Jon Cook did say to the crowd just before the move that he was speaking to all parties interested in continuing motor sport of all kinds and if there was a deal to be done they would do but it seems with all the ifs and buts and uncertainties of the situation that was not to be. The above comments are what I think is a fairly full picture. It may not be 100% accurate all the way through but I I pretty sure it is about 90% of it.

I think the financial implications at Rye House are/ were preferable to dealing with Dick Turpin &Co at Aena.