OveFundinFan

In reply to BurntFaceMan, would you agree that you can reduce the quality of individual riders, but end up with the quality of racing improving. Sure, most people would like to see big names, but they come at a cost and at this time British speedway cannot afford the cost. I look forward to how the new proposals pan out, if they improve quality of racing overall then it would produce excitement and attract, hopefully, a bigger crowd maybe with a fresher younger audience if promoted well.. As a suggestion, it would be nice to see the worlds best come to the uk to compete in individual meetings, say 4 times during the summer months riding at a track in the North, East, West, South say Glasgow, Belle Vue, Kings Lynn, Poole. That should get crowds in, as many top guys as possible, get 10 and 6 top riders from new Premeirship (these could change track to track to generate "local" interest). I am sure some speedway fans would do a "tour" to take in all 4 meetings.

Any news about Fridays meeting at the BV stadium????

Well, I never shook hands with Ove, but I got an email from him which made my day. May be he could have added to 5 world titles but for one year when he was in dispute with the Swedish speedway authorities and couldnt ride in the qualifiers - 1966. Nicknamed "Mr Perpetual Motion" - not sure that was because for 10 years running he finished in the top 3 of the world championship (1956-65) or also due to other fantastic achievements, but a very apt title to be awarded..

Everybody is guessing, thats my guess.

Glad to hear things are moving forward, and the team sounds like it wont simply be leftovers after all the others have had their pickings.

In the youtube video I linked to early on in this thread, it shows the 4 Collins brothers that formed 25% of a British Final one year - thats not a bad record in itself.

What award is PC getting, do you know?

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Gustix. I well remember Sandor Levai a Belle Vue, and also Peter Vandenberg.

missing your sense of humour today arthur. I thought it was pretty good. Apart from that, lot more worse sarcastic remarks on here made about others then that.

So, if money from BSI was needed (and it was'nt anywhere near £200k but still a fair bit) to allow the WTC weekend to go ahead, did that ring alarm bells at BSPA? If so - what was done?, if not - why not? What was going on behind the scenes? We may never know.

If I remember from a post from someone in the last week or so there was a link to some meeting of Man City Council where it showed the BSPA was involved in the decision to name the stadium the National Speedway Stadium.

That should be a great meeting at BV, bit like the old days.

Should have posted the link as well. Doh! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbOSkqwemRE&feature=em-hot-vrecs

Just picked this up from You Tube about the Collins family - Peter, Les, Phil, Neil and Stephen. Its 1.5 hours long but I found it extremely interesting, informative and shows what a talent there was in that family. Stick it out, some good racing footage. Pity dad, Bill Collins, was not around to see the successful speedway years. He died in the early 1970's, missed Peters world championship, but was heavily involved in those early speedway years of Peters and the grass track years.

Just picked this up from You Tube about the Collins family - Peter, Les, Phil, Neil and Stephen. Its 1.5 hours long but I found it extremely interesting, informative and shows what a talent there was in that family. Stick it out, some good racing footage. Pity dad, Bill Collins, was not around to see the successful speedway years. He died in the early 1970's, missed Peters world championship, but was heavily involved in those early speedway years of Peters and the grass track years.

I didnt think the area where the temporary WTC stands were erected was going to be any sort of permanent stands - not in the initial build project anyway. Temporary stands makes sense to me in the BV situation. If proper stands had been built from day one, that would be extra fee on the rent and normal EL match wouldnt warrant that stand space anyway, so just a cost that was not needed. The debt would have been higher if permanent stands had been erected. I thought temporary stands for BIG events like the WTC worked well. OK, maybe not as many portaloos as there should have been but that is easy to overcome - simply hire more.

Well, that coming from a Poole fan says it all.

Probably the years calender has to be ratified at a higher level, maybe the FIM, and its not proper to submit things in dribs and drabbles.

Philip is correct in saying the stadium is a magnificent achievement, I dont see how anyone acn say otherwise. What is not magnificent is how this season has turned out. Most of the posters on this forum have been saying all year (and before) how poorly they think that British speedway is/has been run, contributing to speedway demise in this country and contributing to its lack of growth. I was thinking of next year 2017, starting to go back to BV for meetings, as much as I could afford. However, after the farce at the end of the year where a team was allowed to bring in a rider who hasnt ridden for that team all year, in fact the previous 10 years, changed my mind - and that had noting to do with the way BV was managed. The TW at Wolves was bad enough, but the Poole episode just poisoned my heart. No way am I going to spend my pension on a sport that is badly run, as much as I love to see 4 riders racing at their best. So I dont see the demise of BV being all about how the management at BV managed 2016. I attribute blame on a wider scale. Just have to look at Lakeside, Leicester, Workington, Scunthorpe, Coventry.... and a whole heap of other teams that are struggling to get the regular crowds to sustain speedway. The blame cannot be just with those teams and their individual promotors. My view is - if BV disappears completely, speedway in the UK as a whole will really feel the after shocks, much to the detriment of the sport.

Your gloating, Starman. You were always jealous of the new stadium away from Poole.

and then later on in that document there is a chart showing where the whole £10.66 million for the Belle Vue Sports Village complex would be funded and it says of the $.4 million for the NSS - funded from MCC Capital Resources repaid from Speedway Stadium rental income. and this is also included in that document.. 3.4 The bespoke nature of the Speedway Stadium proposals have promoted discussions with the British Speedway Promoters Association (BSPA), which is the body which governs British Speedway. They have confirmed their willingness to designate this new facility as the National Speedway Stadium along with the National Speedway Academy for the development of new talent and other associated employment opportunities within the Speedway industry. The FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) who oversee all motor cycle related events worldwide have confirmed a willingness to host world speedway events at a new National Speedway Stadium on a regular basis, therefore opening up the potential including for example, Under 21s World Cup, Under 21s Individual World Cups, and Grand Prix Qualifiers. Discussions have also been held with IMG (International Management Group) who have the worldwide franchise for Speedway World Cup and Grand Prix events. Subject to a viable business case and the stadium being available there is a potential to host such world events at the National Speedway Stadium.

Following on from my previous post..... My opinion on why speedway at the NSS has failed this year - a lot of the blame must go to whoever has allowed speedway in the UK to be in the shambles it is. Whether the fault is with the BSPA or the SCB, a combination of both, or some other factor.... I dont know, I "left" speedway in the very early 1980's, and what I returned to in 2013 is VERY different to what I had seen in the 60's, 70's and 80's.What needs to be done.... a difficult one obviously but consider this Jenson Button expressed himself re why F1 is not as popular as it was...... France has lost its F! date, Italy and Germany are struggling financially to continue, and the latest circuit is Malaysia to say it may not continue when current contract ends - losing money. He suggests the sport is not attracting youngsters and what is needed is shorter F1 races - 90 minutes he says is too much, youngsters want shorter events to hold their attention. Football too is 90 minutes, but its all action packed. Speedway is action packed too, 4 riders going at it for 60 second bursts, surely that should command attention...... but not when a meeting can take up to 2 hours to complete 15 races, with nothing but boredom in between.. Speedway has the glitz going for it (shiny personalised bikes, and smart kevlars etc), but needs to connect more with supporters and more importantly, potential supporters - young supporters. Riders need to engage more with supporters too - whenever they see an opportunity. Perhaps Mort took a loan with his house as security, now no income he acnt pay the loan.

The new speedway stadium was part of Manchester City Councils plan to promote sport in that area. Etihad Man City stadium is just 2 miles away, the National Velodrome is within that area as well. It was all part of a plan to promote sport in the east area of Manchester. The fact the stadium centre green was mapped out for various ball games highlights that point. Manchester City Council would be well aware that speedway is a seasonal sport and running say 20 meetings per year. From statistics the Council would know what crowd attended the dog track speedway in the previous years to 2016 - that track is just a couple hundred yards away. So logically, someone with the expertise would have the responsibility of looking after the promotion of the whole stadium (perhaps excluding the speedway but maybe not). If that is so, some answers are due as to why expectations have not been realised. I do feel sorry for Dave Gordon and Chris Morton who have toiled very hard over the last 10 years to get a race track worthy of carrying the name of Belle Vue Aces - a team with loads of speedway history and renowned throughout the world of speedway. Irrespective of what has gone on re the new stadium I would like to say "thank you" to both of them

A shame really, he put in 10 years hard work to get a world class track back at Belle Vue, putting Belle Vue and British Speedway back on the world map for decent racer tracks. I reckon there would be some very jealous promotors in the UK.