MajorMauger

The executive stand at Odsal is situated where the old 1980's/90's speedway pits used to be on the 3rd and 4th bend. It is still possible to run speedway at Bradford but extra safety fencing and slight bend realignment would likely be required on that 3rd and 4th bend. The main reason speedway hasn't returned to Odsal is the very high costs involved in making the track suitable for speedway, building new speedway pits and signing a team plus weekly running costs. This is when one considers that in Bradfords last season in 1997 they won the inaugural Elite League with an excellent, exciting team that included Havelock, Loram and Screen yet often struggled to attract crowds of 4 figures which resulted in a big loss. The closure was probably heavily influenced by these losses although the Ham promotion at the time claimed it was pending stadium redevelopment that made them end the speedway.

The BSPL are desperate for the top flight to increase in track numbers. I suspect both Northampton and Bradford would struggle to get viable crowds.

I just hope the BSPL are helping to finance Northampton cause the chances of them getting viable crowds is remote in this day and age at a venue that hasn't staged speedway for 59 years when it was a training track/open license venue (you must question why 2nd Division racing wasn't tried there in the 1968- early 80's glory years of the old National League/ Division 2? ) and also in an area that is a has lots of ethnic minorities who nearly all aren't interested in speedway. Team wise they have to be competitive which will be a struggle given the lack of riders and then you have a situation similar to Birmingham last season where they were just making the numbers up with an inferior team and getting crowds around the 500 mark.

You've missed Boy George the charismatic lead singer of that great sounding 80's Band Culture Club! Garritty committed some vile crimes but has done his time. I'm sure at his age and his upbringing means he will likely struggle to get away from the underworld he's been involved in but as he's done his time it wouldn't be illegal for a speedway team to sign him. I'd insist on regular drugs tests for him and a large donation from Garritty to his victims and a zero tolerance policy if he steps out of line again. Overall a very sad story cause he has/ or maybe now had, more ability than most riders and could of been one of Britains top riders.

That is probably very close to the truth?

I agree it doesn't sound great but then again in the 1970's and 80's when speedway was in a healthier state many tracks wern't confirmed as running until as late as March and Peterborough's first season in 1970 at their home track didn't start until May of that season! Lets hope we have a pleasant surprise in the new year with Ipswich confirmed as running and a former track reopening!

The mythical new team is intriguing to say the least. Personally without any inside knowledge and just speculating what seems the more likely, I'd say "THE DEAN MACHINE" is probably closest to the truth suggesting a current Champs running a 2nd team like Oxford did with other Premier teams helping to subsidise what would likely be a loss making venture. I'd of thought the Oxford promotion won't be getting their fingers burnt again after trying it for two seasons but I'd suggest Oxford is one of the few Championship venues that doesn't have major restrictions on nights they can stage speedway so maybe a Swindon team running out of there? Scunthorpes Championship team is currently only propped up by their practise days, amatuer meetings and stock cars so unless it is jointly funded by the other Prem tracks I couldn't see Godfrey fancying taking on a load of debt and undermining the Scorpians team at the same time. A track running 2 senior teams would likely need to be Centrally based in order to possibly attract floating support. As for former venues still standing - Rye House and Coventry aren't ready, Arena Essex is overgrown and the owners seemingly aren't interested, the Showground owners at Peterborough have been approached but don't want the sport back, Eastbournes the same, Newcastle, Sunderland, Wolves and Kent are owned by big gambling firms seemingly not interested in speedway unless it was for extortionate rent, Great Yarmouth stadium which last staged speedway in 1961 is still running and in good nick but would cost a small fortune to reopen and they often struggled for crowds in those days, Workingtons Derwent Park is under 2 miles from the current Workington speedway track who struggle to get viable crowds in the Championship, Carmarthen if it still stands couldn't get viable crowds for 3rd tier racing, Hampden Park and Cliftonhill Coatbridge still stand but would cost an arm and a leg to get going, Hulls New Craven Park has been squared of like Halifax's Shaygrounds, Brafield, Northampton hasn't staged the sport since the late 60's and even then only ran training/ junior level racing which didn't last for long and Bradfords Odsal Stadium would surely cost a small fortune to reopen a track that couldn't get good crowds when they last ran in 1997 and won the Elite League! - It would be great to see a former Centre reopen and for all we know things maybe happening at one of the above venues but they will be reopening in current times, in a top flight that is floundering and just to make up the numbers. Current Non League tracks IoW and Mildenhall could be possibilities but the IoW only get good crowds during the holiday period and the Fen Tigers being in the middle of Ipswich and King's Lynn would struggle to get enough through the gate on a regular basis although I'm sure local Derbies would bring in good crowds. I reckon they are waiting to see what happens at Ipswich and the mystery team will be a 2nd team running out of a Championship track to make up the numbers in the tragic event of Ipswich not running?

Even if the stadium was still available at Perry Bar it surely was only a matter of time before Nigel Tolley got fed up with/ couldn't afford to keep s@unking hundreds of thousands of pounds propping up the Brummies? Newcastle closed because a very weak team was attracting poor crowds so the promotor Rob Grant Jnr pulled the plug. Grant was handicapped when he bought Newcastle speedway cause the previous promotion apparently left a large unpaid VAT Bill which he knew nothing of beforehand. This combined with Grants insistence on pushing people away who could have helped him to make the venture viable resulted with the sad end result of closure. - Without Newcastle operating this increases the possibility that a speedway team at Bolden, Sunderland could be viable but the having same stadium owners who own Brough Park renders this very unlikely. Isn't there another greyhound track not that far away from the Sunderland area or has that now closed? The new owners of Sittingbourne's Central Park stadium promised previous owner Roger Cearns that they would accommodate speedway and not make it unviable for any speedway promotion to continue running. A huge rental hike broke all these promises and a very well appointed stadium in an area that supported speedway in good numbers was lost to the sport. Nottingham Greyhound stadium remains the most likely venue for a speedway revival in that part of the East Midlands other than a building a brand new stadium, though as a previous poster suggests, it'd take a very brave rich person to open a speedway track in the UK in current times.

The lack of investment and potentially purchasing stadiums in the 70's and 80's when possibly some speedway promoters could of done could of resulted in more speedway tracks still operational in present times but then again the speedway promotion owning Somerset speedway didn't save that place did it? - Anyone that has an asset that can potentially make them financially secure and wealthy for life will soon forget about trying to prop up small profit margin/loss making speedway outfits and stadiums however much they enjoy the sport. Norwich and Southampton were two of the biggest speedway operations in the early 60's yet both were sold to property developers. In the mid 1990's Cradley was probably the best supported track in the Country and the stadium was owned by people that in the past had run the speedway yet they ended up with the same fate. I'm afraid evolution has a lot to do with speedways current plight. In the late 60's when speedway had a major uplift in popularity many people who spectated in the immediate post war boom period from 1946 - early 50's were still about, nearly every large Town or City had at least one Greyhound stadium operational which in the most were ideal for installing a speedway track, most working class people had more disposable income combined with cheaper admission prices, persons WITH a TV only had 3 channels rather than the hundreds available today and the leisure market wasn't nowhere near as saturated as it is today. Also the advances in health and safety from the 1970's onwards has escalated costs as well as the engine and bike advancements which has resulted in running speedway tracks and participating in speedway being out of reach to more and more people than it used to. - While mistakes have been made which in fairness probably anyone would have done I can't see being realistic, how speedway racing in this Country would/could have taken a different path. That said most sports in this Country don't make money and rely on enthusiastic benefactors to survive. The present dilemma is that a 5 team top flight is not sustainable while the 2nd tier which is just about sustainable doesn't want to see its products undermined to prop up the ailing top flight. - British speedways been here before in 1990 and 1994 and the 2nd Division in them days ended up being seriously compromised to help the top flight. - The only way I can see things working out is one professional League with 5 or 6 person teams regardless of GP rider availability and teams running on their preferred racenight. Surely theres enough free Fridays and Saturdays from late March to the end of September to work around the GP's?

Even little Buxton, another currently defunct track looking to reopen that you've wrote of, in the peak district Hills (quite literally go there and see it, its a very unique venue!) would get more than 150 fans let alone Coventry one of the best supported teams in Britain who I estimate would average at least 2000 fans a meeting in their 1st comeback season ! Mr/Miss/Ms or whatever you are can you please inform everyone what links you have to Clark Osbourne cause while I understand if speedways not your cup of tea, your constant campaign of slagging the sport of on a forum dedicated to the very sport you deride is tiresome, not helpful to anyone and stinks of someone involved with organisations looking to make money out of building houses on speedway stadiums?

Most football clubs lose money that is a fact. I'm not comparing football with speedway but one thing the two sports have in common is rich benefactors propping up clubs. I'm just suggesting that those doom and gloom mongers who say that speedways finished cause its losing money isn't looking at sport across the board in this Country which mostly loses money.

From left to right - Len Silver team manager, Marvyn Cox, Jens Rasmussen, Ian Clark, Nigel Sparshot, Mel Taylor, Simon Wigg. On bike, obviously Hans Nielsen.

Well Central Park has two spare days a week, presumably one of them is a Monday night, the night the Kings used to race there? Would make an exceptional top flight speedway venue in an area that supported 3rd Division speedway in decent numbers at the same stadium. No doubt the rent would be high but surely worth asking about?

Your sound stinks like someone with little speedway knowledge other than a deliberate attempt to belittle the sport for an ulterior reason - Your something to do with Brandon Associates and/or Clark Osbourne? Your totally oblivious to the history of Buxton speedway, what it stood for and was about! Buxton never got more than 2-300 on a good day. It operated on a shoestring budget and was an ideal track for the lower cost 3rd tier and helped to produce many riders by propping up the 3rd Division. - Most of the crowd were fans of senior tracks getting a Sunday afternoon speedway fix. I'm sure it will continue in a similar vein if it reopens next season.