MattB

Would love to be with you in the trenches....

Have only been to Birmingham and Plymouth so far. Brum crowds are poor and have been for the last three seasons (think they were up a bit last year, but certainly not enough to break even), crowd at Plymouth last night was decent to be fair.

A lot of speedway people are sadly quite happy for it to be run in this amateurish and low key way as social gathering for their mates, hence anyone who comes into speedway with any form of vision finds that the small-minded existing promoters simply close ranks.

They gambled that Wolves closing would bolster their crowds. Some Wolves fans have gone there but you couldn't claim masses of them have.

I'd go further and say that if these landlords were allowed to open their betting stalls at speedway meetings then it would change their thoughts. Had Entain had this option, they'd likely have been sticking a contract under CVS's nose rather than an eviction. notice.

Property Development remains the great nemesis that speedway faces im afraid. OK there was huge issues over the viability of Birmingham, but you couldn't suggest Coventry was not viable (albeit supported by stock car racing) but that didn't stop Brandon Estates buying the site and kicking both of them out. Likewise at Wolves, where a viable operation was removed simply because the owner no longer wanted us there. Doesn't matter how many fans you get through the gates. A speedway club in the UK is only secure as their next lease date.

Double post

Been told by someone in the know that there is zero chance of speedway being included in the plans for the old Wheels Park site. Knighthead have no interest in any form of motor sport.

Coventry was better after it was reshaped in 98. Bradford was for big matches, though I was never that keen on it for league matches. Didn't help that every time Wolves went there it seemed to rain mind you.

You're always going to get this perception home advantage whether you stage it at Belle Vue, Ipswich or Scunthorpe. Andy Smith won three British Finals in a row in the 90s at Coventry when there was a far stronger pool of riders than there is today, and guess what - he was a Bees rider at the time! I think there is mileage in moving it from track to track - its a shared event after all - but if one of the riders races at that venue every week, immediately everyone will say he has an advantage. It's more pronounced at Belle Vue because one of our two GP regulars (at least the one who bothers to ride over here) is a Belle Vue rider.

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Great post. Added to other posters who practically start letting off fireworks when certain tracks close down.

Not just a Birmingham issue either. British promoters have previous for going down the "ignore it and it'll go away" route when it comes to Chinese whispers.

Sad to see. Even though Wolves were invariably beaten there before we even started, it produced some great racing. The epic runoff between Ryan Sullivan and Mikael Karlsson in 96 was an all time classic - probably the best race I've seen live