I'm old enough (nuff said) to remember when Rayleigh and Rye House were smaller than small, but that was way back when I supported Harringay Racers.
Sunderland deserve to be allowed to appoint a team, the catchment area is good and the closest alternatives would be Newscastle or anything in the Teeside area. Anyway, Sunderland's stadium looks great.
I remember Rye House being what I would consider to be a very dangerous track. It was very small-time, it's safety fence (if you could call it that) comprised 4"x4" framework on which was nailed sheets of corugated iron, on the straights you could stick your hand out and touch the rider. But that was in the mid fifties, I take it everything has improved now!
The problem with British speedway is a closed shop attitude. A major mistake was making a grab for Sky TV money when approaches should've been made to one of the bigger five channels BBC, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4, or Channel 5. Sky's presentation good though it is, is very limited in catchment of viewers. Speedway will always run as a poor relative to football, tennis and cricket on Sky whereas on any of the five mentioned it 'could' receive tremendous promotion.
Clubs need to get a promotions manager involved. Because you rode a speedway bike when you were younger may well mean you know the business of speedway racing. However, running a speedway team and track doesn't mean you know how to actually promote your sport!
