Sites For New Speedway Tracks, Three Routes?

[kieren]

Heres another thaught for you all, Most race courses (horses) are quite large and not allways in built up areas, most have huge infields so why not put speedway tracks in the middle?

 

plenty of parking and facilities are there and im sure most of them would be thankfull for extra income

[Wolfgang Amadeus]

Heres another thaught for you all, Most race courses (horses) are quite large and not allways in built up areas, most have huge infields so why not put speedway tracks in the middle?

 

plenty of parking and facilities are there and im sure most of them would be thankfull for extra income

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I was at Cheltenham racecourse yesterday for an event in their function rooms, and I had similar thoughts. There is a massive unused area in the middle. The attendance at the event was at least on a par with a conference league crowd, so why not?

[Mylor]

I posted this on another thread which has now died. As it's related to new venues I should have posted it here so I've moved it. Amendments and explanations in italics

 

Bit of a quantum leap this.......perhaps it's a new topic. We'll see.

 

Steve started two topics recently, this one (Rain-offs) and the 'Dealing with noise' one. Now let's assume we're dealing with a greenfield site (Cradley?, Trelawney (Par Moor)? and others). The promoter needs to build some form of stadium but it needs financing and he needs to overcome problems of noise. He/she also requires to maximise income by overcoming rain-offs, which will presumably make his venue rather attractive when it comes to staging prestige events.

 

The design would be based on an oval of industrial storage units/workshops (income) with the stadium in the centre. The storage units, or any offices/hospitality suites built on top (more income) form the foundations of the dome which becomes a permanent fixture. See http://www.aaask.com/sports/trainingdome.html (scroll down to see inside).

 

 

Voila.....the quietest, dryest speedway venue in the country with an all year round income. Perhaps a hockey pitch on the centre green?

 

Mr John Postlethwaite.................... Can we have a word about the new Reading Stadium??

[TonyM]

I posted this on another thread which has now died. As it's related to new venues I should have posted it here so I've moved it. Amendments and explanations in italics

 

Bit of a quantum leap this.......perhaps it's a new topic. We'll see.

 

Steve started two topics recently, this one (Rain-offs) and the 'Dealing with noise' one. Now let's assume we're dealing with a greenfield site (Cradley?, Trelawney (Par Moor)? and others). The promoter needs to build some form of stadium but it needs financing and he needs to overcome problems of noise. He/she also requires to maximise income by overcoming rain-offs, which will presumably make his venue rather attractive when it comes to staging prestige events.

 

The design would be based on an oval of industrial storage units/workshops (income) with the stadium in the centre. The storage units, or any offices/hospitality suites built on top (more income) form the foundations of the dome which becomes a permanent fixture. See http://www.aaask.com/sports/trainingdome.html (scroll down to see inside).

Voila.....the quietest, dryest speedway venue in the country with an all year round income.    Perhaps a hockey pitch on the centre green?

 

Mr John Postlethwaite.................... Can we have a word about the new Reading Stadium??

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Cant see where the crowd would go?

[Mylor]

Not difficult. Entrances would be between the storage bays and just like at Cardiff or most football grounds, you'd climb a few steps and find yourself in the middle of the stands, which, of course, are around the oval, inside the storage units/workshops. Just think about the cupboard under your stairs. That's the layout, sort of.

[Malcolm]

[The promoter needs to build some form of stadium but it needs financing and he needs to overcome problems of noise. He/she also requires to maximise income by overcoming rain-offs, which will presumably make his venue rather attractive when it comes to staging prestige events.

 

The design would be based on an oval of industrial storage units/workshops (income) with the stadium in the centre. The storage units, or any offices/hospitality suites built on top (more income) form the foundations of the dome which becomes a permanent fixture. ]

 

 

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I agree

http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/ind...topic=5957&st=0

[fireblade]

A few years ago Worcester was mentioned, anyone know what happened to that idea.

[eric i]

What about Hull haven't heard about them for a long time.

[KN1]

I went to a long track at Hereford race course once and no horses were harmed...

 

And what about Matcham just outside Ringwood? Could be a bit of local opposition for Poole!   

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afraid not a chance now, we were looking at putting one inside stock car track, but despite matchams being there since 1926 as mx venue we ae now heavily restricted with high court injunction on dates and times we can run and have this week heard that the council are considering putting abatement notices on stock cars, clay pidgeon go karts and corporate quads, in fact everything on site noisy or not, sums the attitude of local goverment. and yet 2 weeks ago the airport about 1 mile away gets go ahead for expansion. oh and by the way one of main complainants to matchams is former scrambler from sixties and short lived (about 6 months) not popular, dont say his name, poole speedway manager from about 25 yrs ago. sorry rant over

[star ghost]

somewhat earlier Snetterton in Norfolk was mentioned. This was given the go ahead at one time but Mildenhall objected (Wally Mawdesley) and the possibility died.

[Lakeside Shrimper]

Some of the suggestions are great, but, Speedway used to attract large crowds (1930's 40's 50's) I know there are many other socio-economic reasons for this but it might be partly the fact that many tracks were in inner city stadiums which were easily accessible.

To get to some tracks by public transport is often too difficult especially for new fans or people that want to try speedway and some of the above suggestions would fall into this category.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

For what its worth I do not think this is as much of an issue as you may think.

90% of new football stadia are located on out of town sites, and some, like Coventry's Ricoh Arena are a fair distance from major forms of public transport. This does not stop people from visiting...far from it.

Working in this field, I am aware that the so called 'new stadium effect' typically generates improvements in gates of 20% on average for the first couple of seasons, post construction.

 

A massive factor in this is the improvements of facilities from the previous stadium. New facilities will encourage more women, children and new fans in general to attend a sports stadium.

Draw a parallel with the condition of the vast majority of today's speedway venues and the drop in crowds appears to tie in with the fact that over time (particularly post Taylor Report), potential new support will vote with their feet if facilities are not upgraded accordingly.

 

Speedway has the distinct advantage over football for instance that home and away fans are able to mingle freely and appreciate one another's riders with a hint of friendly banter thrown into the mix. It does not suffer from the still-existant problems that football has struggled to shake off...for this, we should be thankful, but it is clear to me, that until speedway teams (particularly at the top level) are in a position to own their own stadia, the improvements I have mentioned are far from a priority, and speedway will be unable to shake off its frankly insular image.