25yearfan Posted June 20, 2014 Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 Has anybody involved in speedway been in touch with Mr Taggart? The last Wimbledon speedway promotion who I believe keep a close eye on developments or the BSPA? Surely Mr Taggarts bid would be strengthened by the inclusion of the resurrection of a famous team who represented the Borough? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur cross Posted June 20, 2014 Report Share Posted June 20, 2014 (edited) Surely Mr Taggarts bid would be strengthened by the inclusion of the resurrection of a famous team who represented the Borough? The big problem for speedway (from the noisy engines angle) is that even Paschal Taggart's plan involves around 400-to-450 flats being built on part of the Wimbledon Stadium site to help fund his revamping of the greyhound track as a repeat of the apartments he included to help fund his revamp of Dublin's premier dog track at Shelbourne Park a decade ago. Hence speedway has never been a high priority in his Wimbledon plans regardless of any enquiries that might have come from either the BSPA or past promotions of the Dons ... it would take speedway to prove its revenue-stream would be worth sacrificing most or all of those flats to get it any further up the priority-list and that's pretty much impossible. I haven't seen speedway mentioned at all in the past few months even when other non-greyhound activities have been mentioned like making sure the number of existing squash courts and the fitness club are part of this overall revamp. But at least the Taggart project clearly keeps the sporting floorspace on the site in an oval shape that would be big enough to allow any possible future permanent installation of a speedway or stock-car track if noise regulations were to change in motorsport's favour. The rival Galliard & AFC Wimbledon plan involves 650 flats on the site with the room for those extra flats created by having a much smaller rectangular sporting floorspace that would only be big enough for a football pitch with all the stands close into the touchlines and goal-lines. That would leave the costly temporary installation of any motorsport track as the only option if the football stadium's built and, even then, the proximity of the seats to the pitch compared to somewhere like Cardiff-Millennium or Copenhagen-Parken would result in much smaller lap-lengths than at either of those SGP-venues, probably restricting the lap-length beneath the minimum allowed for FIM-events. With the exception of the few Conference League years in the early-2000's and any challenge-match revivals either side of that, there hasn't been a Wimbledon speedway team competing week-in week-out for over 20 years so the distinguished earlier history of speedway's Dons means little to younger generations in that area. But since Wimbledon FC left their ground at the other end of Plough Lane in the summer of 1991, there's always been either Wimbledon FC playing a few miles away at Selhurst Park or AFC Wimbledon building up again from non-league levels once the Football League controversially allowed the Selhurst-based team to switch to becoming the MK Dons at Milton Keynes so the concept of a Wimbledon-named football team has far more recent continuity than speedway can muster. And there's also some desire within Merton Council to bring AFC Wimbledon back into the borough as a way of righting the shoddy way that council treated Wimbledon FC's efforts to find a new site in the borough in the early/mid-1980's when it was clear that football team's results were outgrowing its home ground even before the regulations after the Bradford fire and Hillsborough crush totally ruled out any worthwhile revamp of football's Plough Lane. Edited June 20, 2014 by arthur cross Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racers and royals Posted July 1, 2014 Report Share Posted July 1, 2014 Latest on the greyhound v football situation at Wimbledon http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/residents-feedback-on-wimbledon-greyhound-plan-positive/1682617/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racers and royals Posted October 23, 2014 Report Share Posted October 23, 2014 Latest on the Greyhound v football situation at Wimbledon http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/paschal-taggart-tide-starting-to-turn-in-battle-for-wimbledon/1737601/ (I will be there on the 11th November for the St Leger/Puppy derby finals) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racers and royals Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Latest on the stadium redevelopment http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/clock-ticking-for-wimbledon-stadium-bid/1801297/top/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 6, 2015 Report Share Posted January 6, 2015 Thanks for the update. Pascal Taggart's bid may well be the preferred option, given the support of the local residents association. Here's hoping anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racers and royals Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 Latest on the bid to stop AFC Wimbledon taking over the site http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/diane-mclean-mclean-issues-a-draft-letter-for-greyhound-fans/1808372/top/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racers and royals Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 Latest on the " battle " for the stadium http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/gla-boost-for-wimbledon-campaign/1819658/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racers and royals Posted July 24, 2015 Report Share Posted July 24, 2015 latest news-it`s getting a bit feisty.http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/afc-has-jumped-the-gun-at-plough-lane-mclean/1921608/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iris123 Posted July 25, 2015 Report Share Posted July 25, 2015 latest news-it`s getting a bit feisty.http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/afc-has-jumped-the-gun-at-plough-lane-mclean/1921608/ The greyhound woman comes over as very bigoted against football,which isn't going to help her campaign I feel.If she was more reasonable with her points it might come over better to the general public 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salty Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 (edited) Wimbledon Stadium: Update 1: http://www.lewisham-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=114819&headline=Scores%20of%20AFC%20Wimbledon%20fans%20set%20to%20turn%20up%20to%20watch%20historic%20Plough%20Lane%20vote§ionIs=sport&searchyear=2015 Update 2: http://www.southlondon-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=114582 Very one eyed reporting in my view. The SLP article gives the impression that the "hardest hurdle" was the Dons Trust voting to sell Kingsmeadow and move back to Plough Lane. Surely the hardest hurdle is getting the planning permission? No mention of the alternative plans to keep the greyhounds. This article gives more detail of the issues that still have to be addressed... http://www.southlondon-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=114818&headline=AFC%20Wimbledon%20chief:%20It%20could%20be%20months%20before%20we%20know%20whether%20Plough%20Lane%20Stadium%20will%20go%20ahead§ionIs=sport&searchyear=current Whilst this report gives the residents view... http://www.racingpost.com/news/greyhounds/football-simply-not-wanted-by-wimbledon-residents/1992928/top/ Edited December 6, 2015 by salty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sidney Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 Council planning meeting today. Details on Merton council website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovalfan Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 Permission given for redevelopment. It does appear that the decision was already made. The end for last historic venue in london. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The White Knight Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Forwarded message::: :::::::::: Jon Stevens34 mins So the decision has been made. Galliard homes along with AFC Wimbledon have just been granted permission to redevelop Wimbledon Stadium. For the purposes of Football. Sad day for a Speedway Club with such a great History. A real shame. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Doctor... Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Sad day for a Speedway Club with such a great History. A real shame. I'm personally happy. Wimbledon football has been around perhaps 30 years longer than the speedway, and lets be honest, speedway could never have come back there. I'm just gutted for the banger racing community personally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Snackette Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Fantastic news. So pleased that common sense has prevailed and AFC Wimbledon is returning to their spiritual home. One can only admire how a club founded by supporters as recently as June 2002, have achieved so much in such a short time. From a speedway perspective, it's a pity that the supporters of Wimbledon Speedway were not as committed, organised and enthusiastic as their football counterparts......and the sport may never have been lost to this part of south London!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovalfan Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Nothing like rewriting history is there? Just as the football club have done. The dons moved to milton keynes?? Afc have no history with plough lane. And speedway was chucked out by galliard. Maybe if someone had millions to flatter the owners they may have been saved. But some people live in the real world. And a new dog stadium just may have seen them persuaded to have a speedway track there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reviresco Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 So, according to the Greyhound Board of Great Britain spokesman in gustix link: "Wimbledon is the last track within the M25 and we think it is important there is a track here in London, because greyhound racing is still the fifth most popular sport in this country." Have Romford and Crayford both been moved to outside the M25 since I was last there then? http://www.romfordgreyhoundstadium.co.uk/ http://www.crayford.com/about.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Snackette Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Excuse my confusion........... but I find your reply rater contradictory: ........... Not at all contradictory. A brief history lesson for you so you might understand just how exciting this news is. AFC Wimbledon was formed In June 2002 as a direct reaction to the decision of the Football Association to allow Wimbledon F.C. to relocate to Milton Keynes some 60 miles away. The large majority of Wimbledon F.C. supporters very strongly opposed the idea of moving the club so far, feeling that a club transplanted to Milton Keynes would no longer represent Wimbledon F.C.'s legacy and traditions, and, having campaigned against the proposed move, viewed its official sanctioning as the "death of their club" AFC Wimbledon considers itself a spiritual successor or "phoenix" version of the original team. As a result a move back to Plough Lane, just a stones throw from the site of their own stadium, is for many a return to their "spiritual" home. It just shows what can be achieved by "Fan Power", if you have people with the passion, determination and commitment. As I wrote before if the so-called fans of Wimbledon Speedway had showed half the commitment and passion of the founding fathers of AFC Wimbledon, then speedway in this part of South London may not have been lost!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Sidney Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Not sure if Mr Snackette is being deliberately inflammatory in suggesting that as Wimbledon speedway supporters we could have in effect saved speedway at Plough Lane. Anyone wanting to understand the real financial background should read the previous excellent posts by Arthur Cross. The stadium owners made it abundantly clear that they didn't want speedway. It's no surprise that Galliard Homes wanted to develop the site to maximise housing whilst meeting the requirement to maintain sporting use. Motor sport of any kind is not compatible with that. I would be interested to see the financial plan. I hope AFC has done it's homework. Sport is littered with sucessful business people who loose the plot when it comes to sport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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