BuckTaylor64 Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 The super little stadium has been left unused since the demise of Rushden and Diamonds and then Kettering moved out. Would make a great new venue for the sport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Stadia Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Would make a great National Speedway Stadium. Ready made! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobMcCaffery Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Very likely to be vetoed by Peterborough if any real plans were to be formed - just 23 miles away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur cross Posted January 29, 2014 Report Share Posted January 29, 2014 Yes, the stadium's only about 20 years old and, as far as I know, isn't currently in any great significant use. But good luck to anyone hoping to put speedway into it. For a start, you'd struggle to fit in a track much bigger than 250 metres ... don't forget, the Grand Prix track at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium is only 285 metres and that fits into a floor space helped by the slightly bigger dimensions of a rugby union pitch whereas there's very little room at Nene Park between the stands and the football pitch so that certainly means you're dealing with a smaller floor space. While there aren't any houses immediately adjacent to Nene Park, most of Irthlingborough's housing is easily within a mile of it ... admittedly, all the houses are to the west of the stadium so most of the time the prevailing wind would take the speedway noise away from the town but it would still be a huge battle regarding noise regulations to establish a new speedway venue so close to Irthlingborough's amount of housing. Meanwhile, the main A6 road to the west of the stadium and the industrial estate to the south-east make it unlikely you could create much extra space for a bigger track by knocking down the existing stands and starting again with an empty site. Finally, from where are you going to get enough of a crowd to make speedway at Nene Park profitable ? !! ... the stadium's a "white elephant" to some extent because its construction (and indeed the whole Rushden & Diamonds FC project) was funded by Max Griggs thanks to his multi-million-pound connections with Dr Martens shoes/boots. The local towns of Wellingborough, Irthlingborough and Rushden wouldn't normally be considered anywhere near big enough to justify having a Football League club and they've no history of backing any other local sports team either so you're then needing to draw a hefty chunk of your home crowd from either Northampton or Kettering which are both around 20 minutes' drive away. But that means competing for spectators with all of Northampton Saints rugby union (former Heineken European Cup winners), Northampton Town FC and Northants county cricket. All in all, nice little stadium but surely there must be better potential sites for speedway elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frigbo Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 Brafield isn't too far away. Speedway never took hold there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woz01 Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 (edited) It was rumoured my club Coventry were going to move there last summer and it got me thinking about a speedway track there. Modifications would be needed to fit a track in though. Edited January 30, 2014 by woz01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spencebel Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 If it could be done, it would be an amazing stadium for speedway... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ten years after Posted January 30, 2014 Report Share Posted January 30, 2014 The current promotion don't own the stadium, and too many car events run better on tarmac. You would never fit a speedway track inside current track. I would say no chance of speedway running. Many people have looked at it. There was a time when speedway ran very successfully on the present shape track though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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