The immediate future of speedway in Herts/Essex

[marko]

Romford dog stadium is being completely redone, both stands are/will be demolished and will be rebuilt, amazing thing though is that despite all the work going on the dog track is still in use.

It would be a cracking little place to have speedway but will never happen, too much housing.

But I have one idea, there is land just outside Chelmsford which is used for Grass track a few times a year, I wonder if that could be made into a speedway stadium? not really any housing around and its right next to Hylands Park which holds festivals and the like, which is far more noisy than our sport.

[JC!]

1 hour ago, marko said:

Romford dog stadium is being completely redone, both stands are/will be demolished and will be rebuilt, amazing thing though is that despite all the work going on the dog track is still in use.

It would be a cracking little place to have speedway but will never happen, too much housing.

But I have one idea, there is land just outside Chelmsford which is used for Grass track a few times a year, I wonder if that could be made into a speedway stadium? not really any housing around and its right next to Hylands Park which holds festivals and the like, which is far more noisy than our sport.

Just a quick point - Romford Stadium now has one stand, which has been extended and will remain. The other has been demolished and will not be replaced, it is designated for car parking.

I mention this as the track now has nothing between it and housing (about 40 meters away) meaning any possibility of use for speedway (however remote) is now extinguished.

[cityrebel]

19 hours ago, Rayleigh said:

The lease of the whole stadium is held by the Kart people, if BMR are running Flat Track they must be hiring the stadium from the Kart people.

Surely 'if' the kart people now own the stadium, they'd be better off staging regular speedway meetings rather than sporadic flat track events that attract one man and his dog. It all seems like smoke and mirrors to me.

[cityrebel]

10 hours ago, Jonny the spud said:

I hope if speedway does come back to Essex and anyone from previous promotions is involved, the riders owed thousands will be paid before any permission was granted. 

No different to those that run Rye then.

[Vince]

8 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

Surely 'if' the kart people now own the stadium, they'd be better off staging regular speedway meetings rather than sporadic flat track events that attract one man and his dog. It all seems like smoke and mirrors to me.

Sporadic flat track events with no paying spectators but a couple of hundred riders paid £45 each to race at Peterborough the weekend and no riders wages to be paid out! It's no secret that most Speedway meetings make a loss.

Add to that regular Speedway and flat track schools and at least you aren't running loss making events.

I hope league Speedway does take place at Rye House again but it will need to be run by somebody willing to invest money rather than make a profit.

[cityrebel]

14 minutes ago, Vince said:

Sporadic flat track events with no paying spectators but a couple of hundred riders paid £45 each to race at Peterborough the weekend and no riders wages to be paid out! It's no secret that most Speedway meetings make a loss.

Add to that regular Speedway and flat track schools and at least you aren't running loss making events.

I hope league Speedway does take place at Rye House again but it will need to be run by somebody willing to invest money rather than make a profit.

If that's the case, no wonder BMR don't want regular speedway back at Rye. Prehaps it's the way forward for other loss making venues.

[HertsRacer]

I'm sure the greyhound stadium would have been the first place The Bombers looked at after they were kicked out of  Brooklands. Far too close to housing for it to happen.

 

 

 

[Sings4Speedway]

2 hours ago, Vince said:

Sporadic flat track events with no paying spectators but a couple of hundred riders paid £45 each to race at Peterborough the weekend and no riders wages to be paid out! It's no secret that most Speedway meetings make a loss.

Add to that regular Speedway and flat track schools and at least you aren't running loss making events.

I hope league Speedway does take place at Rye House again but it will need to be run by somebody willing to invest money rather than make a profit.

Spot on. I have heard other promotions say in the past that if they thought about it too much they would cry as running Speedway is often out of love rather than financial sense. 

As much as id love to see a team back at Rye house it makes much better financial sense to run flat tracks, practice days & amateur events where riders turn up and pay to ride. If i was pushing the boat out maybe a few combined events/challenge fixtures with low points money but low entry fees. Sidecars might be a step to far at Rye but there is certainly a chance of making some money out of the venue but it won't be huge amounts.

[cityrebel]

I still think that running NL speedway at Rye on a sunday afternoon could be viable, but professional racing would be a massive gamble in the sports current climate.

[Chairboy]

4 hours ago, cityrebel said:

I still think that running NL speedway at Rye on a sunday afternoon could be viable, but professional racing would be a massive gamble in the sports current climate.

I agree, I would happily support an NDL team at Rye House, and I know I'm not alone in saying that. In terms of it's facilities and ease of access (or lack of it), RH suits that level of racing. 

[Rayleigh]

1 hour ago, White City Rebel said:

I agree, I would happily support an NDL team at Rye House, and I know I'm not alone in saying that. In terms of it's facilities and ease of access (or lack of it), RH suits that level of racing. 

Glad to hear, this lets hope you get the chance. The Jim Mead project sounds promising

[marko]

Having seen some recent footage of the site, (Arena Essex) hardly anything has changed and certainly nothing has changed that would have prevented speedway for continuing, it’s makes me feel even sadder that the site is just sitting there doing nothing, when it could have been used for one more season and kept the whole exposure of the club going.

[steve roberts]

7 hours ago, marko said:

Having seen some recent footage of the site, (Arena Essex) hardly anything has changed and certainly nothing has changed that would have prevented speedway for continuing, it’s makes me feel even sadder that the site is just sitting there doing nothing, when it could have been used for one more season and kept the whole exposure of the club going.

Just like Cowley.

[False dawn]

1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Just like Cowley.

or Brandon

[Sings4Speedway]

Any truth in the rumour that Rye House has been sold to the go kart track?

[HGould]

16 hours ago, steve roberts said:

Just like Cowley.

 

On 7/25/2019 at 12:08 PM, marko said:

Having seen some recent footage of the site, (Arena Essex) hardly anything has changed and certainly nothing has changed that would have prevented speedway for continuing, it’s makes me feel even sadder that the site is just sitting there doing nothing, when it could have been used for one more season and kept the whole exposure of the club going.

demise of Arena/Lakeside I thing as much to do with financial mis-management before they were evicted by LandOwner for development to proceed than it was the eviction for development

I remember them being very much a Club in latter seasons who struggled to keep afloat and as Speedway Star (Peter Oakes) reported some months ago, some huge liabilities incurred.

[HGould]

8 minutes ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Any truth in the rumour that Rye House has been sold to the go kart track?

shame if true as the Speedway Star did report a potential new Owner and thoughts of Connor Dugard going in as new Promoter were mentioned in the Star's new season review back in March.

Be a big blow to speedway to lose it forever despite recent issues there.

[Guest]

8 hours ago, HGould said:

shame if true as the Speedway Star did report a potential new Owner and thoughts of Connor Dugard going in as new Promoter were mentioned in the Star's new season review back in March.

Be a big blow to speedway to lose it forever despite recent issues there.

As in the London area it has been with so many tracks/stadiums e.g Wembley, West Ham, Wimbledon, New Cross, Harringay, Walthamstow - all in post-WW2 years.

[cityrebel]

On 7/25/2019 at 7:48 PM, steve roberts said:

Just like Cowley.

And Reading.

[steve roberts]

7 hours ago, cityrebel said:

And Reading.

Cowley stadium is just sitting there deteriorating because of stubborn owners (whoever that might be now) and eventually will go the same way as aforementioned Reading, Cradley, White City and Wimbledon etc etc.