2020 NL Season

[cityrebel]

10 minutes ago, waco said:

BMR have ruined the place!,,,,,,!

I don't think BMR are responsible for the grandstand being pulled down, but they are to blame for the rest of the mess. Rye used to be such a pleasant place to watch speedway on a summers evening.

[cityrebel]

8 minutes ago, Richard Weston said:

Who owns the Rye House stadium/premises now? 

And, if it its leased, who are they?

I think the Karting people own it now.

[Brian]

I was also at Rye this afternoon and it did look sad to see the main stand partially demolished, especially as there were trophies sitting on the old tea bar counter. Hope they're removed before the rest is brought down. 

It was also noticeable that foundations have been laid so whilst the stand is coming down, something else will be built in its place. There's also walls being built behind the earth bank at turn 3 so somethings possibly going up there too. 

Overall the place looks awful at the moment. 

[cityrebel]

Someone said there was going to be a gym built in it's place. Seems strange to me.

Edited December 1, 2019 by cityrebel
Spelling mistake

[TurnTwo]

Maybe they’re just developing the stadium for other sources of income to help maintain the cost of running the place? Don’t all be pessimistic. You never know whet might happen 

[Chris116]

A building site never looks smart so let them finish the work before we complain about it. The old stand was not suitable for purpose and I always feared someone falling and getting badly hurt. While I have no objection to a gym, I do think they need a stand with seating both outside and behind glass. The problem with BMR was they started a rebuild on a number of areas but never finished any of them. What has happened to the motorcycle dealership that BMR claimed would be the saviour of the stadium? 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Chris116
Spelling!

[cityrebel]

18 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

A building site never looks smart so let them finish the work before we complain about it. The old stand was not suitable for purpose and I always feared someone falling and getting badly hurt. While I have no objection to a gym, I do think they need a stand with seating both outside and behind glass. The problem with BMR was they started a rebuild on a number of areas but never finished any of them. What has happened to the motorcycle dealership that BMR claimed would be the saviour of the stadium? 

Sitting there empty. People are creatures of habit. Demolishing the popular long bar was a big mistake by BMR. It was the start of the decline in my eyes.

[Chris116]

14 hours ago, cityrebel said:

Sitting there empty. People are creatures of habit. Demolishing the popular long bar was a big mistake by BMR. It was the start of the decline in my eyes.

I agree that with hindsight knocking the old long bar down was a mistake but if they had got the motorcycle dealership up and running quickly it could have brought in a lot more profit 52 weeks of the year instead of 16 to 20 home meetings. With that profit they could have built a new and more fit for purpose stand and bar to further improve the stadium, instead all they did was knock things down and never finish them. 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Chris116

[Bunce]

On 11/29/2019 at 3:55 PM, Sings4Speedway said:

Im guessing you weren't going regularly when Kings Lynn ran a NL side (in fairness not many people went regularly and that was the problem) however the comments from those who did attend and the visits i had was that the entertainment was far higher at NL level than the top flight gate and go. Shame it didn't prove to be sustainable in the end. 

I did go to some matches, and it was very entertaining, but viewing in an almost empty stadium is a spooky experience. Going back many years I hardly ever missed a "Starlets" meeting, those were the days!  Unfortunately the cost of attending any Lynn meeting for me now is quite expensive having to do a 100 mile round trip, and then programmes for myself and the wife etc leaves me little change out of  £60 taking fuel in to account. I'm a pensioner now (it comes to us all) so I pick and choose Lynn meetings, but getting back to my original comment, I do find NL racing very entertaining if somewhat unpredictable!

[GWC]

If they could provide spectator facilities on one side and good at that then the potential is there.

A promotion with deep pockets attracting a top name back to the sport would be quids in as demand is there imo.

[cityrebel]

1 hour ago, GWC said:

If they could provide spectator facilities on one side and good at that then the potential is there.

A promotion with deep pockets attracting a top name back to the sport would be quids in as demand is there imo.

Demand is where, Rye's crowds have been falling for years. Len never hangs around when a track starts losing money. The BMR honeymoon was enhanced with Lakeside dropping down to the NL, the same season as the Rockets moved up. The Hammers then moved back up and the Rockets were forced into fixed race nights. The writing was on the wall. The disastrous decision by Lakeside to move into Rye all but finished the track off. I applaud the kart people if they are going to revamp the old place. I hope they succeed where BMR failed.

[E I Addio]

12 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

Demand is where, Rye's crowds have been falling for years. Len never hangs around when a track starts losing money. The BMR honeymoon was enhanced with Lakeside dropping down to the NL, the same season as the Rockets moved up. The Hammers then moved back up and the Rockets were forced into fixed race nights. The writing was on the wall. The disastrous decision by Lakeside to move into Rye all but finished the track off. I applaud the kart people if they are going to revamp the old place. I hope they succeed where BMR failed.

It wasn’t so much a decision by Lakeside to move to Rye, more the only option. The malevolent Rob Godfrey pulled the plug on Friday fixtures so Lakeside were unable to complete their fixtures at Arena. The club wanted to complete their fixtures at Lakeside as far as they could and use Rye House on the dates when their home track was not available but the BSPA in their pettiness said they had to use one track or the other which was not only disastrous for the the club but unnecessary.  It apparently cost Stuart Douglas over £20,000 . No wonder he became another in the long line of promoters that had enough of the BSPAs manipulations, and left the sport.

[cityrebel]

6 minutes ago, E I Addio said:

It wasn’t so much a decision by Lakeside to move to Rye, more the only option. The malevolent Rob Godfrey pulled the plug on Friday fixtures so Lakeside were unable to complete their fixtures at Arena. The club wanted to complete their fixtures at Lakeside as far as they could and use Rye House on the dates when their home track was not available but the BSPA in their pettiness said they had to use one track or the other which was not only disastrous for the the club but unnecessary.  It apparently cost Stuart Douglas over £20,000 . No wonder he became another in the long line of promoters that had enough of the BSPAs manipulations, and left the sport.

I did hear a rumour that Lakeside were offered the use of Arlington. If true, surely that would have been a better option than a 'run down' Rye. With a massive home advantage, the Hammers might have picked up a couple of trophies!

[GWC]

1 hour ago, cityrebel said:

Demand is where, Rye's crowds have been falling for years. Len never hangs around when a track starts losing money. The BMR honeymoon was enhanced with Lakeside dropping down to the NL, the same season as the Rockets moved up. The Hammers then moved back up and the Rockets were forced into fixed race nights. The writing was on the wall. The disastrous decision by Lakeside to move into Rye all but finished the track off. I applaud the kart people if they are going to revamp the old place. I hope they succeed where BMR failed.

Len seemed to accept that the crash of 2008 would affect the sport significantly enough not to invest and didn’t or couldn’t promote it after that.

The sponsors were nowhere to be seen once Elmside pulled out with Silverski predictably the only backer.

When BMR appeared on the scene we thought it was a new start with a promotion who were ambitious. 

The stadium whilst Len had spent a small fortune on it to bring it back to some sort of a venue fit for speedway it was quite clear it wasn’t going to be any good once air fences came in.

Rye is in such a good place geographically one of the reasons NBJ liked it so much was he could get a plane home Saturday evening!

I agree the Lakeside move was a disaster but playing Peterborough every week wasn’t really the plan was it!!

[marko]

The experiment at Rye didn’t work because for many Hammers fans, the club died the last night we raced at Arena Essex, and the Rye fans had no interest in supporting another team at their old home.

I don’t think it cost Rye the chance of a comeback but it did cost the Hammers because the record will show that they went bankrupt regardless of wether they had a track to race on or not, if Arena Essex had a late reprieve and been able stage racing in 2019 after all would we have seen speedway? I doubt it, with Stuart Douglas out of the equation, it would have required a new promotion to step in and probably pay the outstanding fees.

[cityrebel]

24 minutes ago, marko said:

The experiment at Rye didn’t work because for many Hammers fans, the club died the last night we raced at Arena Essex, and the Rye fans had no interest in supporting another team at their old home.

I don’t think it cost Rye the chance of a comeback but it did cost the Hammers because the record will show that they went bankrupt regardless of wether they had a track to race on or not, if Arena Essex had a late reprieve and been able stage racing in 2019 after all would we have seen speedway? I doubt it, with Stuart Douglas out of the equation, it would have required a new promotion to step in and probably pay the outstanding fees.

Both clubs went bankrupt, and it's left a massive void in the South East. Luckily, I've still got Eastbourne, Kent and the Island within striking distance for me living south of the river.

[Ben91]

On 12/3/2019 at 8:29 PM, GWC said:

Len seemed to accept that the crash of 2008 would affect the sport significantly enough not to invest and didn’t or couldn’t promote it after that.

The sponsors were nowhere to be seen once Elmside pulled out with Silverski predictably the only backer.

When BMR appeared on the scene we thought it was a new start with a promotion who were ambitious. 

The stadium whilst Len had spent a small fortune on it to bring it back to some sort of a venue fit for speedway it was quite clear it wasn’t going to be any good once air fences came in.

Rye is in such a good place geographically one of the reasons NBJ liked it so much was he could get a plane home Saturday evening!

I agree the Lakeside move was a disaster but playing Peterborough every week wasn’t really the plan was it!!

The crash of 2008 had nothing to do with the decline of Speedway, the way the sport is run here took, and is taking care of that.

You’re certainly not speaking for all Rye fans when you suggest that BMR coming in was cause for optimism about a new ambitious promotion. They quickly showed they couldn’t build a good team for toffee and then they went on to move a team based in a town of roughly 40 thousand people into the top division. 

The short sighted fans out there saw it as an opportunity to see Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris every week, in reality by the end of that first season both were riding in the second tier too anyway. 

Rye is well located geographically from the perspective of a rider coming into Stansted Airport, not so much for travelling fans. Once you’ve lost your club you may pop in to the next nearest club now and again but not many fans make a weekly pilgrimage, particularly when as is the case in Hoddesdon, there’s nothing really to do here. 

Rye can sustain second or third tier speedway. I’d love to see us back in the third division and start from scratch. The track has a selling point in as much as it can be used any day, any time within reason.

[Sings4Speedway]

7 minutes ago, Ben91 said:

The crash of 2008 had nothing to do with the decline of Speedway, the way the sport is run here took, and is taking care of that.

You’re certainly not speaking for all Rye fans when you suggest that BMR coming in was cause for optimism about a new ambitious promotion. They quickly showed they couldn’t build a good team for toffee and then they went on to move a team based in a town of roughly 40 thousand people into the top division. 

The short sighted fans out there saw it as an opportunity to see Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris every week, in reality by the end of that first season both were riding in the second tier too anyway. 

Rye is well located geographically from the perspective of a rider coming into Stansted Airport, not so much for travelling fans. Once you’ve lost your club you may pop in to the next nearest club now and again but not many fans make a weekly pilgrimage, particularly when as is the case in Hoddesdon, there’s nothing really to do here. 

Rye can sustain second or third tier speedway. I’d love to see us back in the third division and start from scratch. The track has a selling point in as much as it can be used any day, any time within reason.

Agreed. Sadly the early teams were built with limited rider knowledge so only established UK names were included and often on inflated averages and wage demands to match. The drive to be a top flight side was fine and fitted with BMR's brand image but as soon as fixed race nights came into play they should have returned to the middle tier and used the Saturday nights to build a solid business. I still believe that can be done and returning to the 3rd tier would be a good start. The track has always been a bit of a dump, its part of its charm but providing the track is sound, some fairly level hard standing with some bogs & a food wagon its already on par with half of the UK's tracks anyway. Fingers crossed someone with the vision to build a product and not a venue steps in and brings the old lady back to life. 

[GWC]

3 hours ago, Ben91 said:

The crash of 2008 had nothing to do with the decline of Speedway, the way the sport is run here took, and is taking care of that.

You’re certainly not speaking for all Rye fans when you suggest that BMR coming in was cause for optimism about a new ambitious promotion. They quickly showed they couldn’t build a good team for toffee and then they went on to move a team based in a town of roughly 40 thousand people into the top division. 

The short sighted fans out there saw it as an opportunity to see Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris every week, in reality by the end of that first season both were riding in the second tier too anyway. 

Rye is well located geographically from the perspective of a rider coming into Stansted Airport, not so much for travelling fans. Once you’ve lost your club you may pop in to the next nearest club now and again but not many fans make a weekly pilgrimage, particularly when as is the case in Hoddesdon, there’s nothing really to do here. 

Rye can sustain second or third tier speedway. I’d love to see us back in the third division and start from scratch. The track has a selling point in as much as it can be used any day, any time within reason.

I didn’t actually say it was the crash that declined speedway but it was Len’s perception of it and in my view his investment in Rye declined.

It was his money after all but he was stubborn in that he didn’t or wouldn’t look outside his own world for assistance.

BMR fronted by a multi -millionaire racing enthusiasts plans for stadium redevelopment who wouldn’t have been optimistic.

Clearly it didn’t last long once the 2016 team was announced and their promoting naivety soon surfaced going into the Premier league.

 

 

[cityrebel]

4 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Agreed. Sadly the early teams were built with limited rider knowledge so only established UK names were included and often on inflated averages and wage demands to match. The drive to be a top flight side was fine and fitted with BMR's brand image but as soon as fixed race nights came into play they should have returned to the middle tier and used the Saturday nights to build a solid business. I still believe that can be done and returning to the 3rd tier would be a good start. The track has always been a bit of a dump, its part of its charm but providing the track is sound, some fairly level hard standing with some bogs & a food wagon its already on par with half of the UK's tracks anyway. Fingers crossed someone with the vision to build a product and not a venue steps in and brings the old lady back to life. 

The track itself looked fine on sunday, far better than the one line concrete bowl BMR served up every meeting. I was told that the stuff dumped on the centre green is in fact contaminated waste. If this is the case, how much would it cost to clear and make good, any ideas.