Wolverhampton Speedway Bosses Pledge To Find Brand-new Venue
25 April 2023
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Nick Clitheroe & Clare LissamanBBC News
Speedway have actually vowed to discover a brand-new venue after news they can not remain at their home of 96 years.
Wolverhampton Speedway stated on 17 April they were ravaged their occupancy agreement for Monmore Green would not be extended beyond this season.
About 17,000 people have now signed a petition calling for it to be conserved.
But Wolves promoter Chris Van Straaten stated the "incredible" support had caused talks with authorities about a new site.
"The truth that this petition has been signed and got such a substantial amount of support in simply a couple of days is quite exceptional and I think that's certainly been the influence and opened the door to these meetings for the club," he said.
Site owner Entain has stated it will concentrate on greyhound racing but understands fans and the club will be "dissatisfied".
Mr Van Straaten, who took over running the club from his dad in 1986, said speedway was "a fundamental part of Wolverhampton folklore".
"My energy in the last few days has turned to supplying a brand-new website where we can develop a Wolverhampton Speedway club and we can be the main renters," he stated.
"I wish to develop our own location, I want to be the primary holder of the tenancy and also develop something that is open 6 days a week to assist train motorcyclists; to train children to take them off the streets."
He said he had handled to bring a stadium to Redcar and had acquired knowledge from that task.
"I 'd love to be in a position where I can bring a speedway arena to the city of Wolverhampton," he said.
The response from people made him believe this was possible.
"The quantity of people that signed the petition has actually took my breath away. The assistance for this sport is quite incredible," he stated.
Mr Van Straaten stated it would be an "enormous" blow if it didn't happen, but added he was going to be positive and they had the rest of this year to try to discover a site.
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