Speedway's future in Swindon - for better or worse
Many fans rightly mourn the loss of Abbey stadium but will they back plans for new motorsports hub?
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A new planning application is being pushed as the future of what was once one of Swindon's most prominent and beloved sports
By Barrie Hudson
A planning application has been submitted for Studley Grange Motorsports Hub, and Swindon speedway fans are being urged to rally behind the proposals.
Some will undoubtedly do so wholeheartedly; others will do so while longing for the days when Abbey Stadium was the historic heart and soul of the spectacular sport in Swindon - and vehemently insisting that there was no good reason for that heart and soul to be ripped out.
Some fans might even have been left so disheartened by events in recent years that they can no longer spare the emotional bandwidth to have a strong opinion either way.
What all fans have in common, however, is that their thoughts, however diverse, are valid and worthy of expression, and it is to be hoped that nobody is backward in coming forward.
For the benefit of anybody unfamiliar with developments - no pun intended - relating to speedway in Swindon over the last decade or so, we offer a potted history.
Fairly early in that period, there were announcements to the effect that the stadium would be thoroughly revamped, with the inclusion of a new housing development.
Gradually, however, the optimistic tone was lost in a morass of planning disputes, the effect of national and global economic problems on the sport and various other issues including the pandemic.
Today, as The Ink has noted previously, there are new houses but no speedway.
In September of 2022, it was officially announced that speedway would never return to the stadium, and the news was greeted with widespread horror.
A couple of months later, as we have previously detailed, a new organisation called Swindon Motorsports Ltd, a joint venture partnership between Swindon Speedway and site owners Gaming International, made its presence known.
It assured the public that its mission was to locate, acquire and obtain planning permission to operate a new motorsports arena to accommodate speedway and car racing, with an expandable capacity of up to 5,000 spectators.
There were occasional updates during 2023 but it wasn't until last August that anything resembling real progress was announced.