Wolverhampton Speedway bosses pledge to find new venue

Speedway club bosses have pledged to find a new venue after news they cannot stay at their home of 96 years.

Wolverhampton Speedway said on 17 April they were devastated their tenancy 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 saved.

But Wolves promoter Chris Van Straaten said the "amazing" support had led to talks with authorities about a new site.

"The fact that this petition has been signed and got such a huge amount of support in just a few days is quite remarkable 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 said it will focus on greyhound racing but understands fans and the club will be "disappointed".

Mr Van Straaten, who took over running the club from his father in 1986, said speedway was "an important part of Wolverhampton folklore".

"My energy in the last few days has turned to providing a new site where we can establish a Wolverhampton Speedway club and we can be the main tenants," he said.

"I'd like to create our own venue, I'd like to be the main holder of the tenancy and also create something that is open six days a week to help train motorcyclists; to train youngsters to take them off the streets."

He said he had managed to bring a stadium to Redcar and had gained knowledge from that project.

"I'd love to be in a position where I can bring a speedway stadium to the city of Wolverhampton," he said.

The reaction from people made him believe this was possible.

"The amount of people that signed the petition has took my breath away. The support for this sport is quite amazing," he said.

Mr Van Straaten said it would be an "immense" 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 find a site.

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