FORD PLEADS FOR FANS TO STAY CALM AMIDST STADIUM SPECULATION

Poole Speedway owner Matt Ford is urging for "calm and patience" amidst the on-going speculation with regard to activities at the club's base, Wimborne Road.

On Wednesday, the speedway's landlords, Poole Stadium Ltd, part of Gaming International announced that they were entering a consultation period with their staff that could result in redundancy  adding "whilst no definitive decision has been taken on the future of the business, given all the circumstances that we face with Greyhound Racing in Poole, it is appropriate to commence this process of consultation now."

In respect to speedway operations at the venue Ford has admitted "at this moment in time we haven't had any contact from our Landlords to tell us about any changes in the plans for Poole Speedway to be running although we are of course aware that many of our friends that are associated with the Greyhound racing operation and whom we work with at the stadium, are facing difficult times and our thoughts are with them as they receive this heartbreaking news."  

"As far as Poole Speedway is concerned I would ask people not to read too much into this , we are at the beginning of August and don't plan to open until the end of March, although we have voiced a thought that if possible we might look to run something in January and possibly February. I did try to contact George Edwards of Poole Stadium Ltd about 10 to 14 days ago to explore that but unfortunately he couldn't take my call at the time and we are not reading anything in to that other than the fact that he and his team would have been very busy at that point in dealing with their business issues. Also, with the current situation regarding stadia occupancy in the UK due to the Covid-19 restrictions there was probably little they could do anyway as the stadium needs to remain closed to public attendance."

"That said, we have every intention of running in 2021. The stadium was left to the people of Poole to remain a sporting venue and we have the team's premium sport which is as important to Poole as AFC Bournemouth is to Bournemouth and so we expect to be coming to the tapes next year just as we would have this year had it not been for the pandemic virus. We will be working with the landlords and if necessary, BCP council over the coming weeks and months to ensure that one of the biggest worldwide brands in speedway - the Poole Pirates - will continue to flourish in 2021 and beyond. So I would just urge everyone to avoid rumour mongering, stay calm and we will be back with more news on the longevity of the club as and when we have it."