Speedway could return to Brandon at a lower level

COVENTRY Bees speedway team owner Michael Horton has said the club could drop down to the sport’s bottom tier in order to survive.

The speedway boss also said he believed it was possible for Bees to return to Brandon without the added income that sharing the stadium with stock cars would bring.

Stadium owners Brandon Estates explicitly ruled out a return for the CoventryStox operation, owned by former stadium and Bees owner Avtar Sandhu, in the wake of a legal dispute.

Brandon Estates have confirmed civil action is being taken against former stadium owner Avtar Sandhu over claims fixtures and fittings were unlawfully removed by him from the stadium before he handed over the keys to Brandon Estates. Mr Sandhu maintains he legally owns the fixtures and fittings. But, speaking exclusively to our sister paper the Coventry Telegraph, Mr Horton explained there could be a future for Coventry Bees at Brandon.

However, that future might come at a cost with the Bees potentially dropping from the top flight Elite League, past the second tier Premier League, and into the bottom tier National League.

Mr Horton said: “We need a three-year lease and the breathing space to work towards a new home.

“Rugby Borough Council is looking and working with us. But it’s not going to be easy.

“We need to race. If we don’t race next year we will be forgotten about.”

He added: “There must be a way around this so we can get home. We can’t wait later than August or September time for a decision.

“There is a lot of planning that needs to be done.”

Mr Horton also clarified the situation with his licence to run a speedway team. He said: “My licence is intact but it’s on ice. Rather than disband the club altogether they have put it on ice, along with my licence.

“It will be reviewed at the league’s AGM in November.”

On whether the Bees could survive at Brandon without stock cars, he said: “We could 100 per cent survive without stock cars. The reality is we would need some financial help to run a top flight speedway team.

“We would have to look at racing at a different tier. Racing in the National League funds itself, we wouldn’t need any support from anyone.

“The big issue would be what type of lease or rental programme we could do with Brandon Estates.

“If we had to take on the whole lease, we would need other events.

“If we were to conduct a rental agreement for particular days, that would be quite feasible.”

Brandon Estates insist the bill to make the stadium fit for racing and health and safety compliant would be in the region of £1million.

But that figure is disputed by campaigners and Mr Horton believes the track could be made operational for a much lower figure.

He said: “We don’t necessarily need the stand. We could fence off the stand.

“If we could race on a Sunday, we would not need the lights either.”

And on whether a track share was possible, he said: “If we were to track share, we could only do that as a National League team.

“Fans are not going to travel to pay for running an Elite League team. Elite League teams need to bring in £18,000 to £19,000 per meeting to cover the stadium rent and the cost of home and away wages.

“That drops to about £4,000 to £5,000 for a National League team.”