Aces speeding to new season after suffering in 2020
IT’S been more than 12 months since Belle Vue Aces last opened their doors for a league meeting at the National Speedway Stadium.
A cancelled Premiership campaign due to Covid-19 saw the club restricted to hosting just a handful of behindclosed-doors events last year.
The sport itself also experienced difficulties, as speedway was one of the few to not receive any of the £300m rescue package provided by the government last year, and is still yet to receive any funding ahead of the new season.
“There’s no doubt, like any other sport, speedway will have suffered financial hardship,” Belle Vue CEO Adrian Smith told M.E.N Sport.
“A lot of clubs took the decision to close once they knew they weren’t going to operate, so that meant they could just manage their cost base and restart this season.
“As we stand today, speedway hasn’t received any grants from the government funding that’s come out.
“So all promoters have had to stand any sort of financial issues that they might have had.
“For ourselves, it’s obviously meant that in 2020, Belle Vue will have made a loss, so it’s important that we get our season up and running this year.”
Following the government’s announcement that fans are set to be allowed to return to sports stadiums from May 17, two weeks after the start of the new speedway season, things are starting to move in a more positive direction.
Eager to support their club through a tough period, many Aces fans have chosen to transfer previous season tickets over to this year instead of taking a refund, something which Smith admits has been helpful.
“We’re delighted to have the fans back because they’re a huge part of speedway,” he added.
“They’ve been really patient in waiting for it to come back, we’ve had a lot of support.
“Every club needs revenue and most clubs get it from three streams – tickets, sponsorships and media.
“If you go and remove one of those, and a very big one in fans not being able to come and watch, then ultimately you’ve got to try and make it up in other ways.
“The fact we now have a date, I think the government have done the right thing in that there is a clear step plan. Obviously, it’s subject to change but there is a positive attitude about it.”
And with just a couple of months to go until they return, the Aces CEO insists the club can’t wait to start racing again.
“Last year, when we ran our meetings behind closed doors there was a huge buzz around the track even with no fans,” he said.
“But to get the fans back, hear the engines going and get a competitive season again - we can’t wait to start.”