End of Wolves Speedway is sad news for city - council leader
The leader of Wolverhampton Council said it was "terribly sad" to hear that the city could lose one of its top sports teams in under-threat Wolves Speedway.
The future of Wolverhampton speedway is in serious jeopardy after the owners of Monmore Green decided to no longer stage the sport.
Entain Group informed Wolves their tenancy agreement will not be extended beyond the end of this year, with the club now set to be homeless after nearly a century of racing at the venue.
Council leader Ian Brookfield said: "Wolves Speedway has such a history here. The region has already lost a few speedway teams and this would be another knock back for the sport."
He said that the city council would try to help the club to find a new home, hopefully within Wolverhampton.
"To find a new stadium will be difficult and it is at too early a stage to say what we can do to help.
"Speedway has helped raise the profile of Wolverhampton, but the Entain group is going to invest in greyhound racing at Monmore Green.
"That may pick up some of the slack to the loss of speedway to the city's economy.
"There are two sides of the coin – fresh investment at the stadium will be good for the wider economy," Councillor Brookfield explained.
Dave Parry, managing director of Parry's International, Cheslyn Hay, Wolves Speedway's sponsors for 22 years, said: "This is a bombshell for speedway. To take away a key name from the speedway community out is bad for the sport nationally. Peterborough is also being lost next year as well.
"It is very bad for Wolverhampton too. We will do whatever we can do to help change Entain's minds."
Mr Parry, who renewed sponsorship for 2023 and 2024 in January, has been involved with the team from being a spectator in the 1960s to becoming a rider and eventually manager.
"It has been a big part of my life and that of my company," he added.
"The only thing I can think of is to generate so much of an outcry from the sport and the city that the new owners of the Monmore Green stadium will look at it again.
"They are looking at a business model that does not include speedway. We need a big response from the public in the area that they serve to force them to change their minds."
