[Other Sport] O/T Speedway. Would Eastbourne Eagles have been a bigger club in Hove?

[Lenny Rider]

Bob Dugard always wanted to take speedway to the dog track, I wonder if the team had been based at Hove, a more central location, could they have been a bigger club?


Even though Tony Millard kindly offered me an open invitation to the Arlington Stadium Harty Junior and I never got over there, almost entirely due to the journey times, but we'd have probably given it a go at Hove.

 

[Bry Nylon]

O/T Speedway. Would Eastbourne Eagles have been a bigger club in Hove?

I can see this one going round in circles.

 

[Seasidesage]

Bigger population more centrally placed city so yes almost certainly. Thousands have been there to watch a Dog run round and round in circles so why not a bloke on a bike?

 

[Gazwag]

I cant see that Hove residents would have ever agreed to a noisy, dusty sporting event ruining their Sunday evenings

 

[blue-shifted]

I cant see that Hove residents would have ever agreed to a noisy, dusty sporting event ruining their Sunday evenings

I'm pretty close. I can hear the dogs barking from my house, when they're running. I'd have said yes to a bit of Speedway. Live sport innit

 

[Gazwag]

I'm pretty close. I can hear the dogs barking from my house, when they're running. I'd have said yes to a bit of Speedway. Live sport innit

Having regularly been to both Speedway and the Dogs, you cant really compare the noise and dirt TBH, I'm sure there would have been a few that would have it on their doorstep but not many I would guess.

 

[Bombadier Botty]

An evening at Arlington should be on every Sussex sports fans bucket list, the smell of methanol, being able to walk into the rider areas where they prep the bikes, chat to the riders, trackside beers surrounded by MAGA types committing fashion crimes, the like of which haven’t been since Wigan Casino in the mid 70s, just a brilliant and somewhat surreal evening on all counts, even for those with no interest in motorsport, it’s like being taken off in a spaceship and deposited in a bizarre methanol forest haze. Do not drop LSD beforehand because you won’t need it.

The decline of the Eagles is quite something, from having a roster of top European riders in the Elite League to fielding inexperienced local teenage riders in the lower echelons.

To answer Ian’s question, yes, Hove would certainly have made The Eagles more viable than remote Arlington with its lack of transport infrastructure and local indifference to the sport.

 

[amexer]

Went to Eastbourne once and enjoyed. Think would have gone a lot if at Hove. Certainly when they were young

 

[Neil]

Arlington was also used for Banger Racing and Stock Cars which were more profitable.
I wouldnt have thought they could with a dog track or would with the noise of Bangers and Stock and local noise complaints
They also had a junior track which they used to bring on new talent .
Also the car pack would have been nowhere big enough