Sheffield Speedway put up for sale

Supporters will be anxious for some quick news after club owners pointed towards the impact the workload has been having on their family lives.

It means it’s going to be an worrying second half of the season for all connected with the Owlerton outfit with any interested parties urged to come forward as soon as possible.

The current consortium, consisting of the Bates Family, former Newport promoter Peter Mole plus Simon Parker and Rob Godfrey took over the club from Neil Machin 2014.

While the Bates’ and Mole remain on board, Godfrey sold his shares whilst Parker is not directly involved but remains a shareholder.

The current owners have often come in for criticism from certain sections of their fanbase – something which co-boss Damien Bates feels is unjustified.

Speaking last September he said: “We’ve had individual and team honours from the moment we walked through the door.

“Simon (Stead) won the Premier League Riders’ Championship in 2014, the same year that (Josh) won the British Under-21s for the first time.

“Those two both then claimed the exact same titles two years later in 2016 and Josh also won the British Under-19s the year before that.

“We’ve won the Pairs two years running and of course we won the league for the first time in well over a decade last season.

“I do think some people forget what we’ve achieved, as well as our riders, since we took over and even when we haven’t gone all the way we’ve still finished runners-up or made the semis on a few occasions.

“So to me that’s not a bad record at all and for me it’s been five very successful seasons and there’s not too many clubs who can say they’ve won what our teams and riders have.

“The time, effort and money we have put into this place and continue to put into Sheffield Speedway to make it a club to be proud of perhaps goes unrecognised at times.”

The enforced switch to Sunday racing in 2019 hasn’t delivered the increase in attendances that was hoped, despite the persistent, ongoing work behind the scenes to promote the club.

Tigers head to rivals Scunthorpe on Friday (7.30) before taking part in the Championship Fours at Peterborough this Sunday. The next fixture at Owlerton is on Sunday, June 30 with Somerset the visitors.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​