Bradford on right track!
By John Edgley

The old Bradford Park Avenue soccer stadium today stands a lonely and forlorn place, with only the echoes of a once great past ringing around its empty terraces and stands.

But in the next few weeks the bulldozers and workmen will move in. Not for the usual demolition, but to ensure a new sporting future.

Bradford’s bid to return to speedway has been given the go-ahead by the National League promoters and already the stops are being pulled out to make it for the ‘off’ of the 1977 season next March.

The weeds have grown and the vandals have been busy. But the basics are there to turn Park Avenue into what promoter Jim Streets reckons will be “the best stadium in the National League”.

Streets and co-promoter Brian Osborne are confident of planning permission going through early next month and they have received enthusiastic backing from the Bradford Metropolitan Council, the stadium landlords.

The present desolation at Park Avenue can’t hide the facilities which will go to make a splendid set up.

There would be covered accommodation on three sides, including the main stand with seating capacity for 3,500 and a bar and restaurant facility on the fourth.

“We probably won’t have the complete main stand in operation for the start of the season” admits Streets. “We may have to close part of it while extra work is carried on.

“But the main consideration at the moment is to get planning approval and start work as soon as possible.”

That’s where Osborne, promoter at Scunthorpe and an Ipswich builder, will come into his own.

The Bradford promoters have been active on the riding side, picking up the pieces resulting from a 12-month absence from the speedway scene.

“Dave Baugh, the South African who was our skipper in the 1972-73, is a certain starter and will lead our side” says Streets.

“We’re hoping to get Steve Wilcock, who has been on loan to Teeside, and Australian Tony Boyle back from Sheffield to complete our trio of heat leaders.

“Brendon Langlois is interested in coming back from Australia and he could be joined by Barry Weaver, who has recently broken two track records down under.”

But Streets has no illusions that it’s going to be easy.

“Speedway in Bradford is a gamble and has had its ups and downs” he points out. “We would need better gates than we finished up with at Odsal and would regularly have to pull in something approaching 3,000.”