The National Speedway Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium on Kirkmanshulme Lane, in

Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century Hi ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and is the home of the Belle Vue Aces and

Belle Vue Colts The Belle Vue Colts are the junior youth development team of the Belle Vue Aces, one of the World's most famous motorcycle speedway team, based in Manchester in the northwest of England. History Belle Vue first operated a reserve team during the ...

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

teams and the

Manchester Titans The Manchester Titans are an American football team based in Manchester, England, that competes in the BAFA National Leagues Premier Division North, the highest level of British American Football. The team operate from the National Speedway St ...

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team.

Origins and opening

In 2007, Chris Morton and David Gordon proposed that a new stadium should be built that could be used as the home for the Belle Vue Aces and be used as a national speedway stadium. Seven years later in September 2014, the planning application for the Stadium was approved by Manchester City Council. The planned site on Kirkmanshulme Lane was previously a grassed area containing hockey pitches. Construction on the National Speedway Stadium started in October 2014 and it opened in March 2016 as part of the Belle Vue's £11 million regeneration scheme. The new stadium was built close to (separated only by synthetic hockey pitches) the former

Belle Vue Stadium Belle Vue Stadium was a greyhound racing track in Belle Vue, Manchester, England, where the first race around an oval track in Britain was held on 24 July 1926. It has also been used for motorcycle speedway, as the home ground of Elite League t ...

, which closed in 2020 and is now a site for planned housing.

History

In 2016, it hosted the Race-Off and

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

of the Speedway World Cup. It was won by

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, with

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

coming second. In 2021, the stadium hosted the

2021 Speedway of Nations The 2021 Speedway of Nations (sponsored by Monster Energy) was the fourth FIM Speedway of Nations. The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final. The final was held on 16 & 17 October 2021 and was won by Great Britain, with Poland taki ...

grand final, which was won by Great Britain.

References

{{Motorcycle speedway tracks Sports venues in Manchester Speedway venues in England 2016 establishments in England American football venues in the United Kingdom History of sport in Manchester