Despite bidding a “heartfelt farewell” to the Abbey Stadium last weekend, English motorcycle speedway team Swindon Robins Owner Terry Russell “hasn’t ruled out the possibility of his side starting next season on their old Blunsdon track,” according to Dan Barnes of the SWINDON ADVERTISER. Construction of the Robins' new £5M ($7.6M) home, which is being built adjacent to the existing Abbey Stadium, has been “delayed as the finer details of the planning process involving ground drainage and noise reduction, which come under a reserved matters application, were drawn up.” Work on the Robins’ new stadium is “currently expected to be completed next summer” -- after the start of the ‘16 season -- and Russell is “already formulating a contingency plan.” Russell: “I’m very, very excited and looking forward to it, and I’ll be glad when it all starts going up and we can stop all the doom about it not going up." Clark Osborne of Gaming Int'l, which owns the land, admits to "some frustration over the construction setback but is satisfied that all the i's and t's will have been comprehensively dotted and crossed when the Robins' new home opens." Osborne: "Our hurdle has been what's called the reserved matters application to the local authority, which deals with a lot of the orientation of the facilities and the noise attenuation" (SWINDON ADVERTISER, 10/13).
