New stadium plans put Monarchs and speedway back on the map

Since 1997, they have raced at a dilapidated dog track on the outskirts of Armadale, West Lothian, which they rent from the former Hibs chairman, Kenny Waugh. Now, with the help of a six-figure sum from Sainsburys, who want to build a superstore on the site of Waugh's stadium, the aim is to construct a new circuit on a 14-acre patch of farmland about a mile along the road.

If they are granted planning permission, which they hope to be within three months, work will begin later this year on an arena that will accommodate 1,500 spectators – 500 of them seated – 900 vehicles in the adjoining car park and, perhaps most importantly, the only speedway training academy north of Scunthorpe. Their chairman, Alex Harkess, says that a long-term leasing arrangement with the owner of South Couston Farm will allow the Monarchs to put behind them a nomadic existence that has made uncertainty a way of life.

"This is the biggest thing ever to happen in the history of our club," says Harkess. "The aim has always been to have a stadium where you can control your own destiny, where you can open your own door to your own function suite. We have never had our own stadium before. Over the years, we have been shunted about all over the place, and never known what the future holds. Myself and the other directors are at retiring age, and this would leave a legacy we can be proud of."

Edinburgh speedway has been all over the place since its first race was held at the Marine Gardens, Portobello in 1928. Two decades later, the Monarchs were born at the Old Meadowbank Stadium, only to be chucked out when it was redeveloped for the Commonwealth Games. There was a brief stint at Cliftonhill, Coatbridge, 18 seasons at Powderhall, which was eventually sold for housing, and a disastrous year at Glasgow's Shawfield before they arrived at Armadale 13 years ago.

Although they will continue to be the Edinburgh Monarchs, there is no mistaking their loyalty to West Lothian, which provides about 60 per cent of their followers. "We don't want to lose the support we have picked up in the last 11 or 12 years," says Harkess. "That's why we have always been keen to stay here. Getting back inside the Edinburgh city boundary is not going to happen. There is no sense in wasting anybody's time. In West Lothian, we feel wanted, and that's a wonderful feeling."

Some of the Monarchs' happiest times have been in Armadale, where they have won two British League titles and a couple of KO Cups, but there is no future in it. While its track is one of the best in Britain, the facilities are not fit for purpose. Even if the deal doesn't go through, the Monarchs will have to move, albeit with a huge financial headache.

Quite apart from the corrugated iron perimeter fence, the crumbled terrace and the tumbledown toilet block, the club have no rights to any of the matchday revenue other than that which they collect at the turnstile. "We are a professional sport that costs a lot of money to run, but from the bar, the car park, all these things, we get nothing," says Harkess whose club spend a small fortune on overseas riders. With only one Scot in the team, the foreigners – from Germany, Finland and Hungary – are flown in for matches on a Friday, put up for the night and flown out the following day.

Which is why the academy will be a godsend. Under the terms of their current rental agreement, the Monarchs have access to the Armadale track for only a few hours on a Friday evening, which makes training impossible. In their new home, they will have time and space to nurture local riders, reduce expenditure in the long run, and do their bit for speedway as a whole. Just about every British club is dominated by foreigners, and there aren't enough Scots to make up a national team.

Speedway has long since lost the popularity it had half a century back, but with other stadia planned for south of the border, satellite television broadcasting the Elite League, and its traditional links with dog-racing increasingly severed, it might just be on the verge of a new era.

"People who know nothing about the sport think that we are Hell's Angels who cause only trouble and noise," says Harkess. "Well, they are 100 per cent wrong. I'd like to think that, in our new home, we will get bigger crowds by providing better facilities, shelter and hospitality. It won't happen overnight, but in speedway, there are signs of a revival. It's on the way back."