Wolves will not race in Premiership in 2024

Wolverhampton are second in the Premiership table behind Belle Vue Aces

Premiership speedway club Wolverhampton Wolves have confirmed they will not be racing next year.

The club were informed in April that their tenancy agreement for Monmore Green would not be extended for 2024.

Team manager Peter Adams told BBC WM Sport the club was "not dead and buried yet" and hoped to return in 2025.

"It's a tragedy, especially when you see the kind of entertainment that this facility can produce, but it is what it is," he said.

"Next year we won't be here, but hopefully in 2025 we'll be somewhere else."

The club was originally founded at Monmore Green in 1928 and have won the English league title on five occasions, most recently in 2016.

But their track is owned by the Entain Group, who want to use it exclusively for greyhound racing, according to reports.

Emotional farewell

The programme statement said: "With a great deal of emotion we have to state that there will be NO Wolverhampton Speedway in 2024.

"Our future plans for a large multi-discipline Moto-Park as we believe that a establishing a venue solely for speedway at the level it is today cannot be cost effective in any business plan.

"While we have a site in mind, the bureaucratic world is not renowned for haste and we have to make our position clear now in order that British Speedway can establish the league structure for next season."

The statement concluded: "Hopefully the famous words of Arnold Schwarzenegger ["I'll be back"] will ring true but in the meantime it will be au revoir on 24 October."

Adams said that a new speedway facility on its own "just wouldn't survive".

He added: "You need a multi-sports arena. That's what we've got planned but there are some obstacles that need to be overcome between now and 2025.

"We've had some support from the local authority and significant support from the local MP and hopefully going forward that'll continue to get us where we want to be."

Wolves trailed the Tigers 50-40 from the first leg, but overturned the deficit with a 55-35 victory on Monday which sent them into the play-offs by a 95-85 aggregate margin.

They are not the only Premiership club facing an uncertain future, with Peterborough Panthers having been told earlier this year that their contract for the East of England showground was "unlikely" to be renewed.

The site's owners AEPG are planning a £50m redevelopment of the site and Panthers owner Keith Chapman has confirmed they will not race at the Showground in 2024.