Hall Green Stadium should have been celebrating its 90th birthday later this year but instead, the lids will go up for the last time at the end of July before the bulldozers move in.
Built on a farm in 1927, the Birmingham venue has been a regular for lovers of greyhound racing for close to a century and has witnessed many special nights in the sport.
The writing was on the wall once the site was sold to Euro Property Investments for £3 million back in 2014 and, despite a three-year stay of execution, racing will cease after Saturday, July 29 with the loss of 100 jobs.
Thankfully the dogs and trainers will move to Perry Barr, the second city’s only other dog track, but the area will lose one of its focal points and something that has been part of the fabric of the community for the best part of a century.
The government has made it clear that the UK needs more housing, especially in cities, and so the 12-acre site always looked vulnerable to developers and, with Wimbledon Stadium also closing earlier this year, it is another bitter blow to the sport.
Greyhound racing will of course survive and Perry Barr should see more fans through the turnstiles, but could it be the start of a number of closures as attendances around the country dwindle?
The advent of online betting means that punters no longer need to be at a track to have a flutter and there has been a steady decline in the number of spectators seen at Hall Green over the past couple of decades.
Steps were taken to try and make visiting the venue a more pleasurable experience, with a hotel, snooker hall, additional restaurant, and a new grandstand built a couple of decades ago.
But it has now succumbed to ‘progress’ and, in a few years’ time, people will be having their lunch on the former finishing line.
For lovers of dog racing it is another setback but not wholly unexpected as there continues to be growing opposition to greyhound racing around the world.
A couple of states in Australia have banned the sport and it is now legal in only eight countries, with tracks closing all the time.
The gambling haven of Macau houses the only track in China and even that one is expected to close sooner rather than later after years of protests by animal welfare groups.
Indeed, a Hall Green protest group has been celebrating the news that it is to be demolished and it remains to be seen which stadium is next on the list.
It is unlikely that greyhound racing will be banned in the UK as it is part of the history of the nation, and these greyhound tips at myracing.com will help punters who fancy a bet at any of the 24 tracks in the UK.
But it now seems inevitable that there will be a steady erosion of the infrastructure which has hosted the canine contests in the next few years and Hall Green’s demise is possibly just the tip of the iceberg.
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