Breck Park Stadium
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Breck Park Stadium was a
greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...
stadium in Liverpool, England.


Origins

Breck Park would become the first of four greyhound stadiums in the city of Liverpool; the others were White City Greyhound Stadium,
Stanley Greyhound Stadium Stanley Greyhound Stadium, also known as Murray Park Stadium, was a greyhound racing stadium in Stanley, County Durham. Origins In the northerly part of County Durham stands the former colliery town of Stanley and the Murray Park Stadium was ...
and Seaforth Greyhound Stadium. In 1927 the site chosen to construct Breck Park was on the south side of Townsend Road on unused ground and a former site of a brick works adjacent to a goods yard and the Edge Hill and Bootle branch railway line. To the north there was a football ground and housing and to the south was a Corporation yard. The Liverpool Greyhound Club Ltd (LGC) was one of the first greyhound racing companies in existence and was a rival to the larger
Greyhound Racing Association The Greyhound Racing Association was a UK-based private company founded in 1925 and existed until 2019. It was involved in the management of sports venues, notably greyhound racing stadia. The GRA was responsible for introducing Greyhound racing ...
(GRA). A bitter battle took place during 1927 when the (LGC) and the Leeds Greyhound Association Ltd (LGA) owners of the
Elland Road Greyhound Stadium Elland Road Greyhound Stadium also known as Leeds Greyhound Stadium was a greyhound racing stadium in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The stadium is not to be confused with the football ground Elland Road or Fullerton Park. Origins and opening Elland ...
took the GRA to court for false advertising. The public claim by the GRA was that they had sole rights of greyhounds chasing electric hares and this upset other companies because it implied that they were the only company allowed to race greyhounds.


Opening

The first meeting at Breck Park got underway on 23 April 1927 and attracted 8,000 spectators. The GRA opened Stanley Greyhound Stadium on Prescot Road just four months later.


History

The dangers of early racing were evident when during a meeting in September 1927 the electric hare ran off the rails and broke through the railings scattering spectators in the shilling ring. Affiliation to a governing body came in the form of the British Greyhound Tracks Control Society (BGTCS); this organisation was much smaller than the National Greyhound Racing Society (NGRS). Despite stiff competition all four Liverpool tracks made good profits, based on the fact that there was a large population with many keen on the racing. In 1932 the track faced a one-week closure after the authorities took the track owners to court over the use of the
totalisator A tote board (or totalisator/totalizator) is a numeric or alphanumeric display used to convey information, typically at a race track (to display the odds or payoffs for each horse) or at a telethon (to display the total amount donated to the chari ...
. Also in 1932 Breck Park switched allegiance from the BGTCS to NGRS becoming the only Liverpool track with affiliation to the NGRS at the time. Breck Park became a popular venue for boxing and held many high-profile bouts being promoted alongside the greyhound racing.


Bomb damage

The track suffered bomb damage during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
as many parts of Liverpool did at the time but contrary to some reports the closure of the track was not attributed to this damage because business was good after the war. In 1946 the totalisator turnover was £836,354 and one year later £624,157.


Closure

The stadium suffered a serious fire on 26 February 1948, the same day that another unrelated serious fire ripped through
White City, Manchester White City is a retail park on Chester Road in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. At the southeast corner of the docks area and southeast of Manchester United's ground, it is the site of the former Manchester Botanic Gardens which host ...
. Whereas the Manchester track recovered Breck Park did not; the wooden buildings had been destroyed resulting in the immediate suspension of racing at the track. The owners considered the rebuild cost unviable. It is possible that racing either returned for a very short period of time after 1948 or that there were plans to restart the racing at some stage based on the fact that in March 1950 all four Liverpool tracks (including Breck Park) resigned from their NGRC affiliation. The stadium was demolished and renamed Edinburgh Park in 1953, the track would have been located where the Edinburgh Park Dockers Club and Waterloo Dock FC football pitches meet Darmonds Green Avenue.


Track records


References

{{English greyhound tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct sports venues in Liverpool