The White City Stadium, officially known as the Sloper Road Stadium, and colloquially known as Welsh White City Stadium or Ninian Stadium, was a former

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...

and

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

stadium, on Sloper Road in the Grangetown area of

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Speedway

History

The

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) purchased open land on Sloper Road opposite the Ninian Park Primary School and Sevenoaks Park, an area covered today by housing and retail buildings as the site for the stadium. The stadium name White City originated because the GRA surrounded the arena with white concrete walls and raised terracing capable of holding over 40,000 people and the name had already caught on following the success of their sister track White City in London. The GRA (South Wales) erected six kennel blocks under the grandstand capable of housing 180 dogs. The White City Stadium, also known as Sloper Road or the Welsh White City opened on Easter Saturday 1928 but persistent rain fell resulting in only 9,000 spectators turning up. The first hurdle event was declared a no-race because the dogs fought each other and none of them completed the 470 yard trip. Fine weather returned on the Easter Monday and 25,000 people paid either 2s 4d or 5/-to get into the stadium. The track held the prestigious Welsh Greyhound Derby which eventually became a classic race in 1971 and formed part of the triple crown along with the

English Greyhound Derby The English Greyhound Derby is the most prestigious race on the British Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing calendar, with a history stretching back to 1927. It was first held at White City Stadium, but moved to Wimbledon ...

and

Scottish Greyhound Derby The Scottish Greyhound Derby was an original classic greyhound competition held from 1928 to 2019, at Carntyne Stadium and then Shawfield Stadium. History The competition was introduced at Carntyne Stadium in 1928. It was held until 1968 at ...

Mick the Miller Mick the Miller (29 June 1926 – 6 May 1939) was a male brindle greyhound. He is celebrated as the first great greyhound racing, racing greyhound to compete in England (although he was born in Ireland). Despite a short three-year racing career ...

appeared at the track in the early years; it was in August 1929 that he lost to local favourite Back Isle in a match race before gaining revenge back in London one week later. Back Isle won the Welsh Derby that year but Mick the Miller arrived one year later for a tilt at the competition. On 29 July 1930 he won his first round and then produced two national records in the semi-finals and final. The GRA realised that they were fighting a losing battle to compete with the rival

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park (), also known as The Arms Park, is primarily a rugby union stadium, and also has a bowling green. It is situated in Cardiff, Wales, next to the Millennium Stadium. The Arms Park was host to the 1958 British Empire and Common ...

that was in a better location in the city and was gaining larger attendances so they decided to put the stadium up for sale. The stadium was sold to the Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds steel works in 1937.

Competitions

* Welsh Greyhound Derby

Track records

References

{{Motorcycle speedway tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct sports venues in Wales Demolished buildings and structures in Wales Greyhound racing in Wales Demolished sports venues in the United Kingdom Grangetown, Cardiff Defunct speedway venues in Wales