2015 world speedway round in Australia?

World speedway racing could be on its way back to Australia, with Melbourne venue Etihad Stadium being touted as a potential location for the final round of the 2015 championship.

The stadium, located in the Docklands precinct on the edge of the Melbourne CBD, has a very similar feel to Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, arguably now the blue-chip world speedway round. Etihad also has superb amenities and a retractable roof, which would be used in the event of inclement weather.

When asked about the proposed round, Motorcycling Australia's media manager Jack Lucas had this to say: "MA is only aware of rumours at this stage and has not been part of any formal conversations regarding this."

Australia last hosted a world speedway round in 2002 at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney. However, the event suffered financially and didn't return the following year.

Etihad was mooted as a potential world speedway venue as long ago as 2009, but the round never got past TBC (to be confirmed) status. If it now gets the green light for 2015, we'd also expect the New Zealand round - on the basis that it's retained on the calendar -- to be rescheduled so that teams only have to make one long-haul trip to the southern hemisphere during the championship instead of two.

Provisional calendars for the following year are normally released by the FIM around October each year, in line with its yearly Congress.

Australia has three world championship campaigners in 2014: Darcy Ward, Chris Holder and Troy Batchelor. Ward is currently third in the standings ahead of tonight's round in Latvia.