The global future of the greyhound racing industry continues to look shakier with the news that London will demolish its last remaining dog track.
Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium is set to make way for a new Plough Lane development with London Mayor Sadiq Khan this week backing plans to build a 20,000-seat football stadium, 602 homes and a leisure center.
He has handed the decision back to local Merton Council, who had originally pushed for the redevelopment in 2015. It means Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium will now almost certainly go the way of other tracks to have been shut down in Wembley, West Ham, Clapton and Hackney and Walthamstow.
The decline of greyhound racing in England, which has seen viewer and attendance numbers plummet over the past decade, mirrors similar moves around the world.
Last month the Director of Macau’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ), Paulo Martins Chan, gave operators of Macau Canidrome two years to find a new home or shut down, while the Australian state of NSW announced it will shut down greyhound racing altogether by 1 July 2017.
