The gloves are off in the war for Western Springs and it could get bloody.

Speedway announced today that they will fight to stay at the iconic venue – and may now refuse to move to Colin Dale park in South Auckland.

Speedway sent an open letter to Mayor Phil Goff, outlining their intention to stay at Western Springs.

"We are now demanding to remain at Western Springs until a permanent solution can be found," wrote Speedway Promotions Director Bill Buckley.

Buckley warned Goff that he has "a very serious situation on his hands now as it appears you have allowed the RFA to throw the sport out of its home with no alternative in place".

One Speedway supporter said they would do "whatever it takes" to stay at the ground and in his letter Buckley said he was aware of plans in place already for "public meetings and protests".

Speedway's current lease finishes at the end of March, with the Council controlled Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA) intending to transform the ground into a venue for Cricket and occasional AFL matches.

However, Speedway engaged in a memorandum of understanding with the council and RFA last June, which they understood was going to lead to an extension to their current lease while Colin Dale Park in Wiri was transformed into a speedway specific facility.

It's believed that could take between two and three years, and Council have yet to allocate any funding for the upgrade and development of Colin Dale Park into a motorsport arena.

The MOU expired on 23rd November last year. Since then there has been little, if any communication between the RFA and Speedway and the Herald understands there has been a major falling out between the two parties.

The RFA confirmed to the Herald that there was no intention to grant an extension to the lease.

Director of stadium management Paul Nisbet told Larry Williams that this has been signposted for quite some time. 

"The actual venue hire agreement at Western Springs between SPL (Speedway Promotions Limited) and RFA actually have provisions within it whereby SPL were of the understanding that the environment at Western Springs wasn't ideal and didn't fit their business model going forward."

Nisbet says they had a responsibility to help SPL find an alternative venue, which has already been extended by two years. 

He says they have investigated various venues for SPL, including Mt Smart Stadium. 

"In 2017, SPL came to us, with the Auckland Stock Car Club, with a MOU where they agreed to sit down and consider racing all the cars out of Waikaraka Park," Nisbet says, noting that SPL eventually walked away from that deal. 

Colin Dale Park was floated as a venue in last year. 

Nisbet denies there is bad blood between him and the speedway community. He says they have worked collaboratively with SPL to help them deliver their events.

"I believe RFA, one way or another, have the interests of the Speedway club at heart since 2012." 

He says they will discuss alternative locations over the coming months, but reiterates that Speedway is currently scheduled to leave at the end of March. 

Nisbet says they have not been any decisions or formal requests yet around developing Western Springs.

"It's a magnificent dream space, and once Speedway leaves the vicinity, it really frees up a great free space that will complement MOTAT, complement the park next door, complement the zoo."

Speedway has been based at Western Spring for more than 90 years, but their existence there has been in doubt since the RFA's initial stadium strategy in 2012.

That called for Speedway to move to Mt Smart, but that idea fell through in 2016 when the Warriors successfully fought to stay at the Penrose venue.

The RFA and Speedway then canvassed other options, in the north and south, before apparently settling on Wiri's Colin Dale park.

Speedway's last scheduled meeting this season is March 16.