SWINDON Robins owner Terry Russell expects his side to be riding at the Abbey Stadium in its current guise for the whole of the 2017 campaign.

Despite hosting a farewell meeting to the Abbey at the end of the 2015 season, hold-ups to the building of the new stadium have seen the proposed move date pushed back time and time again.

The latest date given for the highly-anticipated switch was July this year, but reported delays with the building phases of the housing development, which were submitted as part of the original plans, have seen the date move back again.

While Russell admits it has been a testing time for all involved, they could be in a worse situation heading into their first home meeting of the season against Belle Vue Aces this evening (7.30pm).

“We’re tenants in this stadium,”

“We’re frustrated as much as anybody but we are at our stadium, where we have always been, we are here until such things happen.

“We could be like Coventry and not be anywhere.

“We’re not, we’re in this facility until the new one is open.

“I know it has been frustrating, it’s frustrating for the public and it’s frustrating for us but at the end of the day, it’s not as if we haven’t got our club and our track.

“I expect to be here all season now, which is fine. We’ll just knuckle down and get on with it.”

Swindon started their 2017 season with a 48-42 defeat away to Leicester Lions and despite being predicted by many to struggle this season, Russell is not reading too much into pre-season predictions.

“We start every season with high hopes and there's no reason for this one to be any different,” he added.

“I’ve been here 30 years now and as Rosco (team boss Alun Rossiter) said, and I agree with him, predictions mean nothing because we have been predicted to win the thing out right in the past and haven’t, we’ve been predicted to come bottom and have made the play-offs.

“We just get out there and we have to believe in Rosco. He is the manager, he is the one who has the close contact with the riders and our job is to support him in what he wants to do.”

Gaming International Ltd, the owners of the Abbey Stadium site, have not responded to approaches about the stadium delays from the Swindon Advertiser.