uk_martin

Yeah, one of the reasons why he may be free to ride in the UK. Those are the kind of scraps that we have to feed off in this country now.

Out of interest, does anyone know the availability of Marcus Birkemose, the 2020 European u21 Champion? I know he's a squad rider in Denmark (same team as Ulrich Ostergaard) but I've not yet seen that he's signed for anyone in Poland or Sweden. Another rider without too many "foreign" commitments would be Oskar Paluch, the almost 16 year-old Polish junior, and 2021 250cc European Champion. One for the back burner should Birmingham's season get past June when Paluch will be old enough to ride in the Championship. Mind you, that really would be showing ambition, wouldn't it?

29 days to sign 3 riders...

Whatever happens in the UK, are we the only country in Europe to offer concessionary admission to students and OAP's? I don't recall seeing anything other than Childrens and Adults prices on my speedway travels in Sweden Poland and Germany. And by adults, that includes OAP's.

Any truth to the rumour that he's not cutting his hair until the Brummies win the league?

If the Brummies have signed a title sponsorship deal with Red Bull or Microsoft then it may be possible to think that they can afford to sign the British Champion. Right now sponsorship deals seem thinner on the ground than riders, and they can't cut the cloth that they don't have.

How bad must a team of 7 riders be to finish below a team of only 4 riders?

Just imagine how exciting the sport would be to watch if the late Dan Maskell or the late John Arlott had been doing the commentary. Sales of sleeping pills would have plummeted.

Great News! There's another Josh Auty story on the Brummies website this weekend. Something else to tie the fans in to their favourite stars.

Never mind...6 weeks to go til the opening night against the Coventry Bees team that currently features 4 less riders than the Brummies team. Might even win that one! Plenty of time for more rider announcements, the news of who the title sponsor will be and many more sponsorship announcements too. Reasons to be cheerful!

The 4 main parties were introduced to the fans at a meeting a few months ago. LR wasn't one of them.

I always did wonder why he was not part of the consortium that took over.

They have less and less each year as the die hards actually die out. That's the hard facts of life with a fan base of "that" generation.

Who would have been the "we"? Who was lined up with cash to splash on buying the land, getting planning permission, building a stadium, providing the car parking, transport links and other infrastructure etc etc to these "brown field" sies? Granted if it was a field in the middle of Somerset it may be possible, there land is comparatively cheap. But inner-city land, with the cash and competition from industry and commerce, that's a different ball game.

Out of interest, who else has signed up to the Brummies' own "TOP CashBack" scheme? You too can help raise the funds for one of the three remaining riders simply by signing up for it and shopping online as normal...it says here...

One would assume from GiveusaB's comments that in comparison to Perry Barr, Redcar is some utopian paradise, or that Ashfield is a carbon copy of Shangri-La. These places are what they are. You play with the cards you are dealt and get on with it. Perry Barr is the subject of a £700m reinvestment programme and in addition a long-term regeneration and improvement plan that will build on that investment. https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50253/perry_barr_regeneration/2388/perry_barr_2040_a_vision_for_legacy If the Brummies were to get merely a one hundred thousandth of that sort of investment by way of the first sponsor, they may be able to persuade someone to take up one of the 3 remaining sits vacant that they have.

The City's motto is "Forward"" which is the antithesis of how speedway has gone over the last 50 years. This may explain the declining fortunes of the club and the diminishing attendances.

I appreciate what you say. I think though that the "sponsorship" bridges have to be crossed as you come to them. The Brummies gained a crappy reputation thanks to its former owners for not paying some foreign riders. The current owners have stated that the finances are on a knife-edge and have not yet demonstrated that there's money in the pot through new sponsorship to pay riders this year either. If you were sat at home in Denmark, or Germany or wherever, would that be an enticing prospect to you, not knowing if your efforts were going to be rewarded or not? Contrast this to previous years when there were plenty of announcements about new sponsors (Mercon, Selco, Edwards et al...) This year - zip. The only sponsorship announcement this year was about the Bulls MDL team. Even the Edwards Plumbing adverts have been removed off the web site which now features less than half a dozen adverts in total. If the riders aren't willing to come over to ride for a team, not knowing whether or not they are going to be paid, then you aren't going to get as far as the visa sponsors license issue.

Nothing in the press releases (no matter how many issues of Speedway Star you scour through) about sponsors of any sort. The new owners made their reliance on increased sponsorship plain for all to hear when they took over. Maybe this is at the heart of the issue.

And some mugs pay money to buy the weekly Compendium of Press Releases, masquerading as a magnificent feat of journalism?

It's not the Brummies' job to "feed" the Speedway Star. It's their job to find the stories. They're supposed to be journalists, not the teams' print media publicists.

Great News. All the buzz on the Brummies social media this weekend is all about Josh Auty. He's in the BEN Fund meeting and he's having a testimonial. Surprised me in a way. 12 months ago, the Brummies socials were one long James-Shanes-a-thon. It's been a while since Shane's has featured. Was thinking it was going to be his turn this week.

If somebody breaks a dart, can he use someone else's dart as a "guest"? Or can he use Dart Replacement?

Great News According to the Brummies web site, Stefan Nielsen will be fit and ready for the start of the season - http://www.birmingham-speedway.com/_mobile/news.php?extend.3111 Was there a doubt over this?

So you start the process with minus 3 riders...add a team in the way of Oxford, that needs another 7 riders, and all of a sudden, to make up the league's quota or riders, you are on minus 10. Give everyone else a 2-3 month head start and then surprise surprise, there's nobody left that you can mop up in the final weeks before the season starts. This goes to back up what I've said before, there is a very limited pool of riders. Hardly enough to go around now, as it is, and with people talking about how great it would be to see Eastbourne, Swindon, Coventry, Bradford etc return, you have to ask, where the riders to fill all those extra team places will come from.