uk_martin

To be honest, I don't think that it's an issue that's really hit the public imagination. My own guess is that most people will welcome the demolition and redevelopment of what is in all honesty an eyesore, and although the athletes village / housing scheme has received planning approval, other connected matters are still in the process of getting approved. There are small groups of residents who have objections to this thing or that...e.g. the domolition of the fly-over that separates the stadium from the One Stop Shopping Centre, and the introduction of extra bus lanes, but there's a general feeling that no matter how much people jump up and down about their little gripes, this thing is going ahead, so let's make the best of it. There is a pubished Compulsary Purchase Order Zone, and the Stadium is not part of it. Full details can be seen here - https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20054/planning_strategies_and_policies/1838/perry_barr_commonwealth_games_athletes_village_and_wider_regeneration_compulsory_purchase_order I'm aware of the Deed of Covenant that "protects" the sporting purposes of the land that the stadium sits on, but just recently, a doctors surgery has been converted to an Islamic Academy, another independent "faith school" has been built on the old IMI factory site, and there is a planning application in the system for Perry Barr Police Station to be demolished and a mosque built in its place. There are even rumours of the Seventh Trap pub being demolished and a mosque being there too. Join the dots to see which way this is panning out into the future.

The Commonwealth Games Athletes Village, which will be converted post-games to a mix of social and owner-occupied homes, has a couple of game changing aspects to it. As Brian Buck mentioned, the stadium has two main roads around it at the moment, but with the plan to divert the Aldridge Road, and with the use of the current 2nd hand truck dealership as new housing land will come the prospect of "full time" housing being literally "over the road" on two sides of the stadium. This is a step change to the current housing situation, where Wellhead Lane, Nash Square and the Perry Hall estate are all further away and have obstructions between them and the stadium, which shields the noise to some degree. We have to be realistic, and with the prospect of 1500-odd new householders coming into the area, you can't hide from the prospect that one of them may be an elderly person in need of peace and quiet, or that others don't find speedway to be "in their culture" and would rather have a super-mosque built there. Sadly the legal precident set in the Mildenhall case a couple of years ago makes it clear that coming into a neighbourhood with an existing noise issue, doesn't prevent you from complaining about it and getting it dealt with. Unlike Mildenhall, where the problem went away when the complainants house mysteriously burnt down, there will be more than one house to contend when the new Perry Barr redevelopment is finished.

Has everyone already forgotten the legal case that Mildenhall got embroiled with, and eventually lost?

Why wasn't Speedway included in SPOTY this year, people cry. And why should it? I didn't hear any references to Womens Rugby, Rugby 7s, Basketball, Ice Hockey, World Rally Championship, or any number of other sports that fans of those sports will be crying about, the same way that speedway fans cry about the lack of speedway. So why is speedway so special, other than it's "your" sport? I've not found the statistics for this year, but if Geraint Thomas (the winner) got as many votes this year as Andy Murray got in 2016, then that will amount to about 250,000. In 2016, Mo Farah, was in 5th place and still got over 50,000 votes. Now lets do some sums. There are 20 speedway teams in Britain, pulling in an aggregate of probably under 15,000 paying customers every week. That's how widespread interest in British Speedway is. Even on speedways big day out in the sun, at Cardiff, there are less people in the Principality Stadium, (and that includes the Foreign Legion of fans from Poland, Sweden Germany, etc), than there were voters for Mo Farah. Until the numbers for speedway improve, can you honestly blame the BBC for not taking it seriously? Let's get a reality check. Apart from the old faithful, nobody else cares about speedway in Britain any more.

Birmingham are already down to the die hards thanks to the NL. The problem with Birmingham's die hards is that at their age, they are dying out. It needs the Championship to get any chance of replacing the old fans with new. Rocks and hard places and all that.

And in breaking news, Semion has posted something on the Brummies thread without calling us Yam Yams

Probably one of the reasons why negotiations took more than 5 minutes to complete, and the decision making process on whether or not to accept, took even longer. Just a guess, like.

Surprise, surprise, James Shanes is the 7th signing.

Yeah, I asked too. Nobody seems to know, other than Ipswich have his contract...or so I was told. Aparently Ipswich work in mysterious ways their riders to sign.

I asked about Michael Hartel a few days ago and was told that he's already an Ipswich asset. Who knows though, they might kindly donate him eh? Would like to see him at Perry Barr though. Every time I've seen him at Gustrow and Teterow, he's been very impressive, and definately the pick of the crop of current German youngsters. He was showing a clean pair of heals to Jack Smith and Adam Ellis there over the last 2 years, so the talent is there, it'll just be a matter of learning about new tracks.

If you were British Speedway's Insurance Company, what premium would you charge for Adam Roynon's Accident and Illness insurance? Would he even be insurable knowing that a claim is almost inevitable?

Some of us remember Charles Wright wobbling around Workington and trailing half a mile behind the others in 2007/8, thinking "would he be in the team if his brother, James (a former Birmingham asset) wasn't there too"? And look at him now.

IF they did that, their web site wouldn't be able to withstand the volume of traffic.

Nico Covatti Possibly Ben Barker too, although I can't fully remember how that dispute with Mick Horton over Barker ended up.

It may be an intersting academic exercise to see which team "owns" it's top end strength and how many teams have their top riders "vulnerable" to the perils of doubling up if a Premiership team has first call on them. This could be a bit of a leveller if the "best" riders are unavailable to some teams.

Thanks. No surprise with Lee Kilby's connections at Swindon that Zach would be at Birmingham. For the same reason, I won't fall over in surprise if James Shanes became our 7th signing.

Welcome back to the Zach Attack. (could turn this into a hippity hoppity rap crap thing lol) Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't he a Lakeside asset, who then became a BSPA asset when Lakeside ceased operations? So is there a chance of Zach also becoming a Brummies asset now? I guess we'll find out when the full story emerges later in the day.

Part of the fun of sport is that occasionally question marks get turned into exclamation marks. Let's see what next year holds in store.

What the hell are you expecting? Rome to be built in a day? The Masons are English. Neither of their first names is "Sheikh" and they don't dabble with Russian Oil Company stocks and shares. The Brummies are in a better league, on a limited budget, in just the promoters' second season in business, with commitments to aquire assets as is required by the league, having had the original assets stripped away from the club without compensation. All that means a huge outlay of cash. Not that those people who moan about admission prices care about that. Money grows on trees in their little bubbles. Finishing the season will be a success. Entertaining racing will be a success. More people on the terraces in September than in March will be a success. All you fans from other teams, don't worry, the Brummies won't be troubling the league leaders this year. But considering where the Brummies were 3 or 4 years ago, it's already a success to be where they are now. Let's be grateful that a foundation is being built and that in future years, the rewards will come.

The above is from the Redcar thread. And in other news, Ben Barker, on his Facebook page says that he's looking forward to being able to announce on Monday, who he'll be riding for in the Championship. Now join up some dots...

Yeah, exactly. Where's Jim Bowen with his "look what you could have won"??? We've had a fair bit of talent come ride for the Brummies at NL level, not one scrap of which we enter the Championship with. Thanks BSPA.

Pretty much sums it up. "Welcome to the real world" where there is more to running a team than just playing Fantasy Speedway with any name that springs to mind. We can thank the organisation who are the sole guardians of the "best interests of British speedway" for making the rules that we have to play by, one of which is that Birmingham, having been stripped of all its Tony Mole riding assets, by said organisation, a couple of years ago, has to now balance out asset building with on-track competitiveness, whilst those teams with an asset base can plough their resources into a focussed effort of maintaining a competitive team. It'll be several years of team building before Birmingham will be able to mount a title challenge, and I hope that the fans come to realise that. Sights need to be adjusted accordingly. Anyone who thinks "we are Birmingham, therefore we entitled" needs to take a reality check. We are in a different environment, and we're playing catch-up with the established teams in this league.

Welcome to Tobias Thomsen. Cue the "what, not Danyon?" Outrage...

See previous comments / debate about letting the news out on a drip feed.

Well I wonder what that disaffected femme fatale will think of Kyle Newman signing for the Brummies? Start taking those anti-vitriol pills folks.