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Birmingham Future In Doubt ? Alan Phillips Has Had Enough!


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Pearson is sounding downbeat about the situation on twitter and he's normally a half full kind of guy. Unsure on why tonight's BV meeting is going ahead, BSPA need to use any residual income from sky/promoters deposit etc to for riders back pay and then the GRA. Having a meeting tonight just takes money out of that pot.

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Is Birmingham Speedway owned by a Limited Company ? I also wonder if Alan Phillips or whoever took the lease out had to give any kind of personal gurantees to the Landlord with regard to the rent. If it was Tony Mole was ths passed on the Alan Phillips when he took over Birmingham Speedway, Again did Mr Phillips set up a serperate company to run the Speedway. When there is a sniff of a company in trouble the wolfs will be banging at the door.

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Just following on from my previous point the site I’m talking about is the old Perry Barr container base. It closed years ago and it seems in 2007 British car auctions applied to develop the area as a car auction site, but seemingly nothing has happen to the site and still lays derelict. As the site was still operation when Birmingham were looking for a home in the past may be this site was never looked at as a possible home.

 

I really think for the best interest of Birmingham speedway they need a place with minimal over heads and good access to the track for practise. Nice restaurants and bars can come along later.

Edited by Pirio Barre
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If the crowd levels are such that expenses cannot be covered, collections,donations and fighting funds etc will only delay the inevitable. if Birmingham can be saved and I hope they can, the priority should be to pay the stadium rent till the end of the season. GRA are no friend of Speedway but neither are they a philanthropic society. If I were they I would insist on rent up front.

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Pearson is sounding downbeat about the situation on twitter and he's normally a half full kind of guy. Unsure on why tonight's BV meeting is going ahead, BSPA need to use any residual income from sky/promoters deposit etc to for riders back pay and then the GRA. Having a meeting tonight just takes money out of that pot.

Tonight's meeting, along with last Wednesday's at Poole, was immediately guaranteed by the BSPA to buy a few days for sorting out the Brummies' financial woes when Alan Phillips wanted out so abruptly last Wednesday morning (probably on the back of someone with speedway connections - track staff or Brummies management - being denied access to their usual area within Perry Barr by the GRA).

 

At that stage, I doubt the BSPA anticipated such deep or awkward debts would become so clearly and quickly obvious, prompting this Wednesday's home meeting with Leicester to be called off over the weekend before the 2nd of those guaranteed away fixtures had even taken place and, therefore, creating what may well be a rather ghostly atmosphere this evening at Belle Vue.

 

There's also the snag that for various reasons, weather-related and stock-cars, Belle Vue have had only 5 home Elite League meetings so far this season so any sort of home action for them this evening will help their cashflow, even in these desperate circumstances.

 

As you've noted, Nigel Pearson's downbeat tweets (and his increasingly bleak reports nearly every day in the Birmingham Mail) give a stark reflection of how bad this situation has become ... for Alex Harkess to be prepared to outline the riders' free-agent status in a fortnight's time is an ever more powerful indicator because (especially at Plymouth after the 2012 season), he'll usually give a struggling club far more chances to survive than they probably deserve.

 

It's not yet the right time for any delving into how the BSPA/SCB or anyone else let the Phillips regime stumble so deeply into trouble ... but that must surely be done in due course, if only to try to learn lessons to avoid similar chaos in the future.

 

 

Will the match at Leicester on Saturday still go ahead

Unless there's any hope of the Brummies resuming home fixtures as well, it's hard to see how the BSPA will keep on guaranteeing their away meetings beyond tonight.

 

I know you've asked earlier whether someone else (and somewhere else) could host the Brummies home meetings to let them finish the season while the current debts are still sorted out but it's the legal and insurance responsibilities for anyone becoming a temporary Brummies-host that will be the hardest to overcome while the Phillips family still officially own those responsibilities, even if they've tumbled into hideous debts while doing so.

 

It's been much easier for the BSPA to arrange away-guarantees becuase the Pirates and Aces co-promoters respectively have just continued with their usual home responsibilities on the legal and insurance matters.

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Just following on from my previous point the site I’m talking about is the old Perry Barr container base. It closed years ago and it seems in 2007 British car auctions applied to develop the area as a car auction site, but seemingly nothing has happen to the site and still lays derelict. As the site was still operation when Birmingham were looking for a home in the past may be this site was never looked at as a possible home.

 

I really think for the best interest of Birmingham speedway they need a place with minimal over heads and good access to the track for practise. Nice restaurants and bars can come along later.

 

That would be a problem as current PP only allows for one meeting a week apart from exceptional circumstances.

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That would be a problem as current PP only allows for one meeting a week apart from exceptional circumstances.

PP at the current site states that, Another site may have less restrictive planning rules. Also currently at Perry Barr due to Birmingham not owning the facility they will always have limited access, not only for practise but track preparation.

Edited by Pirio Barre
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Is Birmingham Speedway owned by a Limited Company ?

Birmingham Brummies Ltd

 

What I find strange is that the budget at the start of the season must have included decent salaries for Graham and Denise Drury which have not actually had to be paid.

Also with all due respect, I suspect Jack Lee is not as expensive as Phil Morris as a team manager.

And yet despite these cost savings, they've gone ** up.

 

What would have happened if they hadn't fallen out with Morris and the Drurys, and had to pay these extra salaries? Would Birmingham have gone bust sooner?

Or were the Drurys doing something right, which has been done horribly wrong in their absence?

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sad to see any club fold but if after a gap of many years without speedway the city of Birmingham cant support a speedway team talk about a stadium at a different site is pointless really as without support the business would not be viable wherever it may be raced. I hope the brummies can be saved its hard to imagine our second city cant sustain the sport of speedway. tonights meeting does seem somewhat pointless but im going along as due to breaks in the league programme it feels more like the close season with the lack of action. that can also have an adverse effect as people find other things to do and get out of the habit of going. anyway good luck to Birmingham on their bid to survive.

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sad to see any club fold but if after a gap of many years without speedway the city of Birmingham cant support a speedway team talk about a stadium at a different site is pointless really as without support the business would not be viable wherever it may be raced.

 

 

Birmingham has the support to support speedway look at Buxton how many fans do they get. What Birmingham doesn’t have is the support to carry massive overheads..

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Swindon would be the main beneficiaries if all the Brummies' results so far are expunged from the Elite League table as two mid-meeting abandonments mean the Robins haven't completed any meetings yet against Birmingham and, therefore, get the rest of the borderline playoff teams brought back towards them.

 

Leicester haven't met Birmingham at all while everyone else has 2 results against them except King's Lynn who have 3 results (including 2 away wins) but are so far clear at the top of the table that they can easily afford to have 10 points cut off their total.

 

Currently (Birmingham results still included) it's ...

KLynn 20 meetings 56 pts, Lake 19-36, Poole 15-30, Eastb 16-27, Cov 17-27, Wolv 18-25, Swin 15-20, BVue 17-15, Birm 15-12, Leics 16-10

 

If Birmingham's results are taken out, it's ...

KLynn 17-46, Lake 17-29, Poole 13-25, Eastb 14-24, Cov 15-24, Wolv 16-21, Swin 15-20, BVue 15-12, Leics 16-10

Edited by arthur cross
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Maybe there will be other beneficiaries if and when the current Birmingham riders arrive on the market. Could change one or 2 teams into title contenders.

 

According to some the Birmingham team isn’t good enough as premier league contenders so god help any elite team that sign a Birmingham rider. or are you talking about one or 2 premier teams becoming title contenders

Edited by Pirio Barre
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I think one or 2 of the Birmingham team are a little better than then current average

 

 

Absolutely, which is why i didn’t buy that Birmingham were a poor team at the start of the season, so many riders with the potential to improve, sadly for Birmingham they didn’t do it but given a fresh start who knows.

 

They might even help Belle Vue achive the long forgotten dream of making the play offs, ( opps, sorry I forgot they are only speedway riders not miracle workers, what is it 10 seasons this year? someone should make a ticker banner like they had at old trafford )

Edited by Pirio Barre
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Birmingham has the support to support speedway look at Buxton how many fans do they get. What Birmingham doesn’t have is the support to carry massive overheads..

 

So perhaps Birmingham would be better off in the NL at a level they could afford, the Brummies aren't the only club with said overheads, we too race in a GRA stadium but have not got into this much of a financial mess, Theres been a lot in the speedway press from the Brummies promotion lamenting the lack of people coming through the turnstiles, that would indicate the city does not have the support in sufficient numbers, BV or Wolves would be a better comparison than buxton as those clubs pay rent and overheads in rented stadia and race at EL level

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I feel there are far more intelligent people then I ,making suggestions of real substance. I'm following the topic closely, hoping a solution can be found.

I can't help thinking, that a place as big as Birmingham should be able to support a speedway venture in large numbers. The fact that it isn't questions need to be asked why????

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