Jump to content
British Speedway Forum

Birmingham Future In Doubt ? Alan Phillips Has Had Enough!


Recommended Posts

The hard cold facts are that the fans have fell out of love with the sport due to teams made up of anyone who is around that night, poor presentation,and crap stadiums , just look at rugby union 20 years ago they where playing to no more than 200 fans, now you cant get a ticket on the day at most premiership venues , if its not to late speedway needs to take a leaf out of other major sports and get into the present day , I have been a speedway supporter for over forty years but I fear the end of regular league racing is not far away

spot on

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The hard cold facts are that the fans have fell out of love with the sport due to teams made up of anyone who is around that night, poor presentation,and crap stadiums , just look at rugby union 20 years ago they where playing to no more than 200 fans, now you cant get a ticket on the day at most premiership venues , if its not to late speedway needs to take a leaf out of other major sports and get into the present day , I have been a speedway supporter for over forty years but I fear the end of regular league racing is not far away

Great Post - and sadly true.

Edited by The White Knight
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just sitting here thinking of ways to save the club and it hit me.

 

How if people including staff, riders and stadium etc haven't been paid for upto 3 months by Birmingham then where has all the income from the last three months gone??? If all these costs had been paid out I could understand there being a deficit but as they haven't.......

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hopefully that will be the case. But bear in mind that not only I assume is the objective to wipe/clear outstanding debts but a large sum will also be needed for future use. Is the target £10,000 going to be enough? Again, best wishes to this and I will be making a donation via Papypal.

A very realistic view of getting the right balance between well-meaning fundraising and actually solving the problem.

 

While I repeat it's wonderful to hear about so many heartfelt offers of help, not only does there need to be a properly-assessed target of what amount of money's required but also a fair target of what this fund's trying to achieve.

 

Is this fund simply aiming to wipe out the Brummies' existing debts so that a fresh promotion can spend the next few months working out the best way to make a debt-free fresh start for the 2015 season ?

 

Or is this fund also aiming to prop up being able to complete the remaining 2014 fixtures which have little chance of breaking-even or being profitable on their own given how few riders are available in the short-term to strengthen a lineup currently in the bottom two of the Elite League (admittedly while not yet having had a chance to race any of its 4 meetings against bottom-club Leicester that might make the Brummies' overall record look a bit better) ?

 

A couple of days ago, I posted on this thread how vital it's going to be to accurately target in the right order where any funds need to be spent.

 

Personally, if the initial fundraising target's £10,000, then (and I make no apologies if anyone thinks this sounds harsh) that might barely be enough to get the GRA's extra padlocks off any speedway areas at Perry Barr and square up a few other vital off-track bills, never mind bringing into view next year's fresh start or the rest of this year's fixture-list.

 

Just 3 weeks of outstanding stadium-rent plus the latest month of doctor/ambulance bills would probably eat up well over £7,000 ... make it 4 weeks of stadium-rent and May's medical bill as well and then the whole 10-grand's gone straight away without paying anything that might be owed to the riders or other clubs or the Brummies' matchday staff.

 

Then there's the one massive item that can't be priced up in all of this ... the GRA's willingness to let anyone else promote speedway at Perry Barr and risk another rent debt piling up even if the previous debt's settled for now.

 

Perhaps the biggest clue as to just how deep the Brummies' debts may be is that it took just 5 days (last Wednesday to yesterday) to go from the whole story exploding in the first place to both Nigel Pearson and Alex Harkess either tweeting or being quoted along the lines of last night looking like it would be the club's final meeting with a timescale to make the riders free-agents already in place ... if significant folk like that can reach such a glum conclusion so quickly rather than battling hard to salvage the situation, I dread to think how much debt's already stacked up.

 

Therefore, as a modest estimate, I'd reckon it's going to take well over £30,000 just to square up what's already happened this season before abandoning the rest of it to concentrate on that 2015 fresh start ... and you can easily double that figure to guarantee propping-up the rest of this season's fixtures.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if even £100,000 (and yes, I have put the right number of noughts on that figure) rather than £10,000 could prove a more accurate fundraising figure to really rescue Birmingham.

 

Absolutely fantastic if 100-grand is collectable to save the Brummies ... but don't complain if smaller targets early in this fundraising process get swallowed up even faster than they're pledged.

 

 

I was just sitting here thinking of ways to save the club and it hit me.

 

How if people including staff, riders and stadium etc haven't been paid for upto 3 months by Birmingham then where has all the income from the last three months gone??? If all these costs had been paid out I could understand there being a deficit but as they haven't.......

Maybe it's become all to easy for some Elite League clubs to get into the habit of using the early part of the next season's Sky money to round-off the previous season's bills.

 

This is the first season of the new Sky deal that almost certainly makes that habit tougher to continue.

 

But if the previous season's bills still need rounding off ... ?

Edited by arthur cross
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just sitting here thinking of ways to save the club and it hit me.

How if people including staff, riders and stadium etc haven't been paid for upto 3 months by Birmingham then where has all the income from the last three months gone??? If all these costs had been paid out I could understand there being a deficit but as they haven't.......

I made these comments below some 11 pages ago. I'm concerned people don't seem interested in answers as to what's gone on. No doubt the radio later in the week won't dig into these questions either

 

The strong Brummies fans did say at the start of the season they'd see this coming but hoped it wouldn't. The GRA are probably asking ridiculous number's but Phillips was aware of these numbers but got himself in debt to the track owners and not pay rider's etc.

So where has the gate / sponsorship monies gone? Has he's supped it up to cover his losses? Has he made any losses at all and just been bankrolling everything?

Brummies fans need answer's and very swiftly.

I'd imagine Tony Mole isn't taking the Brummies on again because Phillips want money for the licence plus any debt to be carried by the club. That's just not reasonable.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/foCy1/sh/f3fNO7

Would it be possible to set up a public meeting I.e a club /pub with the supporters trust and fans that want to help ?? Deano can we maybe speak to the trust again pal ?

A very good idea. You really need to have a public meeting with your promotion also in attendance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A very good idea. You really need to have a public meeting with your promotion also in attendance.

 

Preferably without the promotion in attendance thanks! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Preferably without the promotion in attendance thanks! ;)

So who's going to take the club forward?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not a good idea for the promotion to be present - there would be a riot. And anyway we have no promoter - as he's walked away leaving us to hang,

Question still not been answered, who's going to take the club forward? And why would there be a riot given that Smith has alledgedly, ploughed 400k into the club? Doesn't make a whole lot of sence to me..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Question still not been answered, who's going to take the club forward? And why would there be a riot given that Smith has alledgedly, ploughed 400k into the club? Doesn't make a whole lot of sence to me..

Assuming you mean Phillips not Smith - quite frankly how all this has come about has left even the meek & mild mannered like me EXTREMELY angry. TM is the club president, I'm sure he'd help bridge the gap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What Smith you on about Starry?

Sorry Phillips, perhaps somebody would like to elaborate, given you are starting a fund..

Assuming you mean Phillips not Smith - quite frankly how all this has come about has left even the meek & mild mannered like me EXTREMELY angry. TM is the club president, I'm sure he'd help bridge the gap.

TM?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry Phillips, perhaps somebody would like to elaborate, given you are starting a fund..

TM?

 

Post 368 on this thread should point you in the right direction Starry. ;)

 

TM-Tony Mole. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Post 368 on this thread should point you in the right direction Starry. ;)

 

TM-Tony Mole. ;)

But i though Tony Mole, doesn't want to take it on either?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Question still not been answered, who's going to take the club forward? And why would there be a riot given that Smith has alledgedly, ploughed 400k into the club? Doesn't make a whole lot of sence to me..

 

In a Statement to Brummies fans on our website, Alan Phillips said on May18th:

 

"We would like to put it on record now that Birmingham speedway is not in debt or being chased by creditors"

 

I am very angry that he said something like that that clearly wasnt true, I am very angry that he let the situation get out of hand like this but I shouldn't be because he's poured £400k into the club? :blink:

Edited by Brummie Kev
Link to comment
Share on other sites

TM doesn't want to take it on because of the amount of debt. Sooooo, if the debt was reduced by one means or another then it wouldn't be too ridiculous to think that he'd then be interested in helping the club out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy