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Birmingham Future In Doubt ? Alan Phillips Has Had Enough!


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Spoke with the BSPA's Jon Cook this evening and - as announced - he is hopeful of a positive announcement being made next week as to the immediate future of the Brummies.

 

In the meantime the BSPA are covering the rider wages for tonight and next Monday's meetings.

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As has been proved the city do not want speedway really, at least not elite level. Shows how bad it is when a city this size cannot make speedway work.

I personally don't think it would work at PL level either..

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Its a funny old World. Birmingham and Kings Lynn both took the leap together from Premier to Elite League. One appears to have made it stick the other struggles. I guess Lynn have the massive advantage of owning their own site. Its amazing how a tiny little backwater club Like Kings Lynn can make it pay, but the 2nd biggest City cant.

 

Wishing the Brummies all the luck in surving this.

Edited by semion
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Heartbreaking, it really is. All the $hit & aggro you had to go through to get planning against vehement opposition from all directions and now this. :sad:

 

Best of luck in getting a positive resolution, despite what you did to us last season ;)

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Its a funny old World. Birmingham and Kings Lynn both took the leap together from Premier to Elite League. One appears to have made it stick the other struggles. I guess Lynn have the massive advantage of owning their own site. Its amazing how a tiny little backwater club Like Kings Lynn can make it pay, but the 2nd biggest City cant.

 

Wishing the Brummies all the luck in surving this.

 

Lynn aint had a big gap in running that a generation and a half have missed, so we're more comparable to Leicester than Lynn.

 

I think Speedway can prosper in Brum, but it'll take years before it's sustainable by anything like Lynn's level, we need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and making decisions that turn off what people we have as has been done far too much in recent years, we need a positive and welcoming to newcomers outlook for the club and not to complain and claim we're all doomed when that doesn't produce overnight results (how many people has this outlook from AP turned off I wonder).

 

No one under 35 has any recollection of speedway before now in Birmingham, getting them in and keeping them coming will take some time to achieve, it's doable, but an owner has to be realistic about that and have patience rather than all now now now, because it just won't work in this situation, AP was a bit naive in this respect about what was required in my opinion, I don't doubt he started out with good intentions, but the execution and ability to deliver it was somewhat lacking.

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I don't think speedway has been promoted properly in Brum since we've returned and that is no criticism of the great efforts of Joe Mac, it was his job to get the sponsors in and he achieved great success! You can have as many special offers as you like it's no good if nobody knows about them!

 

Promotion of the sport is down to errr the promoters really, shock horror!!!!.

 

Many have suggested that speedway is not sustainable in Brum because of the make up of the local population, while that's true of the inner city areas around and including Perry Barr there is plenty of scope for recruitment of new fans in the more affluent outer suburbs. (Brum is a BIG city) These areas just haven't been targeted for publicity of the sport and if we do get a new owner then this needs to be addressed pronto.

 

Leicester's crowds aren't that bad (even with a crap racetrack) yet Leicester has a much larger ethnic makeup than Brum (I know that may sound hard to believe) and is a smaller city so I don't subscribe to the demographic theory.

 

So whoever takes over has got a hard job of getting new faces through the gates but I believe it can be done with a correctly targeted publicity campaign. Easier said than done, yes I know but it HAS to be done or it's more years in the speedway wilderness for the Brummies.

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I am not sure if there is ever going to be a solution to the Brummies problem. They have tried hard not this year but other years to get the public to come and support them. Not sure what the problem is there but it looks like the general public in and around Birmingham are just not interested in the sport. It may be Britains second largest city, but what is the make up of the population of the city and do they really care about going to watch the sport what ever league they are in.

They could probabbly better cutting thier loses get in some new blood to run the place and move the whole set up to an area where they could draw in a good crowd week in week out.

They could even consider going along the lines of a joint venture with Coventry and build a new state of the art stadium and sharing it on alternate days to get the most out of it. Just a though as they are not to far apart. I am sure there is land far enough from housing that a new stadium could be built that is also near enough to keep the fans of both sides happy.

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One hour is too quick really. 5 mins per race with a 15 min interval and the whole thing should be done and dusted in 90 mins.

 

Why does 15 heats of speedway need an interval?

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Spoke with the BSPA's Jon Cook this evening and - as announced - he is hopeful of a positive announcement being made next week as to the immediate future of the Brummies.

 

In the meantime the BSPA are covering the rider wages for tonight and next Monday's meetings.

Why does 15 heats of speedway need an interval?

Sell beer

Sell chips

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Sell beer

Sell chips

 

I appreciate that watching tractors go round can be fascinating, but I'd have thought there were ample gaps during a meeting for chips and beer runs. Intervals do seem like an unnecessary delay where most people stand around waiting for the racing to resume.

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Intead of the dull boring old music coming over the speaker system they should make it 30 mins and put on a local ive group, in the central area. It could give some local band the break they need if the right people are there and it was also live on SKY. Lets entertain the crowds not bore them to death, with the promoter rabbiting on about how good the team could be even if they are bottom or third from bottom. We need something to draw the crowds not get all the races over with as soon as you can and then get them out so they can lock up and switch of the lights. Good night all see you at the next meeting. We are now turning all the lights off, don't break your necks going out as we are stapped for cash and our insurance might not cover you.

Let the promoter make the most of the meetings and try to bring speedway in the 21st century

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And the strange comments Alan Phillips now makes "The prospects for next season being extremely bright with the new sponsorship deals agreed."

 

 

But was unable to carry on putting money into the club,to cover the shortfall.

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I appreciate that watching tractors go round can be fascinating, but I'd have thought there were ample gaps during a meeting for chips and beer runs. Intervals do seem like an unnecessary delay where most people stand around waiting for the racing to resume.

Lets be honest, last year Birmingham had the perfect storm,finished top of the league,hand picked their local rivals for a play off semi final,rode against speedways biggest club Poole in the final,had a relatively cheap team,had 2 promoters,had a good commercial manager attracting good sponsorship,had a good team manager Phil Morris,had people with speedway experience(the Drurys), had cheap deals on tickets and STILL they could not make it work ! With respect their problems are much deeper than bringing back the 2nd half or cancelling the interval.It may please the current punters but is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic when it comes to getting another 500 punters through the gate every week in order for Birmingham to continue !
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Why does 15 heats of speedway need an interval?

Edinburgh fans would say it's an H&S requirement

 

Speedway these days isn't value for money it's effectively £1 to watch each race these days and when they orsky want to bring a holt to meetings it's even more per race, for that £1 you get in some cases just one minute of action and over the whole meeting just 15 minutes of action you can see why people look elsewhere for they enjoyment

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Edinburgh fans would say it's an H&S requirement

 

Speedway these days isn't value for money it's effectively £1 to watch each race these days and when they orsky want to bring a holt to meetings it's even more per race, for that £1 you get in some cases just one minute of action and over the whole meeting just 15 minutes of action you can see why people look elsewhere for they enjoyment

If that's the argument nobody would bother to watch Usain Bolt, hell you regularly get less than 10 seconds but he's the biggest crowd puller and highly paid athlete in the sport.Seen plenty of good 15 heat Elite league matches taking between 1.5 / 2 hours.If the quality is right people wont moan its only 15 minutes,they only moan when the quality is not up to scratch, which is most often the case these days !
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I appreciate that watching tractors go round can be fascinating, but I'd have thought there were ample gaps during a meeting for chips and beer runs. Intervals do seem like an unnecessary delay where most people stand around waiting for the racing to resume.

I agree I'm just saying that's why they have them

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