Were are the Brum Fans

[Petecc]

On 5/4/2023 at 9:18 AM, DiveBomb said:

Don't think the price is that bad. I just think it's a number of things that aren't helping the situation

1. The team isn't great this year

2. The location puts people off 

3. Birmingham speedway has been slowly declining for a while now

4. The cost of living 

5. Away fans don't want to travel there as much due to location and cost of living

6. Poor advertising around the area

7. The younger generation aren't interested or have never even heard of speedway 

8. Lack of local derbies

9. The viewing experience is only good in a few areas of the stadium.

 

 

Firstly these are your opinions and I'm not going give you grief for that.

1 2 3 your opinion 

4 that is affecting all clubs

5 your opinion 

6 I have never seen so much advertising before In one season. Backs of local buses,free local newspapers,  Internet, shopping centre displays. The list goes on.

7 always a hard sell for all clubs

8 I agree

9 I also agree

10. And that's my opinion 

Edited May 13, 2023 by Petecc
Spelling

[FishersGate]

17 minutes ago, Petecc said:

Firstly these are your opinions and I'm not going give you grief for that.

1 2 3 your opinion 

4 that is affecting all clubs

5 your opinion 

6 I have never seen so much advertising before In one season. Backs of local buses,free local newspapers,  Internet, shopping centre displays. The list goes on.

7 always a hard sell for all clubs

8 I agree

9 I also agree

10. And that's my opinion 

Opinions are like a#se holes everyone's got one ! Theres always more advertising a club can do. I don't see it being no where as hot as other sports advertising. Shopping centres and buses is all good but it's social media that's the key now. And most clubs are crap at it. This is coming from a younger fan.

[uk_martin]

11 hours ago, Deano said:

Additionally there’s an engineering college (Make U.K.), just across the road up Holford Drive. The place is full of well paid young apprentices from big local companies (Jag, Land Rover, Sertec), check out their website. BMW and West Midlands trains apprentices are based at James Watt campus Great Barr again well paid. Worth investigating surely as these kids have no commitments like adults with families.

I wish you more luck in presenting the case to the management than I had. Going back to the early days, all I got was a "meh" reaction when I pointed out the existence of the Motorsports Engineering Faculty at Birmingham City University that's only 2 miles away. But hey, who needs them? What do these professors and students know? They could have had some work experience at the Brummies and then buggered off to McLaren F1 and all the effort would have been in vain. OR they could have looked at how speedway engines were designed and tuned, and maybe found cost savings in how things were done...but that would have been a threat to the established way of doing things, and you can't have that, can you?

[mikebv]

7 hours ago, uk_martin said:

I wish you more luck in presenting the case to the management than I had. Going back to the early days, all I got was a "meh" reaction when I pointed out the existence of the Motorsports Engineering Faculty at Birmingham City University that's only 2 miles away. But hey, who needs them? What do these professors and students know? They could have had some work experience at the Brummies and then buggered off to McLaren F1 and all the effort would have been in vain. OR they could have looked at how speedway engines were designed and tuned, and maybe found cost savings in how things were done...but that would have been a threat to the established way of doing things, and you can't have that, can you?

Having stepped into the "speedway bubble" once, it was truly staggering the amount of delusion they had about what they offered, and even more staggering was how these people were "successful businessmen" outside the sport, if they ran their own businesses in the same "head in the sand" way...

The sport is still ran by so many middle aged men in an "analogue way", which was no doubt fine when some of the ludicrous decisions made didnt hit the public domain instantly...

Like it does today..

Same old. Same old. Doesnt cut it nowadays, and if you dont have a growth mindset, seeking constant evolution through innovation, trying new ideas, and driving improvements, then you simply have no chance.

 

[Deano]

10 hours ago, uk_martin said:

I wish you more luck in presenting the case to the management than I had. Going back to the early days, all I got was a "meh" reaction when I pointed out the existence of the Motorsports Engineering Faculty at Birmingham City University that's only 2 miles away. But hey, who needs them? What do these professors and students know? They could have had some work experience at the Brummies and then buggered off to McLaren F1 and all the effort would have been in vain. OR they could have looked at how speedway engines were designed and tuned, and maybe found cost savings in how things were done...but that would have been a threat to the established way of doing things, and you can't have that, can you?

There will always be rich people with more money than sense. You only have to see the queues of people wanting to buy the next failing football club.

Those young kids at Birmingham Uni could have been the next generation throwing their money into speedway.

[Petecc]

On 5/13/2023 at 11:39 AM, Deano said:

Additionally there’s an engineering college (Make U.K.), just across the road up Holford Drive. The place is full of well paid young apprentices from big local companies (Jag, Land Rover, Sertec), check out their website. BMW and West Midlands trains apprentices are based at James Watt campus Great Barr again well paid. Worth investigating surely as these kids have no commitments like adults with families.

I think that all suggestions are being looked into and this is one I know is.

[Pumpy]

Have to say that Oxford are great at social media and it’s showing in the crowds . Also kids under 16 free has encouraged lots of new young faces .

as an aside as well I wonder if a more powerful team name might help in reinventing Birmingham … maybe the Bulls or similar . Always felt the Brummies was a bit weak. Just a thought …!

[Toady]

1 hour ago, Pumpy said:

Have to say that Oxford are great at social media and it’s showing in the crowds . Also kids under 16 free has encouraged lots of new young faces .

as an aside as well I wonder if a more powerful team name might help in reinventing Birmingham … maybe the Bulls or similar . Always felt the Brummies was a bit weak. Just a thought …!

Agreed,Oxford certainly drawing in the crowds I don’t think the name matters as Swindon did ok as the robins for many a year( contrary to what Mr Russell and co say)hardly a powerful name.

[uk_martin]

1 hour ago, Pumpy said:

...Also kids under 16 free has encouraged lots of new young faces .

Birmingham has had "Kids for a Quid" offers off and on since 2007. If cheap admission for youngsters worked, there'd be terraces full of young people now.

Admission for 12-16yo's is currently £3. That's less than a Big Mac at McDonalds.  For Students (17-22) admission is £5. Hardly deal breaking. And yet the terraces are still not flooded out with youngsters.  The problem isn't price, it's value for money. You're trying to sell a product that looks 20 years older than Windows 95, to the Windows 11 generation. The product/experience needs to be brought into the modern age.

1 hour ago, Pumpy said:

as an aside as well I wonder if a more powerful team name might help in reinventing Birmingham … maybe the Bulls or similar . Always felt the Brummies was a bit weak. Just a thought …!

There speaks someone not from Birmingham, I suspect, someone with no attachment to the city, its nickname, and its heritage. And what good did a name change do at Reading? 

[GiveusaB]

I think so far as a newbie attending ? what a speedway meeting seriously lacks...is presentation!

With so few in attendance, the atmosphere is already dull compared to most sports!

I always look at how the darts has changed with time and how successful that is now! (mind you, take away 'the alcohol' and I think darts would fall on its head!)

[GiveusaB]

16 hours ago, Pumpy said:

Have to say that Oxford are great at social media and it’s showing in the crowds . Also kids under 16 free has encouraged lots of new young faces .

as an aside as well I wonder if a more powerful team name might help in reinventing Birmingham … maybe the Bulls or similar . Always felt the Brummies was a bit weak. Just a thought …!

We're weaker than ever this season! 

[geoff100]

My 7 yr old grandson went to openier on sat at workington  he was bored between the races just wanted to go home for the computer,thats what the sport is up against!

[LisaColette]

5 minutes ago, geoff100 said:

My 7 yr old grandson went to openier on sat at workington  he was bored between the races just wanted to go home for the computer,thats what the sport is up against!

That's interesting as my 11yo says they take too long between races and she likes gaming too. Where is Frank Ebdon when you need him? 

Or we could all try 'no gaming til you watch some Speedway' !! 

[GiveusaB]

I think the meetings these days are 'rushed' through....there's obviously good/not so good points about that?

Not sure whether this affects our manager's inability to make beneficial tactical changes? (not enough time to 'consider' a change etc...)

But my general opinion, is that there's little, or no atmosphere in between races!

It needs a complete over-haul....announcers with charisma....etc etc etc....

From a personal perspective, I'm happy with 'rushed' through meetings simply because I'm only there for the 'racing'...but I can easily see why youngsters/new fans would be bored 'sh#tless'!

 

[GiveusaB]

The only way I can see B'ham speedway continuing/surviving, is if we amalgamated with Cov/Cradley and formed a Midlands Team!

[FishersGate]

5 hours ago, lisa-colette said:

That's interesting as my 11yo says they take too long between races and she likes gaming too. Where is Frank Ebdon when you need him? 

Or we could all try 'no gaming til you watch some Speedway' !! 

Maybe a proper playstation or Xbox speedway game is in order. Like I've said before every other sport do it and it constantly engages the fans. I used to play FIFA every day in my teens and it kept me hooked during the off season. 

 

[Trackrat]

8 hours ago, GiveusaB said:

The only way I can see B'ham speedway continuing/surviving, is if we amalgamated with Cov/Cradley and formed a Midlands Team!

Don’t agree, if it’s at Birmingham, then call it what you want, the team is still Birmingham, this kind of approach never works.

[Deano]

8 hours ago, GiveusaB said:

The only way I can see B'ham speedway continuing/surviving, is if we amalgamated with Cov/Cradley and formed a Midlands Team!

This has never worked. Cradley and Stoke for example. Eastbourne Dons, Scottish whatever, London lions, I’m sure there’s more.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Deano

[geoff100]

1 hour ago, Deano said:

This has never worked. Cradley and Stoke for example. Eastbourne Dons, Scottish whatever, London lions, I’m sure there’s more.

Workington tigers !!

[*JJ]

19 hours ago, GiveusaB said:

It needs a complete over-haul....announcers with charisma....etc etc etc....

For once you are right here ... the presenter at Perry Barr stands on the wrong side of the tapes with his nose in his programme. I once suggested that he should be sent to Wolves to see how Porky works the crowd, generating atmosphere. Or get Porky himself over here! I know a lot of people don't like him, but he is very effective; we need someone like that.