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Birmingham v Oxford Mon 8th July PL


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It will be a sad day if Birmingham is lost to the sport. It seems that they have many issues and in today’s climate it has to be win at all cost to maintain support and to be languishing in the bottom half of the league does not help the cause. Riders have to share some of the blame, if you go back riders attacked a track but today’s gate and go merchants on the over powered machine are never going to make a good fist of things because so few have honed their track craft and can adapt. The machines are no longer fit for purpose in terms of the UK tracks and few if any riders/mechanics can get the set ups right for the different tracks. Where has it all gone so wrong for the sport? You cannot solely blame the promoters who maybe naive but do try with what are suppose to be experienced resources but sadly those resources also fall well short. Fingers crossed that the Brummies can turn things around.

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The team is poor and Tolley has got no chance of fixing it now with Ipswich and Sheffield in the market for big hitters. (Brum will always be third choice for a big hitter)

So I think the best cause of action at this point to try and get a Home win or two before the season ends is for the track prep to be addressed ASAP because it's really hurting the Birmingham riders imo.

They're the only team in the league that's basically got no Home advantage because the Brum riders are riding something completely different every Home meeting to a point where they must feel like they're the away riders when turning up to Perry Barr.

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2 hours ago, Rob B said:

Brennan gone from great form few weeks ago to poor recently. 

Started the season so well, still scoring the points for Poole, but struggling with Birmingham. He really shouldn't be riding at 5, but Birmingham need another heat leader to move him down to his natural second string position.

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8 minutes ago, szkocjasid said:

Started the season so well, still scoring the points for Poole, but struggling with Birmingham. He really shouldn't be riding at 5, but Birmingham need another heat leader to move him down to his natural second string position.

best engines being saved for Belle Vue?

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7 minutes ago, szkocjasid said:

That wouldn't explain why his scores have dropped for Birmingham but not Poole

Maybe he is saving them for Poole then? Birmingham season is pretty much over and Poole are still competitive in all competitions. 

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33 minutes ago, lisa-colette said:

Maybe he is saving them for Poole then? Birmingham season is pretty much over and Poole are still competitive in all competitions. 

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Why on earth would he save his best engines for your beloved Poole rather than Birmingham? He couldn’t give a toss what position the clubs are in in their respective leagues. He’ll 100% be on more pounds per point for Birmingham than he will for Poole down in the Championship. As much as you’d love to think it, he’s not prioritising Poole over Birmingham. 

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Tom’s put 0.6 on his average this season. He had a bad meeting guesting for Ipswich and an unfortunate crash tonight. Other than that, he’s been scoring well. Some people just expect too much.

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The whole team are struggling because they are signed as 2nd string and reserves, paid for that role and then expected to step up and compete with higher class higher paid riders.The poles and the Czech failed miserably on over inflated averages and the confidence of the other 4 is shot to pieces when they turn up at Brum..It’s piss poor from the top and that filters down.The other week they were at home to Ipswich with a team average 8 points less than Ipswich and everyone was saying poor Ipswich for having injured riders, but they had guests which still left them 6 points stronger on average.

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8 hours ago, Aries said:

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Why on earth would he save his best engines for your beloved Poole rather than Birmingham? He couldn’t give a toss what position the clubs are in in their respective leagues. He’ll 100% be on more pounds per point for Birmingham than he will for Poole down in the Championship. As much as you’d love to think it, he’s not prioritising Poole over Birmingham. 

'100% more pounds per point for Brum' is irrelevant if he's not scoring enough points! More points and more meetings for Poole (plus more win bonuses?) makes more sense ;). The Poole track gets similar criticism for being inconsistent, but points are still scored. However I do share concerns that his overall speedway schedule and travelling is taking its toll - something that may get worse as the season progresses.

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In all the 53 years I've been following B'ham, I can't remember the set-up being this damaging!

Tolley for his financial backing and Brennan for his performances this season, are the only two credible members of the Club.

Lose any of the others that are associated and they wouldn't be missed!

First move....get rid of Rogers and Sam....

Needs to happen before the next home match for B'ham to have any chance of surviving this season and beyond!

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28 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

'100% more pounds per point for Brum' is irrelevant if he's not scoring enough points! More points and more meetings for Poole (plus more win bonuses?) makes more sense ;). The Poole track gets similar criticism for being inconsistent, but points are still scored. However I do share concerns that his overall speedway schedule and travelling is taking its toll - something that may get worse as the season progresses.

You know as well as I do there is no way on gods green earth that Brennan would “save his best engines for Poole”. That is utterly ridiculous. The difference in pay between the Premiership and Championship is vast. If your best contract is in the Premiership, you’ll want your best equipment in the Premiership. That’s just basic common sense. 

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29 minutes ago, GiveusaB said:

In all the 53 years I've been following B'ham, I can't remember the set-up being this damaging!

Tolley for his financial backing and Brennan for his performances this season, are the only two credible members of the Club.

Lose any of the others that are associated and they wouldn't be missed!

First move....get rid of Rogers and Sam....

Needs to happen before the next home match for B'ham to have any chance of surviving this season and beyond!

So just out of interest you get rid of Rodgers and Sam, would you keep Chris Adams as Team Manager? Or do you have a complete break and bring in someone else? 
They will survive the season the towel won’t be thrown in now.

 

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I find it very hard to make any negative comment about Nigel Tolley as a man and benefactor of the Club

I've got no inside knowledge of how much money he has put in, but adding the dots, it would not be a surprise if it was north of £400k.

So to those who moan and whinge I'd ask, would you put £400k in ??, if you had it. Now there are the analogies of "only fools parting with money" and the usual suspects will attack him for that, but without him the Club would have died when David and Peter Mason left, and why did they leave, hey ho....losing too much money.

Other Clubs have similarly suffered and other people have lost money trying to save Speedway Clubs.

If there is one criticism of Nigel it is that he is not great at PR and hasn't got the right people around him. That's partially valid in terms of his PR skills in my opinion but in terms of having "the right people around him" , whilst he hasn't chosen well, or inherited well, the biggest problem lies with the BSPL who insist that (the ever dwindling list) of failures and hangers on, aka "Promoters" who have and continue to make a living out of Speedway, have to be maintained as the are "experienced admistrators". 

I know everyone will again scapegoat Laurence, I won't ever attack his hard work and dedication to the cause and again, without him and the fact that he sought out and found Nigel when the Club was literally bordering on extinction, but i'm sure he and Nigel will be looking back and considering what went wrong.

The Site Owners decision to leave the Club with only a "Monday option" can't also be forgotten, that forced the hand to go up to the PL, that creates massive extra cost and despite some TV money it was never going to bridge the gap. Trying to pay more out than comes in is atypical of the vast majority of UK Speedway Clubs and how many are actually self sufficient, Poole / Ipswich / Sheffield at a push......others are reliant on individuals like Glasgow and Oxford, others may be on Sponsorship like Leicester, but the whole model is utterly BROKEN. Shocking too the hear Mark Lemons comments about Belle Vue and the future of the NSS being reliant on bigger Crowds for Major Events.

Is there a Plan B- is there a realistic option.

May be look at IOW and Barry Bishop, he's created and found a niche that works for him, full credit to him, but would that model work at PL + CL clubs who have to pay massive rental costs?. 

Look at last weekend as the perfect example of the malaise in relation to the past. NOT ONE Saturday Fixture / Sunday Fixture other than NDL as the one scheduled Fixture was cancelled because a rider went on holiday and very few others can make weekends pay, as all the best riders that draw the crowds are filling their pockets in Europe.

I sadly cannot see a sustainable future for Birmingham Speedway if the only option is Monday night in the PL.

Too many counter attractions in terms of Sport and Entertainment, millions still seeing mortgages and rents rising ;  and in reality, how can you budget to break even on a hard core of 500 people ??... 

I thank Nigel and Laurence for their efforts and hard work, I thank Sam for his days as a rider, he certainly ain't a team manager but more than anything for those, especially the likes of Brian Buck, Joe McLaughlin etc who have put their lives and souls in to trying to save the Club and to reenergise it not that long ago, I feel desperately sad that we seem to have arrived at the end of a cul-de-sac that on this occasion, there is no way out of.

 

 

 

 

 

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It is either the track, the weather, the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, we chose the wrong guest, our porridge for breakfast was the wrong flavour ... the excuses coming out of Birmingham are becoming more embarrassing by the week. How about the promotion picked a pretty ordinary team ... and then hyped them up as play-off contenders (not for the first time) when everyone and their dog could see that wasn't the case. That's not to say they should criticise the team ... but how about a modicum of realism now and then?

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1 hour ago, GiveusaB said:

In all the 53 years I've been following B'ham, I can't remember the set-up being this damaging!

Tolley for his financial backing and Brennan for his performances this season, are the only two credible members of the Club.

Lose any of the others that are associated and they wouldn't be missed!

First move....get rid of Rogers and Sam....

Needs to happen before the next home match for B'ham to have any chance of surviving this season and beyond!

Again, 10,000% agree

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1 hour ago, Aries said:

You know as well as I do there is no way on gods green earth that Brennan would “save his best engines for Poole”. That is utterly ridiculous. The difference in pay between the Premiership and Championship is vast. If your best contract is in the Premiership, you’ll want your best equipment in the Premiership. That’s just basic common sense. 

You know as well as I do that Poole fans see things very differently from normal speedway fans …. To think a rider would have his best equipment for a lower paying league is just plain dumb……by all means he might prefer certain tracks to others but to think for one second he prioritises Poole is a joke 

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