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Brummies_Ste

Birmingham Brummies 2019

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Of course the (new) Alexander Stadium Brian refers to, now home to Birchfield Harriers and also HQ of British Athletics is being upgraded to facilitate Stadium for 2022 Commonwealth Games and although plans are for it to be scaled back to Capacity of just over 20,000 after the Event may make a longer term option for UK Speedway (if a temporary track could be laid) somewhere below the 50,000+ of CARDIFF Millenium (which cost is too much rent for Domestic use) yet well above the very restrictive spectator capacity at the NSA in Manchester.

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It's a nice thought, but back in the old days, Birchfield Harriers were always obstructive towards the speedway despite the Brummies being a major source of income for them. Speedway could and should have been back there from 1961 onwards but the Harriers put forward every conceivable reason to refuse to do a deal - even when the would be promoters Doug Ellis and Phil Hart offered to pay the rates for them (which the Harriers claimed had been tripled by the Council.) The new Alexander is a beautiful stadium, but I for one, wouldn't like to have to be beholden to Birchfield Harriers in the way that we were in the 1950's.

One of their favourite tricks was to suddenly hold an athletics meeting on a Saturday afternoon (when the speedway race night was Saturdays) and then deliberately drag it out so that there was not enough time to prepare the track properly for speedway. 

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Thank you for the kind compliment. All kinds of history has a fascination for me and the City of Birmingham has a remarkable speedway history with racing having taken place at six different venues in the City plus a one-off test trial at a seventh venue. Sadly, only two of these stadia (Perry Barr and Bordesley Green) are still in existence, with the much maligned Bordesley Green track now having a tarmac surface which seems to rule out speedway ever re-appearing there again in the future. Perry Barr seems safe from the developers until at least 2023 (I wouldn't bank on the safety of the covenant which I know from past experience, is not foolproof) but one of Tony Mole's last acts of his time in charge was to extract an undertaking from the City Council that if the stadium site was to be included in a future re-development programme, an alternative venue  for speedway and greyhound racing would be provided.

Where such an alternative venue would be, I have no idea - but the Council do own the Bordesley Green site and there is more than sufficient unused land there to construct a speedway circuit - so perhaps?

Edited by brianbuck

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I read in the Birmingham Mail last year that the Bordesley Green area where Birmingham Wheels is is earmarked for industrial redevelopment. They only have a short term rolling lease on the site so from what I read ,so if a developer comes in,the council could sell the land off. So im not sure what their short term future is like although it seems the council will help them find alternate land, if you believe them

I agree with Brian that Speedway is safe in the short/ medium term at least at PB but you never know what will happen long term. Its good to see Tony had a commitment from the Council that they would find an alternative venue for speedway if redevelpment was to happen. Hopefully its legally binding rarther than just a pledge from the Council. In this day and age promises from politicians count for very little.

 

Edited by Brummie Kev

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The potential banana skin is of course that whatever alternative land might be found, it will still have to secure planning permission which in a City the size of Birmingham is always going to be difficult.

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It would appear changes are happening .People are suggesting that Adam Ellis and Danyon Hume are returning.

I would Welcome Adam as a brilliant addition.

I am not sure Danyon improves the current 1-7 tbh .I really like but we need someone more proven at this level .

I am assuming that they would be replacing Thomsen and Newman.

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Yeah just said on bt that Ellis is in the verge of joining a championship side.

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Pearson more or less confirmed it on Sky this evening. 

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1 minute ago, kitten2502 said:

What average would Adam come in on? I would’ve expected him to be higher than Kyle.

1st May PL average x 1.5, 6.47 x 1.5 = 9.70

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