HGould

Thank you for clarifying MD. Good Luck. Seems to be a lot of good and positive news coming out of Eastbourne at the moment.

I am a bit confused? I remember reading Martin Dugard and his son Connor were stepping down to look after the stadium. Then a new Management Team was announced around Christmas time to look after the Speedway part of the business. This announcement seems to be about the Stadium and not the Speedway Team? Is John Cook managing the stadium and the team?

Birmingham - Wednesday Wolverhampton - Monday (Cradley Heath at Wolverhampton also Monday)

Reading article in this week's Speedway Star, it certainly looks like the guys at Arlington mean business on and off the track with a decent looking 1-7, new Sponsors and a Community programme that looks the kind of template a few more Clubs can follow and similar to that done so well by Isle of Wight. It will be interesting to see on and off the track how my Brummies and our old rivals The Eagles fare in moving up, bold decisions by both and fingers crossed both succeed, they deserve too for effort and boldness.

Read the detailed article in The Speedway Star this week, a very sad outcome but hard to see what Management could have done any differently. The comments from riders and Management about care taken to notify 2019 team is very heart-warming, although as suggested some of the unpaid 2018 riders may not feel the same. Really hope a solution can be found for 20202.

Brummies fan interested in your battles v Planning as we have had many a similar joust with bureaucrats. Be interested to know what impact you think switch to Saturday's might have on your crowds? Always looked decent by NL standards to me what would your average be on a Monday night and what do you think it might be on a Saturday night? I've always thought that Saturday's in summer have too many counter-attractions, especially by the sea, would it actually boost your crowds?

Not sure where Bickley is going to get a ride now Workington have closed and struggled for much of 2018. Best of the NL guys coming up and most likely to progress imho are Kemp and Brennan and Flint. I am fearful some NL to CL are sacrificial lambs to just fill a slot. Looking at those with some CL experience Shanes ; Mountain and Bowtell should improve average considerably.

I totally agree, would it not be better to have the Logo of the Club(s) with all the others and the "disclaimer" next to it.?? "subject to final approval by BSPA" I read somewhere before Christmas referring to Brummies that the "Bond" had to be negotiated and paid before 1 March 2019, it may be that is the case for Brummies (and Eagles), and seems totally unfair to those Clubs if they have this "limbo" until 1 March; they are treated in this way. Is it BSPA though or BSPA Press Office which is separate isn't it? I saw an announcement from Eastbourne (on BSPA website) of 2 big new Sponsors, good luck to them, but if i was considering sponsoring Birmingham (or Eastbourne) right now and saw that wording I would be waiting, again, not fair to Brummies if this is the case and delay is with BSPA. I have read in Speedway Star about Workington and problems there, so why are they not taken off the page until that is sorted??, feels one rule for the old and another for the new.

New to the Board and a lifelong brummies supporter. I think that the explanation is pretty simple in the case of the Brummies and similar new entrants Eastbourne Eagles. The National League has different governance and is deemed "non professional in status) as compared to Premier and Championship whose governance is 100% BSPA controlled. So Teams moving CL to PL are effectively "rubber stamped" as Bond nor retained rider list will change in the move up. Birmingham have a Promotion (Masons) that only came in at start of 2018 season, never Promoted in BSPA controlled PL or CL and would therefore have to be fully ratified as promoters and also prove Business Plan and agree Bond issues etc. Eastbourne have a new Management Team after death of Bob Dugard and reports of martin and connor Dugard stepping aside after 4 years of promoting in National League. So, safe to assume they too will have to go through same process as Birmingham, although they may have a "retained list" from there time in professional leagues under Dugard banner?? I've looked at Birmingham and Eastbourne Press Releases closely as it was initially a concern to see Brummies "vanish". I did call a friend who knows workings of BSPA very well and he says there is nothing out of the ordinary. The BSPA will have asked both Clubs to fill in paperwork and to provide plans and projections, will have required both Promotions to be interviewed and would not have reported Rider Signings (or indeed allowed rider signing to be reported) if the process wasn't both ongoing and satisfactory. A quick look at Companies House suggests Birmingham has long since been properly Registered and the new Eastbourne Management team announced just before Christmas by the BSPA and their Club website was Registered with Companies House shortly afterwards. It seems grossly unfair on both Clubs as the Riders are in A-Z Listings on BSPA Official website so I can only think that it is the process that is delaying things and not anything conspiritorial. Finally, also seems highly unlikely either side could return to National League when most 2018 Team members of both have been signed up elsewhere or moved up, in case of Birmingham top 4 had high averages and in case of Eastbourne top 5 have been snapped up already.