Gerbat1875

Leicester? Didn't the elite league almost wipe them out a few seasons back, why won't Poole run? Thought they were the Manchester Utd of speedway, or was that just self claimed appraisal, Speedway is finished in the UK unless the whole system changes completely from top to bottom, we need to be a big draw again for people like Zmarlik, Dudek, etc, to come over here and race.

Great Post.. Did you know speedway is the only sport that sky sports never fought tooth and nail to keep on its schedule, that tells you a lot don't it

Did I say every young kid, I spoke of the local community that you asked about, I answered about the local community, do you know Birmingham as an area, do you know anything about Birmingham, I will tell you now that Joe mclaughlin when at Brummies tried everything to recruit new fans none of it worked, yes maybe for a meeting or two but it soon fizzled out, I will tell you now I have taken all my eleven grandchildren to other sports and they want to go back, took 4 of them to speedway and they said it was rubbish when I asked if they wanted to go again, when I took them to the T20 earlier in the season they loved it. So it's not twiddle twaddle as you say, I know the local community in Perry barr as well as anyone because of my job, and I can tell you now in 67% of youngsters in and around Perry Barr, sport is the last thing on their mind, unless they can be rehabilitated, I will say no more on that matter though

I keep telling people that the younger kids in Birmingham have no interest in the speedway, there are a lot of Asians, West Indians, Jamaicans in Birmingham and especially around the area the speedway track is, Aston, Witton, Newtown, Handsworth are just 4 locations that are highly populated with the Asians, West Indians etc, all 4 locations are on the doorstep of Perry Barr there is just no interest whatsoever of the younger generations, they are into T20 cricket, Football, Boxing amongst other sports, I go to Edgbaston regularly for the cricket and its full of young people, especially the T20, it offers great value for money, speedway I am sorry is not value for money and that's my opinion, so before I get shot down remember I said its my opinion, others may disagree, I used to love the speedway but since trying out other sports especially at the CWG even I can see its not value for money at the speedway anymore.

That's what opinions are about, you say it's relevant I say it's pointless, so we won't agree will we, I do think a fair few Cov fans will attend, but I don't think anymore than the diehards at Brum will attend, let's be honest, the Birmingham public have not really taken to the speedway in the 15 years since the reopening apart from the opening season, I doubt it will get any better now, I have said before and I will say again the kids who are supposed to be the future are just not interested and let's be truthful here Birmingham have a lot of older fans, they ain't going to be around forever are they?. I hope all who attend tonight have a nice time.

I understand what you are saying, but history is the DNA of everything, it can't be put in the bin and forgotten about, all sports clubs have an history, some more than others, history and people who represented clubs in the most successful periods should be remembered, don't just let their names disappear it's not right, I am sure a few Coventry fans will turn up as you said before, but yes it's my opinion that I see this meeting as pointless, others may think differently, it's the way it is

I'm sure it will, I'm not important enough to be noticed, I suppose you are instantly recognised by hundreds of people

Brummies should have run the second city trophy or the Alan Hunt or Joe Thurley memorial, I am sure Brummies fans would show a bit more interest in recognising something that mean something to the history of the club

Another pointless meeting, probably cost a fortune in rent and other things, do people think that a patched up Brummies and a select team opposition will generate any new fans, me don't think so

Tough one to call this, think brummies might just win 47-43

I have been to the Swimming, the Athletics and the Cricket during these games, well worth every penny, after these games I have been opened up to a lot more awareness of other sports than Football and Speedway, the value for money aspect alone has already made me want to attend more events like swimming, athletics etc, football and speedway are over priced and don't provide value for money, thankyou Birmingham 2022 for giving me my love for sport back

I think its because we are major cities, its very rare that we get things like Beach Volleyball, world class swimming, world class athletics, its something new for the locals and it carries a lot of memories to look back on, I think Speedway as long become a sport that you will only attend if you know what its about, Speedway will never be a massive spectator sport in the UK ever again

Will never happen, and even if it did i cant see the residents putting upwith the traffic problems constantly for 8-9 months of the year, this was an 11 day project and now the residents cant wait to return to normal

I am pretty sure that the rumour started when someone posted on a forum saying "a question may have been asked by someone from BCFC about the stadium being used for a few games whilst St Andrews was being repaired", but long term the project was a resounding no, BCFC decided that half a stadium was better than none so that was the rumour circulating, from what i gather once the games are finished the temporary stands will be removed and revert back to an 18,000 capacity stadium, it will host all major athletic events and will be in use for the schools in and around the community, I have spoken to a few people (including a local official today) who are associated with Birmingham City Council and as far as they are aware, it will not be used for football or any other sport, its main use will be as i say athletics. Its been a great Commonwealth games and the organisers should be well proud of the job done, the stadium i thought would not be very good when i saw the plans to rebuild, but they done a fantastic job and the stadium was brilliant

Villa Ladies are NOT playing games at the Alexander Stadium this season, the games are split between Walsall Bescot Stadium and Villa Park, don't know where this Villa ladies stadium thing as come from, not once as any one from Villa or the Alexander stadium said it would happen

I knew Alan most of my childhood and adult life from growing up in Kingstanding, and also when he had his own shop in Erdington. Alan would be appalled if his name was being used as a publicity stunt, he would want any moneys raised to go to a charity which suited a lot of good causes. Joe Thurley was a well respected man at Birmingham and without him in the 1970s there would be no Birmingham Speedway even today and he even was helping out at the reopening in 2007.Joe's name should be honoured at Birmingham but for some reason his name and memory are not even recognised in fact its been dumped in the bin(shame on Birmingham) it's a shame because no one is more befitting of a memorial at Birmingham than Joe.

I know they do, but in my opinion it's wrong, whether it be speedway, football, rugby or anything else, my point was say a team went unbeaten for all the league campaign suddenly had a major health, or injury crisis and had to race a meeting with only guest bookings who were put together last minute to satisfy a TV schedule, and this team lost, it's not right, I was not comparing it to football I was pointing out a scenario which would not be allowed to happen in any other sport other than speedway. Speedway rules are a joke in the UK and need to be re-written, only then can it move on for the better, the people running the BSPA now are only in it for themselves to make a pocket lining few quid from the TV companies

What happened to things like the test matches which were run as a test series in the 70s, you know like Great Britain v Czechoslovakia, Australasia etc, remember seeing a few of them in the 70s, did we not pick up Phil Herne from matches like that, there is lots of stuff that can be resurrected in my opinion, I know the world final qualifications were brilliant, I used to love the inter-continental final at White City, you had stuff like British qualifiers where you had to qualify for the final, now it's all invitational, which is wrong in my opinion, you will never get a shock world champion anymore like syzackiel in 1973, all because the grand prix is the selected few, throw in a couple of wildcards, but generally unless someone is retired or seriously injured its basically the same field year in year out, people get bored, speedway needs a massive shake up in this country, our BSPA is killing the sport in the UK, it needs to give the fans something to attach to, but unfortunately the rules don't allow it, get rid of the play-offs, why can a team finishing 6th out of 10 have a chance of being league champions, a team finishing 6th is a failure, its finished below half way, champions to me are being Number 1 in the league standings, its bizarre, imagine the out cry if Man C or Liverpool won the PL and then had a shed load of injuries and lost a play off final to West ham/wolves etc by a dodgy decision, it don't make sense.

Hopefully this will become an annual event, when Joe Thurley passed away a few years back now there was one meeting The Joe Thurley memorial, it was never run again despite the promotion at the time saying Joe's name would be honoured annually, we had the Alan Hunt memorial which opened the season when Brummies reopened in 2007, was it ever run again? I am not sure to be honest, other individuals have long since fallen off the Brummies fixture, the second city trophy is no longer run, despite its popularity in its hey day, I would rather Brummies fill free dates in the fixture list with meetings like this, not a stupid competitions like the jubilee league which was dreamed up by the BSPA, Brummies should bring back the individuals in my opinion

Glasgow to hit at least 57 points in this one

Fully agree, but to keep them you need success, not being funny but people can almost see the outcome of a match involving Brummies as soon as the teams are named for the match, I can bet my bottom dollar if LR is team manager next year, half of this present team declared before a wheel was turned will be signed up again, and ex riders like castagna, Harris etc will be sounded out again, its not good enough I'm sorry, build a new young team who we will know will be competitive, the only 2 to me who have battled this season have been Sedgeman and Nielsen, the others have been pretty crap to be fair, Pearson as potential but in my opinion needs to be in a team where he needs a leader and tutor he does not have that at brummies, Morris and Shanes have no improvement in them whatsoever and will continue to decline, so it needs to be changed, fans will go if the team is competitive, they won't go if its the same old season after season, its the way I see it, Drury was great motivator when the Brummies reopened in 2007 and someone of that mindset needs to be appointed as team manager to get the club competitive again, if Brummies want mediocrity or below stay with what you've got, but no one will attend

Great news for the Brummies, hopefully 2023, will see a new complete team built and not based around riders who have previously rode for the Brummies, Shanes, Morris, Castagna no thankyou, not even Harris or Ellis, start afresh and let the Brum fans choose their own hero,like Blue jam said earlier the last hero was Jason Lyons, have Brummies had anyone so popular since, I don't think so, give Brummies a decent team capable of challenging for honours the fans will turn up, give them rubbish no one will turn up, that's why I say don't build a team around people like the ones I have mentioned, it needs to be a fresh start and that Includes the present team manager a new manager with fresh ideas is needed , they are simply not good enough and always use the same excuses when things are not good, the fans are sick of seeing a team built on previous failures

Why not?, anything that promotes your city is not bad, we do have some first class venues in Birmingham, Edgbaston one of the great cricket stadiums in the world, Villa Park top class stadium even though it hurts me to say that, the NIA, the NEC on the outskirts, the symphony Hall, the list is endless, I for one am proud of my city, and proud to be a brummie, I will always hold my head high, Birmingham is just as good as any city in the UK.

And there is the problem, you say the council tax payers would have said No, but these same people get offended when people say anything bad about Birmingham or we get offered nothing, we as a city were offered to host the games and rightly accepted it, it is our chance to show the world what a great city we do have. Birmingham has been left behind for far too long and thanks to a tight miserly council we gladly hung around whilst every other city stepped up and promoted themselves, Birmingham City centre is going through a complete change for the better, the Birmingham City centre of just 20 years ago is totally unrecognisable from today, it's modern, its vibrant and what pleases me most is it is very multi cultural, these games will bring much needed tourism and put us in the spotlight, whether we wanted the games is irrelevant, we have got them and from what I see it's going to be great, despite not spending the like of money that Manchester threw when they had it, be proud of our city, be proud of our people and support us for these games, we had our dark days in the 70s with the IRA pub bombings, now its our time to shine, get behind us

Can only see a Poole victory tbh, I'm predicting 38-52