Birmingham ‘Brummies’ vs King’s Lynn ‘Stars’ - Premiership Monday 30th June

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

45 minutes ago, stevebrum said:

Again, why would I attend when the Brummies aren’t my team?

If you can point me to a post (even from Brummies supporters) that say the team aren’t rubbish then your point might make some sense.

But of course you want be able to. 
League tables don’t lie. Oxford loook awful too. Do you want me to attend there as well?

such an odd reply. 

I never said they weren’t rubbish, I’m just sick of people who don’t go constantly having a dig and have nothing constructive to say when they don’t go 

[Bald Bloke]

14 hours ago, stevebrum said:

Why would I be there cheering them on? 
 Good result for the Brummies, Stars have zero chance of getting a play off place if they can’t win at Brum.

Has someone pi$$ed on ya chips. I don't know if you noticed, but there's the small fact that we lost Kvech and Cook. 

Edited yesterday at 11:56 AM by Bald Bloke

[stevebrum]

2 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I never said they weren’t rubbish, I’m just sick of people who don’t go constantly having a dig and have nothing constructive to say when they don’t go 

The problem with the Brummies is that hardly anyone attends despite a huge target audience.

Perhaps you missed the part when I congratulated them on the win. Is that not constructive enough? 🤔

[szkocjasid]

I keep reading Lynn commenting about having a "5 man team" which is a gross exaggeration. They had ONE heat without both riders, if a rider had won that heat, they still would've lost.

Yes they had riders struggling on a rough track, but that's not really racing with a "5 man team" by all means they could honestly say, they only finished with 5 fit riders.

[orion]

Don't forget that Zagar and Muse are getting there Averages down lol

[bluejam]

8 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I never said they weren’t rubbish, I’m just sick of people who don’t go constantly having a dig and have nothing constructive to say when they don’t go 

TDM,this forum is alive with folk who no longer attend speedway for one reason or another,so I think having a pop at SB(who's posts are fair,balanced and a realist imo) is a little unfair.As most on here know SB was an avid follower of Wolves,and at least takes an interest in the only surviving Midlands speedway outfit😉

Edited yesterday at 07:00 PM by bluejam

[uk_martin]

7 hours ago, stevebrum said:

The problem with the Brummies is that hardly anyone attends despite a huge target audience.

Perhaps you missed the part when I congratulated them on the win. Is that not constructive enough? 🤔

I'd be interested to know what makes up a "huge target audience"?
Birmingham is now a "minority majority" city. White people, who are the traditional audience for motorsports are now only 49% of the population. The other 51% have never considered speedway as "in their culture". So you can divide "huge" by half.
Demographically, Birmingham is one of the youngest cities around. Speedway's typical fans are now pensioners or approaching pension age. And there aren't that many of them in Birmingham's population any more. Speedway has consistently pandered to the existing (& dying out) older fan base and never really adapted to the younger reality. And that will be its epitaph.

Whilst channel hopping on TV, I stumbled on a sport that seems to be reinventing itself. From totally amatur(ish) beginnings, it now has a premier league, a national team, international fixtures, and apparently it attracts (subject to venue size) and average of 1,500 fans per match, which it bemoans as "under-performing" but which speedway teams would die for. Have you guessed what it is yet? Yeah, women's netball! 
https://www.skysports.com/netball/news/30100/12058326/tamsin-greenway-netball-must-understand-its-audience-and-deliver-targeted-engagement

So please don't make any more excuses about how a sport can't turn itself around, It can. Cricket has, Darts has, Snooker has, now Netball has. Speedway CAN, it just WON'T.

[BrumFan]

7 hours ago, szkocjasid said:

I keep reading Lynn commenting about having a "5 man team" which is a gross exaggeration. They had ONE heat without both riders, if a rider had won that heat, they still would've lost.

Yes they had riders struggling on a rough track, but that's not really racing with a "5 man team" by all means they could honestly say, they only finished with 5 fit riders.

They seem to forget that Kvech wiped out Jason Edwards in the away match in the second heat leaving us with 5 riders and r/r. Cost is in that match and we probably would have won this match by a bigger margin.

[GeneralMelchett]

2 hours ago, bluejam said:

TDM,this forum is alive with folk who no longer attend speedway for one reason or another,so I think having a pop at SB(who's posts are fair,balanced and a realist imo) is a little unfair.As most on here know SB was an avid follower of Wolves,and at least takes an interest in the only surviving Midlands speedway outfit😉

I think also that what people don't get is midlands traffic can be horrendous, you can't just pop down the road. from say Wolves to Perry Barr, its going to be at least an hour in Monday rush hour traffic even though it s less than 20 miles!!  - There are two cities in the UK I hate driving in they both begin with B - one is Bristol and the other is Birmingham!

I live in Sheffield and don't go that often if Sheffield closed I could get the either BV or Scunny but the prospect of a 1 hr journey each time would mean it would be an occasional visit at the most! 

That doesn't mean I still don't enjoy streams and watching on the TV, or having an opinion on what happens.

In 2022 or maybe 2023 (Wolves last season) I saw a guy who was clearly a Wolves supporter at the tram stop at Hillsborough corner - clearly on his way back to Sheffield station for a train back to Wolverhamnpton area - I recall thinkling fair play - you won't be home until Midnight!

59 minutes ago, uk_martin said:

I'd be interested to know what makes up a "huge target audience"?
Birmingham is now a "minority majority" city. White people, who are the traditional audience for motorsports are now only 49% of the population. The other 51% have never considered speedway as "in their culture". So you can divide "huge" by half.
Demographically, Birmingham is one of the youngest cities around. Speedway's typical fans are now pensioners or approaching pension age. And there aren't that many of them in Birmingham's population any more. Speedway has consistently pandered to the existing (& dying out) older fan base and never really adapted to the younger reality. And that will be its epitaph.

Whilst channel hopping on TV, I stumbled on a sport that seems to be reinventing itself. From totally amatur(ish) beginnings, it now has a premier league, a national team, international fixtures, and apparently it attracts (subject to venue size) and average of 1,500 fans per match, which it bemoans as "under-performing" but which speedway teams would die for. Have you guessed what it is yet? Yeah, women's netball! 
https://www.skysports.com/netball/news/30100/12058326/tamsin-greenway-netball-must-understand-its-audience-and-deliver-targeted-engagement

So please don't make any more excuses about how a sport can't turn itself around, It can. Cricket has, Darts has, Snooker has, now Netball has. Speedway CAN, it just WON'T.

Whilst this is true what is the issue? - perhaps part of it is the Brummies closing in the mid 80s and not re-opening until the mid 2000's. That 20 year gap may have lost a lot of following.

I'd say BIrmingham has the larger potential audience than Sheffield (500K) and the crowds at Owlerton are decent prob 2k or so - more when Belle Vue or Leicester are in town.

Similar to the Netball - Basketball in the UK  - I used to take my lad and a couple of his mates to Sharks (Sheffield) games the sport was I suspect semi pro / part time but attracted a good loyal regular following prob about 700-1k per match. I haven't been for a few years so no idea what the crowds are like now.

Edited yesterday at 09:36 PM by GeneralMelchett

[stevebrum]

3 hours ago, bluejam said:

TDM,this forum is alive with folk who no longer attend speedway for one reason or another,so I think having a pop at SB(who's posts are fair,balanced and a realist imo) is a little unfair.As most on here know SB was an avid follower of Wolves,and at least takes an interest in the only surviving Midlands speedway outfit😉

Thank you. As a Brummie I will always have a soft spot for the Brummies (plus I was track staff for 5 seasons also when it reopened) but my team will always be Wolves as you know!

im hoping to make a meeting before the season is out to see friends as well. 

2 hours ago, uk_martin said:

I'd be interested to know what makes up a "huge target audience"?
Birmingham is now a "minority majority" city. White people, who are the traditional audience for motorsports are now only 49% of the population. The other 51% have never considered speedway as "in their culture". So you can divide "huge" by half.
Demographically, Birmingham is one of the youngest cities around. Speedway's typical fans are now pensioners or approaching pension age. And there aren't that many of them in Birmingham's population any more. Speedway has consistently pandered to the existing (& dying out) older fan base and never really adapted to the younger reality. And that will be its epitaph.

Whilst channel hopping on TV, I stumbled on a sport that seems to be reinventing itself. From totally amatur(ish) beginnings, it now has a premier league, a national team, international fixtures, and apparently it attracts (subject to venue size) and average of 1,500 fans per match, which it bemoans as "under-performing" but which speedway teams would die for. Have you guessed what it is yet? Yeah, women's netball! 
https://www.skysports.com/netball/news/30100/12058326/tamsin-greenway-netball-must-understand-its-audience-and-deliver-targeted-engagement

So please don't make any more excuses about how a sport can't turn itself around, It can. Cricket has, Darts has, Snooker has, now Netball has. Speedway CAN, it just WON'T.

The very fact that Birmingham is the 2nd biggest city it does have a huge advantage over other rural clubs. 
There are plenty of youngsters as you pointed out that could have been targeted which is really aimed at the sport as a whole and I think what the Masons did in encouraging kids was to be commended.

Speedway has never invested in itself and that’s the situation we now find ourselves in as a consequence.

Birmingham people just haven’t seemed interested in the sport. Perhaps if it was more successful as a team you might find some glory hunters becoming fans similar to how Villa attract more fans. 
For Birmingham it’s now too late for help. 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

2 hours ago, GeneralMelchett said:

I think also that what people don't get is midlands traffic can be horrendous, you can't just pop down the road. from say Wolves to Perry Barr, its going to be at least an hour in Monday rush hour traffic even though it s less than 20 miles!!  ! 

I do that journey on a Monday to watch the Brummies and it takes 25 mins, even quicker getting home, I could do it in less than an hour on my pushbike 

Edited 23 hours ago by THE DEAN MACHINE