The Daddy Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 Birmingham is now in line to bid for the commonwealth games in 2022. This is a great city without a great deal of top level sports, only Villa and Birmingham City. Is there any RL activity in brummie land and what hope for a league one team? It really needs a team similar to Manchester Rangers to come in and push things forward, then again you could say the same about a number of UK cities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulwalker71 Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 33 minutes ago, The Daddy said: Is there any RL activity in brummie land and what hope for a league one team? It really needs a team similar to Manchester Rangers to come in and push things forward, And there's the problem. Manchester Rangers are 'pushing things forward' - and apparently being told there no room for them. No point in anyone trying to start something in Birmingham if the same restriction is going to apply Now, what should happen is that the RFL - assuming that Birmingham gets the 2022 Games - sets in place a five year plan with development officers in schools, working with existing amateur clubs in the Midlands, developing commercial partners, schools work, women and wheelchair rugby development and so on - all with the aim of building towards a sustainable League 1 club by 2022 to try and take advantage of the games legacy after 2022. But this is the RFL we are talking about here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daddy Posted September 7, 2017 Author Share Posted September 7, 2017 44 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said: And there's the problem. Manchester Rangers are 'pushing things forward' - and apparently being told there no room for them. No point in anyone trying to start something in Birmingham if the same restriction is going to apply Now, what should happen is that the RFL - assuming that Birmingham gets the 2022 Games - sets in place a five year plan with development officers in schools, working with existing amateur clubs in the Midlands, developing commercial partners, schools work, women and wheelchair rugby development and so on - all with the aim of building towards a sustainable League 1 club by 2022 to try and take advantage of the games legacy after 2022. But this is the RFL we are talking about here... Wholeheartedly agree. Whilst I welcome the entry of Toronto and any other American entity, there also needs to be opportunities for UK teams to enter the system. Why bother with a great initiative when the RFL have closed the doors and have no strategy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 The club there are a mere shadow of what they once were. It's far too close to Coventry as well, who get good crowds but have only a small player pool to choose from, this would only shrink it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender1 Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 Don't think the Midlands league lasted the full season including BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted September 7, 2017 Share Posted September 7, 2017 11 minutes ago, Defender1 said: Don't think the Midlands league lasted the full season including BB Birmingham were in the lower division which did last the season. They failed to complete the 2015 season though and struggled last year. But having absorbed the short lived South Birmingham Hawks they had an okay season and finished third in the Midlands division 1. However, in 2004 they made the playoffs in National League 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoneslessBishop Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 I think Birmingham getting the Commenwealth Games bidding approval is a negative for RL. Brian Barwick was fronting the Liverpool bid, which was going to use the new Everton stadium. Closer links to them, potentially allowing for contractual links to regularly host england games (so not scrapping around hurriedly for venues like the last 4 Nations), as well as using Barwicks influence to potentially get 9s on the Games schedule (games are Warrington, Widnes, and St Helens, final at Everton), and make inroads in Liverpool schools for RL, would have been great opportunities. Very little RL played in Brum as suggested above, so hard to see this as any sort of positive development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Leeds Riviera Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 What about Leicester? Dosent their team have links with the uni? Derby with Coventry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iffleyox Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 18 hours ago, bowes said: The club there are a mere shadow of what they once were. It's far too close to Coventry as well, who get good crowds but have only a small player pool to choose from, this would only shrink it I'm not going to say putting a club in Birmingham is a good idea (for a host of reasons) but that strikes me as spectacularly backward logic. Essentially, the city of over a million people, an order of magnitude bigger than Manchester, can't have a club because the relatively small city a third of its size nearby has got one.... If it truly boiled down to that (and this is not intended to knock in any way the committed people at the Bears) then actually the Cov club's in the wrong place.... *If* it was going to be that binary, then the RFL should have been steering WMids interested parties to Birmingham in the first place, Coventry as "city of Rugby" notwithstanding. As it is, if they've locked themselves out of the second city because of Coventry Bears* then someone at Red Hall/Salford needs to take a bow for that one! I know for all sorts of reasons the world doesn't work like that, but if Birmingham can't have a club because Coventry's got one then the "strategy" (hollow laugh) for expansion has cocked up yet again. There is a Birmingham club, who share/d (never sure from one season to the next) with Moseley, which would be the logical place to put an aspirant L1 side. Birmingham's a funny city sport-wise. Everyone (from outside) gets hung up on the lack of top flight football (relatively) but forget the fact that West Brom is a Birmingham club (whatever the moved postcode says it just is), and Villa and the Blues are like Sunderland and Newcastle in that they can (and do) fill their grounds outside the top tier. "Top tier" doesn't really seem to matter to the city's football fans in terms of whether they'll turn up or not. Then there's Edgbaston, the die hards at Moseley, international indoor and outdoor athletics, the Aegon tennis at the Priory - it's really not right to think (not saying the OP does but many do) that it's a sporting wasteland. Very far from it. RL would just be another fish in the pond. That's of course not a reason to not do it, but it's not like there's a market sitting there crying out for some sport to watch. *I don't think it follows that they have, but if they had.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 40 minutes ago, West Leeds Riviera said: What about Leicester? Dosent their team have links with the uni? Derby with Coventry Their club folded this year and I'm unsure if they'll be back. Nottingham would be the logical place for a second Midlands club but I can't see the Outlaws being interested Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 44 minutes ago, iffleyox said: I'm not going to say putting a club in Birmingham is a good idea (for a host of reasons) but that strikes me as spectacularly backward logic. Essentially, the city of over a million people, an order of magnitude bigger than Manchester, can't have a club because the relatively small city a third of its size nearby has got one.... If it truly boiled down to that (and this is not intended to knock in any way the committed people at the Bears) then actually the Cov club's in the wrong place.... *If* it was going to be that binary, then the RFL should have been steering WMids interested parties to Birmingham in the first place, Coventry as "city of Rugby" notwithstanding. As it is, if they've locked themselves out of the second city because of Coventry Bears* then someone at Red Hall/Salford needs to take a bow for that one! I know for all sorts of reasons the world doesn't work like that, but if Birmingham can't have a club because Coventry's got one then the "strategy" (hollow laugh) for expansion has cocked up yet again. There is a Birmingham club, who share/d (never sure from one season to the next) with Moseley, which would be the logical place to put an aspirant L1 side. Birmingham's a funny city sport-wise. Everyone (from outside) gets hung up on the lack of top flight football (relatively) but forget the fact that West Brom is a Birmingham club (whatever the moved postcode says it just is), and Villa and the Blues are like Sunderland and Newcastle in that they can (and do) fill their grounds outside the top tier. "Top tier" doesn't really seem to matter to the city's football fans in terms of whether they'll turn up or not. Then there's Edgbaston, the die hards at Moseley, international indoor and outdoor athletics, the Aegon tennis at the Priory - it's really not right to think (not saying the OP does but many do) that it's a sporting wasteland. Very far from it. RL would just be another fish in the pond. That's of course not a reason to not do it, but it's not like there's a market sitting there crying out for some sport to watch. *I don't think it follows that they have, but if they had.... I don't think there's ever been a demand for a Birmingham club. There were only about 50 watching when they were a mid table National League 3 club and they've been going since 1989. Coventry have a decent crowd and decent enough support for the level of the club. I don't see Birmingham providing that. If we were talking a Super League club then maybe you'd look at Birmingham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iffleyox Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 9 minutes ago, bowes said: If we were talking a Super League club then maybe you'd look at Birmingham Dark mutterings from the direction of Worcester Warriors in t'other code that that's where the RFU would like to move them to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidlandsRugbyLeague Posted September 10, 2017 Share Posted September 10, 2017 On 08/09/2017 at 0:29 PM, Saint 1 said: While Nottingham is the strongest amateur Midlands city, That would be an interesting debate. A few years ago I could provide you with all the stats to back that claim but I'm not sure that is still true. The factor of two universities with two sides comes into this and as a county Notts also as Wolf Hunt as well as the Outlaws... where as Warwickshire also has two Unis, Dragons and Royals, Sky Try activity, Bears 5s activity and the Bears of course. However, best individual effort this year in the region has to be Telford Raiders winning the North West Counties U17s Premier League. Keep Up To Date:Midlands Rugby League WebsiteMidlands Rugby League Facebook Group Midlands Rugby League Twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowes Posted September 10, 2017 Share Posted September 10, 2017 2 hours ago, MidlandsRugbyLeague said: That would be an interesting debate. A few years ago I could provide you with all the stats to back that claim but I'm not sure that is still true. The factor of two universities with two sides comes into this and as a county Notts also as Wolf Hunt as well as the Outlaws... where as Warwickshire also has two Unis, Dragons and Royals, Sky Try activity, Bears 5s activity and the Bears of course. However, best individual effort this year in the region has to be Telford Raiders winning the North West Counties U17s Premier League. Telford winning the U17s is definitely a rare good news story for the amateur game in the Midlands. Hopefully they'll have a good U18s next year. Coventry Dragons have a good side though I don't know how far they can go as a club now the league structure has failed them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rhino Posted September 11, 2017 Share Posted September 11, 2017 On 07/09/2017 at 4:07 PM, paulwalker71 said: But this is the RFL we are talking about here... Who have absolutely no money for what you are suggesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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