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Coventry Bears rebrand


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It is certainly an ambitious long term plan. Best wishes.

Their new temporary home was home to NEW Ravens RLFC last year too. I wonder if that arrangement will also continue? 

There's plenty of pitch space, but I can't recall any (or much) permanent seating. It may well be that a temporary stand is required, perhaps. We will watch this space.

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46 minutes ago, Northern Eel said:

It is certainly an ambitious long term plan. Best wishes.

Their new temporary home was home to NEW Ravens RLFC last year too. I wonder if that arrangement will also continue? 

There's plenty of pitch space, but I can't recall any (or much) permanent seating. It may well be that a temporary stand is required, perhaps. We will watch this space.

I have refrained from commenting on this so far because I was unsure of my own thoughts and that is still the case.

The first thing to take into account is I know Bearman vaguely having chatted to him a fair bit one the team coach going to Workington a couple of year ago. I would describe Coventry as my team if any as I head a season ticket pre pandemic

Running a team in the Midlands is beyond a challenge and almost impossible and they have been going about 20 years. In that time almost every decision made by him and Alan has been proven to be wise, so as someone who does no more than turn up and pay I cannot challenge the reasoning and this does seem to be a choice between what could turn out to be a great opportunity against no club.

That does not mean I do not have strong reservations, the Bears were a Coventry club, especially in the unseen work in the background Sky Try, going into schools etc and working with the universities and this may be harder if they are not identified with the city directly. I am sure this has been thought of and hopefully there will be open age Coventry teams and branding to maintain the excellent work.

My reservation is the ground. Birmingham Solihull are two clubs that merged and dumped the Portway venue for first team games. It was only easy of access in a car and would be very challenging on any day but especially a Sunday. The union club did an Icarus with good sponsorship deals and moved in with Solihull football before the cash ran out.

Last time I visited Portway the club were on a barely roped second team pitch because the stand was unsafe for all but the pigeons. They then fell out of the league structure entirely for a time. The surroundings offer nothing apart from some nice walks. Even if it has been done up the ground would not be of the standard required for the league or to entice fans. Hopefully it is now much better. 

It is for one year but many of the people I know use public transport and will not attend. There was a noticeable drop in crowds at Broadstreet and Rugby Lions

The Alexander stadium in the pictures is not how I know it, but looks impressive but the increase in crowds required to make this look a success is massive.

However as I have stated I have great faith in those running the club and with the journey slightly easier for me will certainly be there. 

We desperately need a successful midlands club and there is no other one that could become it

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1 hour ago, welshmagpie said:

Are they four different stadiums? Each image looks completely different. 

Technically the same stadium though as I understand it will be extended for the commonwealth games with extra temporary seating. I think one of the pics might be the training area. 

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1 hour ago, groundhopper said:

I have refrained from commenting on this so far because I was unsure of my own thoughts and that is still the case.

The first thing to take into account is I know Bearman vaguely having chatted to him a fair bit one the team coach going to Workington a couple of year ago. I would describe Coventry as my team if any as I head a season ticket pre pandemic

Running a team in the Midlands is beyond a challenge and almost impossible and they have been going about 20 years. In that time almost every decision made by him and Alan has been proven to be wise, so as someone who does no more than turn up and pay I cannot challenge the reasoning and this does seem to be a choice between what could turn out to be a great opportunity against no club.

That does not mean I do not have strong reservations, the Bears were a Coventry club, especially in the unseen work in the background Sky Try, going into schools etc and working with the universities and this may be harder if they are not identified with the city directly. I am sure this has been thought of and hopefully there will be open age Coventry teams and branding to maintain the excellent work.

My reservation is the ground. Birmingham Solihull are two clubs that merged and dumped the Portway venue for first team games. It was only easy of access in a car and would be very challenging on any day but especially a Sunday. The union club did an Icarus with good sponsorship deals and moved in with Solihull football before the cash ran out.

Last time I visited Portway the club were on a barely roped second team pitch because the stand was unsafe for all but the pigeons. They then fell out of the league structure entirely for a time. The surroundings offer nothing apart from some nice walks. Even if it has been done up the ground would not be of the standard required for the league or to entice fans. Hopefully it is now much better. 

It is for one year but many of the people I know use public transport and will not attend. There was a noticeable drop in crowds at Broadstreet and Rugby Lions

The Alexander stadium in the pictures is not how I know it, but looks impressive but the increase in crowds required to make this look a success is massive.

However as I have stated I have great faith in those running the club and with the journey slightly easier for me will certainly be there. 

We desperately need a successful midlands club and there is no other one that could become it

I know exactly what you mean about next season. It may be a challenge but it's for one season. The opportunity to move to the newly renovated Alexander stadium complex could be a game changer and attract many new fans as well as new investment  

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10 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

I know exactly what you mean about next season. It may be a challenge but it's for one season. The opportunity to move to the newly renovated Alexander stadium complex could be a game changer and attract many new fans as well as new investment  

The main stadium will reduce to an 18000 capacity after the  commonwealth games. Massive for lower league rugby and too big for most SL.

Are the Huricanes proposing to use that one or one of the two satellite fields designated  at present it seems for winter  football afterwards  ( presuming no clashes with  the Athletics season. )   Will we get 68 x 100 and a decent in goal ?

Got to admire though  the balls of all of this and wish them well.

Seems a long time now since i watched Coventry play their first game in the NCL and were introduced to the ' tastier'  realities of RL at Wigan St Cuthberts............

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13 minutes ago, del capo said:

The main stadium will reduce to an 18000 capacity after the  commonwealth games. Massive for lower league rugby and too big for most SL.

Are the Huricanes proposing to use that one or one of the two satellite fields designated  at present it seems for winter  football afterwards  ( presuming no clashes with  the Athletics season. )   Will we get 68 x 100 and a decent in goal ?

Got to admire though  the balls of all of this and wish them well.

Seems a long time now since i watched Coventry play their first game in the NCL and were introduced to the ' tastier'  realities of RL at Wigan St Cuthberts............

It's a good point, I believe these are some of the ongoing discussions. Thinking of the bigger picture this could be a tremendous base for RL right in the middle of the country. The prestige of playing at such a venue is bound to bring in investment too 

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12 minutes ago, del capo said:

Seems a long time now since i watched Coventry play their first game in the NCL and were introduced to the ' tastier'  realities of RL at Wigan St Cuthberts............

Oh Lord that was a bad day out though not nearly as bad as the trip to Kippax

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2 minutes ago, Yorks Tim said:

Oh Lord that was a bad day out though not nearly as bad as the trip to Kippax

I can still recall the picture of shock horror and disbelief on some of your young lads' faces  when confronting Norley Hall's finest led by  a toothless kamikaze loose forward who delighted in taking no prisoners. Mostly legal  though and Coventry made it a close run thing in the end.

I think Tom Tsang enjoyed the  trip .

Can't speak for Kippax -  I find Yorkshire teams tended to have their own sort of welcome for ' newbies '........

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Thanks for the responses and comments.

As I have commentators previously we HAD to change. Continuing as we were doing it would have been near impossible to carry on next year.

The reduction of central funding and not having any opportunity to generate income meant that the rental cost of the BOA would have swallowed up all our finances.

Those of you know Coventry will know that there is nowhere to play.

Broadstreet was never an option. Our experiences there were less than pleasant. The City council were not able to help ( see the Sky Blues experience).

So we came up with a cunning plan!

The plan was to rebrand and and and try grow to a bigger market. Clearly even though Coventry is a big city clearly there is a massive one next door. Crucially the council there have been very helpful and there is an opportunity to move to a facility that will give us a place to get money on matchdays.

Stage 1 was to try and float the concept in the market place. The idea was floated and we were very lucky that we were introduced to a Rugby League fan who is a very successful businessman. Mike Lomax, who liked what he saw and has the drive and imagination to help us to kick on.

Alan Robinson and I started the Bears 23 years and we have always tried to find to ways to move forward.

I do not mind admitting that it was looking pretty bleak. In fact as the last season was unfolding and we were doing ok on the pitch both of us were thinking the worst. 

The catalyst was on the way to an away game in the bus we both expressed our darkest thoughts and it was not nice. After the game on the way back, something happened. I turned to Alan to say we just can't let it go like that, before I could speak he said " I'm not just  going to go without trying. "  I grinned and "said nor me".  

The Hurricanes and a move to Birmingham ideas had been thought about for some time and we had the germs of ideas of a plan and that became the strategy.

So as I have said before it wasn't an easy decision and yet it was... as there was no way could have survived without a radical move.

We have the ppeople, the ideas and the will to make a success of this. I know we will have a lot of people hope we will succede. 

 

Ron Banks

Midlands Hurricanes and Barrow

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5 minutes ago, Bearman said:

Thanks for the responses and comments.

As I have commentators previously we HAD to change. Continuing as we were doing it would have been near impossible to carry on next year.

The reduction of central funding and not having any opportunity to generate income meant that the rental cost of the BOA would have swallowed up all our finances.

Those of you know Coventry will know that there is nowhere to play.

Broadstreet was never an option. Our experiences there were less than pleasant. The City council were not able to help ( see the Sky Blues experience).

So we came up with a cunning plan!

The plan was to rebrand and and and try grow to a bigger market. Clearly even though Coventry is a big city clearly there is a massive one next door. Crucially the council there have been very helpful and there is an opportunity to move to a facility that will give us a place to get money on matchdays.

Stage 1 was to try and float the concept in the market place. The idea was floated and we were very lucky that we were introduced to a Rugby League fan who is a very successful businessman. Mike Lomax, who liked what he saw and has the drive and imagination to help us to kick on.

Alan Robinson and I started the Bears 23 years and we have always tried to find to ways to move forward.

I do not mind admitting that it was looking pretty bleak. In fact as the last season was unfolding and we were doing ok on the pitch both of us were thinking the worst. 

The catalyst was on the way to an away game in the bus we both expressed our darkest thoughts and it was not nice. After the game on the way back, something happened. I turned to Alan to say we just can't let it go like that, before I could speak he said " I'm not just  going to go without trying. "  I grinned and "said nor me".  

The Hurricanes and a move to Birmingham ideas had been thought about for some time and we had the germs of ideas of a plan and that became the strategy.

So as I have said before it wasn't an easy decision and yet it was... as there was no way could have survived without a radical move.

We have the ppeople, the ideas and the will to make a success of this. I know we will have a lot of people hope we will succede. 

 

I listened to the podcast and enjoyed it. I don't expect any indication on numbers etc but can you give us an idea of the level of investment by Mike Lomas? Is it just sufficient to stabilise the club or will it also provide extra funds for the playing squad? Can you accelerate plans for investment in club infrastructure eg  more development officers/full time staff?

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10 hours ago, OriginalMrC said:

I know exactly what you mean about next season. It may be a challenge but it's for one season. The opportunity to move to the newly renovated Alexander stadium complex could be a game changer and attract many new fans as well as new investment  

Can you take W*sps with you too?

eh?

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