Midlands Hurricanes stadium boost

[Hopping Mad]

From midlandshurricanes.com (11/3):

Midlands Hurricanes are delighted to announce that from March 2024, the club’s home fixtures will be played inside the main stadium arena at Alexander Stadium, starting with the first League One fixture against Rochdale Hornets on 17th March.

For the last two years the club has been based at the Alexander Stadium campus, playing matches on the Community Pitch within the warmup infield. It has always been an aspiration of the club to move into the main stadium in the future and the club are delighted that this aspiration has come to fruition. Representatives of the club confirmed: “We look forward to calling Alexander Stadium our home venue for the foreseeable future."

Moving into the main stadium is a fantastic boost for Rugby League in the Midlands and will allow the club to grow the game within the region. Speaking on the move, CEO Greg Wood said: “To call a stadium that hosted the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games our home venue shows the intent that the club has to grow. I thank our fans, the RFL and visiting clubs for their continued support, I am sure that they are as excited as we are about this announcement. In addition, we would like to thank the team at Alexander Stadium and Birmingham City Council for their efforts in making this happen."

Dave Wagg, Head of Sport and Physical Activity at Birmingham City Council, said: "We are delighted that Midland Hurricanes are playing their 2024 season home fixtures at Alexander Stadium. While athletics will remain at the heart of the stadium ethos and operation, a multi-sport approach was set out as the legacy Vision Statement for the stadium following the success of the Commonwealth Games. Having the Hurricanes at Alexander Stadium supports the diversification of the site and opens up a new audience to rugby league, which is an underdeveloped sport in the Birmingham region. We hope their presence continues to attract new followers to the sport and the stadium, which in turn will lead to further opportunities for participation in a wide range of sports on offer at the site."

Edited March 11 by Hopping Mad

[going for the corner]

It’s like a sexier version of the don valley stadium.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Great news. Incidentally a bowl of cold mashed potato was sexier than the Don Valley stadium!

[Barley Mow]

57 minutes ago, Chronicler of Chiswick said:

Great news. Incidentally a bowl of cold mashed potato was sexier than the Don Valley stadium!

I won't ask what you get up to with cold mashed potato!

[Worzel]

1 hour ago, going for the corner said:

It’s like a sexier version of the don valley stadium.

Yeah I hope this works out for them, but I'm not sure watching the game from behind 25 metres' width of athletics track and long-jump tracks is the best experience. Don Valley wasn't great, nor was New River at Skolars. 

[going for the corner]

13 minutes ago, Worzel said:

Yeah I hope this works out for them, but I'm not sure watching the game from behind 25 metres' width of athletics track and long-jump tracks is the best experience. Don Valley wasn't great, nor was New River at Skolars. 

I agree but it’s better than nothing I suppose and gives the hurricanes a bit of much needed stability in an important expansion area.

Edited March 11 by going for the corner

[The 4 of Us]

Good to hear. Have to say that in the not very much zero temperature for the Wigan “warm up” game, I was distinctly underwhelmed with pitch side standing, and rocking portaloo, and the closest hot chocolate I’ve had the accident to taste, whilst looking longingly at the empty stadium next door, which I hope would have much better facilities under the stand as well as pitch facing. 

[Eddie]

5 hours ago, Worzel said:

Yeah I hope this works out for them, but I'm not sure watching the game from behind 25 metres' width of athletics track and long-jump tracks is the best experience. Don Valley wasn't great, nor was New River at Skolars. 

I wonder if that’s an English sentiment. Big European football games have often been held with running tracks around and nobody seems to mind, admittedly not so often these days mind you. 

[Damien]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I wonder if that’s an English sentiment. Big European football games have often been held with running tracks around and nobody seems to mind, admittedly not so often these days mind you. 

Not so often these days because fans of the said clubs hated those grounds!

[Gomersall]

10 hours ago, The 4 of Us said:

Good to hear. Have to say that in the not very much zero temperature for the Wigan “warm up” game, I was distinctly underwhelmed with pitch side standing, and rocking portaloo, and the closest hot chocolate I’ve had the accident to taste, whilst looking longingly at the empty stadium next door, which I hope would have much better facilities under the stand as well as pitch facing. 

Two questions here. Why was the portaloo rocking and just how close was the hot chocolate?

[Coggo]

Maybe they will change the name again.

Midlands is a terrible name.

Come on, Midlands! Up the Midlands! etc. Naff. Where is the Midlands anyway? 

Why not at least West Midlands Hurricanes? Naming it after a county offers some sort of identity and sense of belonging.

Or, even better, Birmingham Hurricanes. 

Edited March 12 by Coggo

[The 4 of Us]

2 hours ago, Gomersall said:

Two questions here. Why was the portaloo rocking and just how close was the hot chocolate?

Late night typo for Hot Chocolate. It was the coldest despite waiting for the bolier to heat up for the whole of half time. 
 

The bogs were 2 plastic portaloos balanced on top of something but they weren’t steady.

Appreciate that Hurricanes obtained a prestigious address when they moved their, but the community pitch is definitely more on the amatuer side of semi-pro.

Hope the move next door works for them. 

[iffleyox]

3 hours ago, Coggo said:

Maybe they will change the name again.

Midlands is a terrible name.

Come on, Midlands! Up the Midlands! etc. Naff. Where is the Midlands anyway? 

Why not at least West Midlands Hurricanes? Naming it after a county offers some sort of identity and sense of belonging.

Or, even better, Birmingham Hurricanes. 

As a local, because it's the West Midlands. No one identifies with the West Midlands, they identify with their town, or to an extent which seems to surprise people who think counties have died, their county. Which unfortunately for this area means Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, rather than the West Midlands County, which sort of exists officially, but no one identifies with at all. It doesn't even fit neatly by area into one or other of the 'old' counties - Birmingham contains bits of all three, everywhere else is only in one of them.

So the quickest way to cut off a section of fanbase is to choose 'Warwickshire' or 'Birmingham' as names. Warwickshire will lose you Worcestershire and the Black Country (Staffs mostly, with some Worcs), Birmingham will lose you anything that isn't Birmingham. Which is an issue when you've got a legacy fanbase from Coventry. 

The bitterest rivalry is Worcestershire vs Warwickshire - which in cricket knocks a roses match into a cocked hat except no one from away from the midlands seems to know about it. It's so bitter that many people would rather not attend the away match - so as not to put money into whichever of Worcs or Warks they don't support. 

Hurricanes' link up with Warwickshire CCC was a regrettable lapse that does, at a visceral level, make it difficult for both me and some other Worcs CCC fans I know to support them. Unfortunately I'm serious, even though typing it out feels ridiculous.

About the only other name which they could have tried I think is something like Three Counties Hurricanes, which would also have been a dog's breakfast. 

They're stuck with 'Midlands' because they've come to Birmingham from Coventry and didn't want to lose existing fans. Birmingham would arguably have been cleaner in terms of trying to start from scratch, but unfortunately, Birmingham v Coventry is another massive and sometimes bitter rivalry, in cricket, football, and RU.... IMO they were right to avoid it. 

It's one of the problems in trying to graft a new sport into an area that's a seething mess of pre-existing rivalries. There are a lot of people in the West Midlands, but it's not straightforward.

 

 

[Tre Cool]

It's a beautiful stadium, but 18k capacity is too big for just about every single RL club in the country, never mind a tier 3 club with crowds in the 100s.  Good luck to them, i really hope it works out but without huge investment in the playing side I'm unsure what it will achieve.  Butts Park was just about perfect for an ambitious tier 3 club, shame they couldn't stay there.

Edited March 12 by Tre Cool

[Coggo]

1 hour ago, iffleyox said:

As a local, because it's the West Midlands. No one identifies with the West Midlands, they identify with their town, or to an extent which seems to surprise people who think counties have died, their county. Which unfortunately for this area means Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, rather than the West Midlands County, which sort of exists officially, but no one identifies with at all. It doesn't even fit neatly by area into one or other of the 'old' counties - Birmingham contains bits of all three, everywhere else is only in one of them.

So the quickest way to cut off a section of fanbase is to choose 'Warwickshire' or 'Birmingham' as names. Warwickshire will lose you Worcestershire and the Black Country (Staffs mostly, with some Worcs), Birmingham will lose you anything that isn't Birmingham. Which is an issue when you've got a legacy fanbase from Coventry. 

The bitterest rivalry is Worcestershire vs Warwickshire - which in cricket knocks a roses match into a cocked hat except no one from away from the midlands seems to know about it. It's so bitter that many people would rather not attend the away match - so as not to put money into whichever of Worcs or Warks they don't support. 

Hurricanes' link up with Warwickshire CCC was a regrettable lapse that does, at a visceral level, make it difficult for both me and some other Worcs CCC fans I know to support them. Unfortunately I'm serious, even though typing it out feels ridiculous.

About the only other name which they could have tried I think is something like Three Counties Hurricanes, which would also have been a dog's breakfast. 

They're stuck with 'Midlands' because they've come to Birmingham from Coventry and didn't want to lose existing fans. Birmingham would arguably have been cleaner in terms of trying to start from scratch, but unfortunately, Birmingham v Coventry is another massive and sometimes bitter rivalry, in cricket, football, and RU.... IMO they were right to avoid it. 

It's one of the problems in trying to graft a new sport into an area that's a seething mess of pre-existing rivalries. There are a lot of people in the West Midlands, but it's not straightforward.

It's just not cricket....

They play in Birmingham, so they should be called Birmingham.

It's not like they'd lose thousands of fans from Worcestershire. 

[Barley Mow]

3 minutes ago, Coggo said:

It's just not cricket....

They play in Birmingham, so they should be called Birmingham.

It's not like they'd lose thousands of fans from Worcestershire. 

How many of their regular fans are the same people who followed them as Coventry Bears? Are they likely to lose those people if playing as Birmingham?

[ChristianB]

20 hours ago, going for the corner said:

It’s like a sexier version of the don valley stadium.

It's far more than that! I don't know of any better arena in SL never mind L1.

[Eddie]

2 hours ago, Coggo said:

It's just not cricket....

They play in Birmingham, so they should be called Birmingham.

It's not like they'd lose thousands of fans from Worcestershire. 

They can be called whatever they like. 

[fighting irish]

What's parking like there? I might just make the effort to get to one of their games in the next few months. 

[RP London]

4 hours ago, Coggo said:

It's just not cricket....

They play in Birmingham, so they should be called Birmingham.

It's not like they'd lose thousands of fans from Worcestershire. 

While that is a fair point, Iffleyfox has literally, in the post you quoted, explained why they may not gain any down the line. History, as always, will be 20-20, sadly when trying to make history you have to, sometimes, be pragmatic when there is no evidence which way is right and which way is wrong. 

[Bearman]

2 hours ago, fighting irish said:

What's parking like there? I might just make the effort to get to one of their games in the next few months. 

Easy and free

[Bearman]

10 hours ago, Coggo said:

Maybe they will change the name again.

Midlands is a terrible name.

Come on, Midlands! Up the Midlands! etc. Naff. Where is the Midlands anyway? 

Why not at least West Midlands Hurricanes? Naming it after a county offers some sort of identity and sense of belonging.

Or, even better, Birmingham Hurricanes. 

The chants are " Hurricanes" not "Midlands "

Just like  the species shouted "Skolars" not  London,  "Cru" not North Wales, "Thunder" not Newcastle.

The "Choir" have embraced it with quite a few variations.

So, you might not like it but the paying punters do

 

[BadlyOverdrawnBoy]

Technically I'm in East Midlands although only 17 miles from Manchester centre. They could be my team 

[Impartial Observer]

On 11/03/2024 at 16:38, Worzel said:

Yeah I hope this works out for them, but I'm not sure watching the game from behind 25 metres' width of athletics track and long-jump tracks is the best experience. Don Valley wasn't great, nor was New River at Skolars. 

I think Crystal Palace was the worst.

[Gomersall]

7 hours ago, iffleyox said:

Hurricanes' link up with Warwickshire CCC was a regrettable lapse that does, at a visceral level, make it difficult for both me and some other Worcs CCC fans I know to support them. Unfortunately I'm serious, even though typing it out feels ridiculous.

Comes across to me as ridiculous too. I don’t see what your cricket allegiance has to do with the RL team you support even if that RL team has a tenuous link to your cricket team’s rivals.