Birmingham v Wrexham

[ClaretsPadiham]

Hollywood tie, 30k plus at St Andrews, Beckham in the crowd.

1-1 after 25 mins.

Jay Stansfield way to good for that league.

[DAVETHEVICAR]

Been an excellent game so far.
Expect both teams to be chasing promotion this season
Wrexham on top for first 15 minutes and been all Birmingham since

[ClaretTony]

Beckham in the crowd.

And don’t we know it. How many times have they shown him during that first half?

[aggi]

And don’t we know it. How many times have they shown him during that first half?

More than Will Ferrell on Saturday?

[TheFamilyCat]

More than Will Ferrell on Saturday?

I think it was important that we knew he'd put a hat on.

[claretburns]

More than Will Ferrell on Saturday?

To be fair after Will Ferrell got shown Koleosho scored straight away so I think the cameraman thought it could be a good omen.

[blatherwickstattoos]

Sick of showing Brady and Beckham now gunna turn it over

[ElectroClaret]

2-1 Brum.

[FCBurnley]

You missed a second excellent goal by Stansfield if you did

[Woodleyclaret]

This shite of showing celebrities and managers by Sky is very irritating Just as bad is the nonsense of showing the second game line up half way through the preceeding game.

[ElectroClaret]

3-1
Brum on fire.

[ksrclaret]

The squad that Birmingham have been able to assemble is clearly far too good for League 1. It would probably compete in the top half of the Championship actually.

[exilecanada]

Battle of airlines: Brum with Delta, Wrexham with United

[exilecanada]

Wonder who's worth more, the rugby guy or the footy guy? My guess is the footy guy, probably has his hands in more pies.

[mybloodisclaret]

Some serious cash going in at Birmingham. Their plans for the new 62,000 stadium looks an upgrade on the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, and only a few hundred seats smaller.

Estimated cost £2-3 BILLION!!!

[exilecanada]

Handbags

[kentonclaret]

Wonder who's worth more, the rugby guy or the footy guy? My guess is the footy guy, probably has his hands in more pies.

Tom Brady between $300 - $450 million with his earnings set to increase having just been appointed as an NFL analyst for Sky Sports.

[Anonymous Claret]

Some serious cash going in at Birmingham. Their plans for the new 62,000 stadium looks an upgrade on the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, and only a few hundred seats smaller.

Estimated cost £2-3 BILLION!!!

I can't understand why they need such a big stadium. Villa are much the bigger club in the second city. Is Birmingham's support that big they could fill 60,000 seats every week, even if /when they get to the Premier league?

[Lu-tze]

This shite of showing celebrities and managers by Sky is very irritating Just as bad is the nonsense of showing the second game line up half way through the preceeding game.

Am I just getting old and grumpy or does this seem more prevalent now?
Not just celebs in the crowd but the camera on the dugout or extended replays when the bloody game has restarted.
The amount of times I’ve shouted at the telly ‘SHOW US WHAT’S HAPPENING!’
I’m sure someone - itv maybe? managed to miss a goal doing it once

[ISpeds00]

anyone else lump on McLean card?
went huge on it

[mybloodisclaret]

I can't understand why they need such a big stadium. Villa are much the bigger club in the second city. Is Birmingham's support that big they could fill 60,000 seats every week, even if /when they get to the Premier league?

I must say I thought the same. They have been getting circa 20k for a good few seasons. To treble that is ambitious and then some.

[BurnleyFC]

Some serious cash going in at Birmingham. Their plans for the new 62,000 stadium looks an upgrade on the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, and only a few hundred seats smaller.

Estimated cost £2-3 BILLION!!!

Bonkers, considering they only have two league cups to their name in their history.

I’ve never really thought of them as being a big club.

[Poulton-le-Claret]

Just seen the highlights, a few goals sandwiched in between clips of Beckham and Brady watch the match proper tin pot when who is watching the game is more interesting than the team itself.

[IPAclaret]

Even allowing for the huge catchment area, Birmingham have never been all that well supported have they ? I know Villa get decent crowds but the city is plenty large enough to support 2 large clubs but it doesn't really.

60k ? No chance.

[ClaretOfMancunia]

I can't understand why they need such a big stadium. Villa are much the bigger club in the second city. Is Birmingham's support that big they could fill 60,000 seats every week, even if /when they get to the Premier league?

Pedantic of me, but I can't let that one slide. Manchester is the "second city" (first actually for me), and has had the lead on Brum in that regard for at least twenty years now.

[ChrisG]

Pedantic of me, but I can't let that one slide. Manchester is the "second city" (first actually for me), and has had the lead on Brum in that regard for at least twenty years now.

As a former resident of Manchester for 20 years or so on and off, and married to a Manc lass, I concur!

[pushpinpussy]

Great to see all these celebrities and ex football stars at football games, especially in the lower leagues. Gets fans interested again and brings a lot of positive attention to the towns and cities like it has down with Wrexham.

[Quickenthetempo]

I went to a Wembley final to watch Birmingham against Tranmere (sherpa van/autoglass) when Big Vince was playing for them.
They sold 55k tickets for that game. So I'm sure they could achieve it in the prem.

But I presume they will be spending that money on it to be multisport/concert friendly and to get internationals played there.

[Stalbansclaret]

You can’t look at ticket sales for a one-off Wembley appearance and expect that to be replicated every week for ordinary league games. If you could we’d have to double the size of Turf Moor !!
Was sick to death of looking at Beckham and Brady last night.

[scamander]

It's always difficult to know how much a celeb/sports star is worth. Brady is facing some hefty charges for a few things. He won't be borrowing a fiver for the gas anytime soon but I wonder to what extent this type of investment is to protect the money or part of some way to lessen his tax commitments.

I understand that it is now a thing for famous people to invest in what seem an altruistic cause (e.g.football club or a film or even setting aside a large sum of money to be used as a prize in a reality tv business show) when it's far more of a strategic financial thing to do.

I note that we have some on here well versed in finance - would be interesting to get their informed opinion on this.

[bfcjg]

I enjoyed last night's game more than the tedious stereotypical drivel that is a lot of the Premier league.

[ecc]

The second city must surely be the one with the second largest population. Birmingham is over one million, Manchester proper 500,000.

[bfc-njr-2017]

I hated it all...

[GetIntoEm]

Brady has just taken $375m for a 10 year TV contract for NFL coverage. bonkers money

[ChrisG]

The second city must surely be the one with the second largest population. Birmingham is over one million, Manchester proper 500,000.

Depends how you define it, which is tricky. If you're looking purely at the area administered by Manchester city council, then yes it's 500k. Similar to London with the City of London, but no one is suggesting that West Ham and Chelsea don't play in London.

If you look at it on a wider basis not based on arbitrary administrative boundaries, and take what most people who weren't local would class as the Manchester metropolitan area, including the likes of Salford, Trafford, Tameside etc, then it's a lot bigger.

Overall, Birmingham is probably slightly bigger in terms of population, however looking at how the city is thriving in terms of investment, culture, etc, Manchester is ahead of pretty much every city barring London by a distance.

[Plissken]

Tom Brady between $300 - $450 million with his earnings set to increase having just been appointed as an NFL analyst for Sky Sports.

He lost a lot of it by investing in crypto.

[quoonbeatz]

Birmingham is w@nk compared to Manchester, best to just base it on that.

[Greenmile]

Depends how you define it, which is tricky. If you're looking purely at the area administered by Manchester city council, then yes it's 500k. Similar to London with the City of London, but no one is suggesting that West Ham and Chelsea don't play in London.

If you look at it on a wider basis not based on arbitrary administrative boundaries, and take what most people who weren't local would class as the Manchester metropolitan area, including the likes of Salford, Trafford, Tameside etc, then it's a lot bigger.

Overall, Birmingham is probably slightly bigger in terms of population, however looking at how the city is thriving in terms of investment, culture, etc, Manchester is ahead of pretty much every city barring London by a distance.

I’m not suggesting population should be the sole deciding factor when considering which is the second city (nor am I suggesting that anyone should give a toss what the “second city” is), but Birmingham has a bigger population than Manchester no matter how you look at it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_O ... population

https://www.citymonitor.ai/analysis/whe ... 4/?cf-view

[ecc]

Depends how you define it, which is tricky. If you're looking purely at the area administered by Manchester city council, then yes it's 500k. Similar to London with the City of London, but no one is suggesting that West Ham and Chelsea don't play in London.

If you look at it on a wider basis not based on arbitrary administrative boundaries, and take what most people who weren't local would class as the Manchester metropolitan area, including the likes of Salford, Trafford, Tameside etc, then it's a lot bigger.

Overall, Birmingham is probably slightly bigger in terms of population, however looking at how the city is thriving in terms of investment, culture, etc, Manchester is ahead of pretty much every city barring London by a distance.

Hi ChrisG,

I agree with your points. The "attribution" of second city is not a legal matter (AFAIK). Historically, I believe it's just based on population. In some countries it's very clear eg Barcelona is undoubtedly Spain's second city.

Birmingham always was England's second city but with the "merging" both de facto and de jure of Greater Manchester plus the regeneration eg BBC going to Salford, MediaCity etc, Manchester is on the up.

Personally, I much prefer MCR to Birmingham. Can't stand the two clubs but like most of us on here, love the music. And after spending three years in Birmingham, the accent drove me mad. The locals can't help it but it's grim.

[JohnMcGreal]

Depends how you define it, which is tricky. If you're looking purely at the area administered by Manchester city council, then yes it's 500k. Similar to London with the City of London, but no one is suggesting that West Ham and Chelsea don't play in London.

If you look at it on a wider basis not based on arbitrary administrative boundaries, and take what most people who weren't local would class as the Manchester metropolitan area, including the likes of Salford, Trafford, Tameside etc, then it's a lot bigger.

Overall, Birmingham is probably slightly bigger in terms of population, however looking at how the city is thriving in terms of investment, culture, etc, Manchester is ahead of pretty much every city barring London by a distance.

Manchester isn't even the biggest nor the most culture rich city in the north west

[ChrisG]

Hi ChrisG,

I agree with your points. The "attribution" of second city is not a legal matter (AFAIK). Historically, I believe it's just based on population. In some countries it's very clear eg Barcelona is undoubtedly Spain's second city.

Birmingham always was England's second city but with the "merging" both de facto and de jure of Greater Manchester plus the regeneration eg BBC going to Salford, MediaCity etc, Manchester is on the up.

Personally, I much prefer MCR to Birmingham. Can't stand the two clubs but like most of us on here, love the music. And after spending three years in Birmingham, the accent drove me mad. The locals can't help it but it's grim.

Spot on, and let's face it, Quoon nailed it in his post!

[ecc]

I went to a Wembley final to watch Birmingham against Tranmere (sherpa van/autoglass) when Big Vince was playing for them.
They sold 55k tickets for that game. So I'm sure they could achieve it in the prem.

But I presume they will be spending that money on it to be multisport/concert friendly and to get internationals played there.

They wouldn't find 30,000 more fans.

[ChrisG]

Manchester isn't even the biggest nor the most culture rich city in the north west

Ah yes, I forgot about Carlisle...