Marka Ragnos Posted January 25, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted January 25, 2023 I've wondered lately if Aston Villa sometimes struggles on the transfer market because players don't want to be in Birmingham. I have no idea if that's true, but I wonder. Do you think the area does a good enough job of marketing itself as a tourist destination or a fun place to live? Are there things the West Midlands and/or Birmingham could do better? Does it have a clear identity? Does it need one? Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 I love coming up to Birmingham prefer new street shopping to london anyday. However i have to admit the service has got worse over the years espically in restaurants. Not sure why this has happened, also the hotels have got worse. I usually stay at the clayton but the last time i went it was poor. I think brum its self has massive potential though 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 9 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: However i have to admit the service has got worse over the years espically in restaurants. Not sure why this has happened, also the hotels have got worse. This seems true across the country, lots of companies still cutting corners, cutting staff, and offering a worse service while muttering about covid. It's been 3 **** years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 It's a bit of a catch-22 ... Either Brum is or is not a place to visit or live. Of course, this will vary with taste. Would I want to live in a tourist trap? No. I currently live in a small dormitory village or the nearby "city" which has a dirty great big smelter. My sort of living. My advice to Brum ... be it ... rather than advertise it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 (edited) I think the definition causes the greatest confusion- Do you mean Birmingham and the surrounding ubran area, or the wider region such as Worcestershire, Shropshire etc? I always think west midlands is an incredibly vague term. They should bite the bullet and just call it greater Birmingham like they do in Manchester- though Wolverhampton and Coventry would probably object. Wider area should be promoted as heart of england, or Mercia imo. The commonwealth games was a good success in bringing people to the city. I spoke to a lot of people who was their first visit to Brum and they loved it. Get out and spread the word. HS2 will also help. Edited January 25, 2023 by The Fun Factory 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 Definitely needs to market itself better, The beautiful sparkling healthy spa water of Gas Street Basin, in Birmingham. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icouldtelltheworld Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 Voted yes by accident because the poll question is literally the inverse of the thread title. Maybe YOU need to do better @Marka Ragnos 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 43 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: I love coming up to Birmingham prefer new street shopping to london anyday. However i have to admit the service has got worse over the years espically in restaurants. Ah but is that because you went to Karen's Diner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 33 minutes ago, Davkaus said: This seems true across the country, lots of companies still cutting corners, cutting staff, and offering a worse service while muttering about covid. It's been 3 **** years. Couldnt agree more. I hate it when people blame covid. Its not covid. It feels like we have just gone back in time where there is no staff, lazy attitudes and poor levels of customer service Have to say though i went broghton recently and the service was very good down there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 There’s been a trend in recent years for clubs in more affluent areas of southern England to climb the table, while the old industrial towns and cities of the north fall. Bournemouth, Brighton, Reading, Bristol, plus the smaller London sides like Fulham, have all benefited from this. The Arsenal match attending fanbase is incredibly affluent on average - reflected in the season ticket prices. But generally it’s still the case that plenty of the top sides come from cities that have “mixed” reputations. Manchester, Liverpool, etc. So I don’t know how big a deal it is. Birmingham is never going to compete with Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Milan, etc as an iconic global city where players can mix with world celebrities from fashion and the arts, but plenty of players don’t want that in their lives. I think it still mostly comes down to what wages you can pay, how well the club is performing, can you offer European football, that kind of thing. We don’t need to worry too much. FWIW though, in the broader off topic sense of the question, yes Birmingham / West Mids could definitely market itself better. I think a lot of people don’t realise how much goes on in the area and how varied it is. Most people just think of a big industrial city a bit down on its luck like Sunderland or somewhere like that. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted January 25, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted January 25, 2023 57 minutes ago, Demitri_C said: I love coming up to Birmingham prefer new street shopping to london anyday. However i have to admit the service has got worse over the years espically in restaurants. Not sure why this has happened, also the hotels have got worse. I usually stay at the clayton but the last time i went it was poor. I think brum its self has massive potential though The food in Birmingham is better than other UK cities I have visited, London been the only one that stands out. Manchester and Liverpool were well behind ( 4 years ago). The midlands area has so much history, the musicians that started in the midlands is second to none, the lunar society was years ahead of its time, revolutionary tbh. If London hadn't purposely slowed Birminghams growth then heaven knows what would have happened. A major factor in us under performing is the lack of TV or new media that's based here, it's a joke considering the amount that the region pays into the BBC that the only thing they offer us is Master Chef. Andy Street needs replacing as well, he's completely over shadowed by Andy Burnham. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 Market itself to whom? A place to site businesses? A place to visit? A place to hold conferences? A place to shop? A place to live? West Mids try to do all of this. I wonder if it needs to narrow down its marketing into a few key areas. Blackpool is for stag parties. Bath is for day trips. Lake District is for scenery. Cornwall is for summer holidays and expensive seaside homes for the rich. Milton Keynes is for businesses. Middlesborough is to make you realise there are people worse off than you. Etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 I don't think it has an impact of villa or footballers as they will live a life of luxury usually away from the city anyway, there's plenty of nice areas where they'll be fine, the filthy rich can live just about anywhere and be fine But the city in general? Yes definitely and to be fair in certain areas it does and it doesn't, in terms of businesses and restaurants and now bars it's doing OK, in the court of public opinion its desperately short especially when you compare it with somewhere like Manchester but then Manchester is basically a proper insecure word removed with all the second city and blowing smoke up its own ass nonsense so no one wants to be like them... I think to an extent probably traditionally brummies don't care, its our city, we know what it is, those that drive past it once a year on the M6 still think its an ugly brutalist city with nothing going on, we know it's not but at the same time we also know what it isn't, unlike the mancs, so we don't exaggerate or inflate the city's sense of purpose Internationally from my experience it's all London, even the likes Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow none of them matter and no one has seemingly any interest in visiting them, I've never heard anyone say they went on holiday in the UK to any city that wasn't London, there's no German stag do going to Sheffield or Bristol for the weekend, it's just not done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icouldtelltheworld Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 One consequence of the economic model we've pursued over the past few decades is that pretty much all of our major cities are doing really well. That's not to say Birmingham doesn't have issues, we have the highest child poverty in the country, but in purely economic terms the city does pretty well for itself and is clearly on the up. I think the move towards home working will benefit Brum as a city that's fairly close to London, and lots of big businesses seem to be moving their headquarters here. Also a fair bit of investment into infrastructure with the metro and old train lines being reopened etc. Brummies tend to be a bit more understated than Londoners and Mancs, o the city probably doesn't shout about itself as loudly as it could. However, the wider West Midlands region massively needs investment and regeneration. You compare Walsall or Wolverhampton centres with Brum and its almost like another world these days. Same is true across the country though - replace Birmigham and Walsall with Manchester and Rochdale or Newcastle and Gateshead, almost like-for-like comparisons. Agree that rebranding the West Mids conurbation as Greater Birmingham would probably help, but black country and Coventry folk would never accept that, which is fair enough really 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icouldtelltheworld Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 1 hour ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: Market itself to whom? A place to site businesses? A place to visit? A place to hold conferences? A place to shop? A place to live? West Mids try to do all of this. I wonder if it needs to narrow down its marketing into a few key areas. Blackpool is for stag parties. Bath is for day trips. Lake District is for scenery. Cornwall is for summer holidays and expensive seaside homes for the rich. Milton Keynes is for businesses. Middlesborough is to make you realise there are people worse off than you. Etc. Birmingham has definitely gone all in on retail. Mate of mine was at some event with leaders from the council a few years ago, who were keen to point out that purely in terms of how much money is spent here, Birmingham remains comfortably the second biggest UK city over Manchester. Whether betting on retail turns out to be a smart choice in the long term remains to be seen 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icouldtelltheworld Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 Final point: I think part of the issue for Villa as a club might be that Brum (and the wider region) has never really been quite as mad of a football city as Liverpool, Manchester or Newcastle. Outside of the main conurbation, there arent any major professional clubs in the surrounding counties, some of which seem to be bigger on rugby and/or cricket. Might be changing though, lots of very talented youngsters seem to be coming from here of late, whereas we've definitely lagged behind other cities in that regard previously 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 29 minutes ago, icouldtelltheworld said: Birmingham has definitely gone all in on retail. Mate of mine was at some event with leaders from the council a few years ago, who were keen to point out that purely in terms of how much money is spent here, Birmingham remains comfortably the second biggest UK city over Manchester. Whether betting on retail turns out to be a smart choice in the long term remains to be seen I agree. Will Internet shopping kill it eventually. I'd love to see Brum with lots more smaller independent shops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icouldtelltheworld Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 3 minutes ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: I agree. Will Internet shopping kill it eventually. I'd love to see Brum with lots more smaller independent shops. Agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted January 25, 2023 Share Posted January 25, 2023 3 hours ago, icouldtelltheworld said: Voted yes by accident because the poll question is literally the inverse of the thread title. Maybe YOU need to do better @Marka Ragnos Same here. The title and the poll question are opposite questions so tricky to know what to vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marka Ragnos Posted January 25, 2023 Author VT Supporter Share Posted January 25, 2023 (edited) 5 hours ago, icouldtelltheworld said: Voted yes by accident because the poll question is literally the inverse of the thread title. Maybe YOU need to do better @Marka Ragnos Yikes, sorry about that! Maybe a mod such as @bickster or @OutByEaster? will have mercy and repair for me? Not to blame the interface, but ... if I may blame the interface lol: the polling interface is a little weird because it has separate "content" and "poll" tabs, and I'm never exactly sure why that it is --- although perhaps I've figured it out finally. But for the record, the question on the poll-question itself is what I meant to ask: Does the West Midlands region do an adequate job of marketing itself? The other was just something to ponder as part of that one's extensive and deeply important consideration of this ingenious poll question. Edited January 25, 2023 by Marka Ragnos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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