MIDLANDS HURRICANES coach Mark Dunning says the club want to ride the Birmingham sporting wave as they aim to meet their new Championship challenge.
The second city is well known for its football clubs Aston Villa, who are pressing their claims as a Premier League powerhouse, and Birmingham City, who under American ownership including NFL legend Tom Brady, have plans to play in the top flight at a new 62,000-capacity stadium.
That would be at Bordesley Green, six miles from both the famous cricket venue Edgbaston to the west and the Alexander Stadium in the Perry Barr district to the north, which as well as hosting the Hurricanes, will stage the European Athletics Championships in August.
Midlands, rebranded from Coventry four years ago, moved to the arena as it was being redeveloped into an 18,000-capacity venue after being the centrepiece of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and have ambitions of firmly establishing Rugby League in the region.
Dunning, who has been at the helm since May 2023 and last year led his side to a final position of fifth in League One for the second season running, said: “Birmingham is a big city with a big appetite for sport.
“We’re not here to compete with other clubs, we want to embrace the feelgood factor and be part of the sporting wave and add our own dimension to it.
“We have a road map of the direction we want to go in and we are progressing.
“Playing where we do raises our profile, we have a valuable link-up with Warwickshire (County) Cricket Club and having Eorl Crabtree on board as managing director has been great, because we have a big focus on developing off the pitch as well as on it and making our mark in the community.”
Midlands had an opposed training session with Halifax as they continued the build-up to their opening league match at home to Newcastle on Sunday week, January 18.
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