The Alexander Stadium is a world class athletics venue and has hosted many big Athletics events…read moreincluding the Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix as well as European Trials and UK Championships. It is also the home of the Birchfield Harriers. Ashia Hansen, Kelly Sotherton and Mark Lewis-Francis are some of the members at Birchfield Harriers. The Stadium itself is a great place to watch Athletics and this place really is worth a visit. Alexander Stadium has recently had a £12.5 million expansion and refurbishment. The money has gone towards building a new stand which has a capacity of 5,000. That means the overall capacity of the Stadium is 12,700. So many of the world's best Athletes have competed at the Alexander Stadium and if you are in Birmingham and fancy watching some Athletics, pop in and see why the Alexander Stadium has received so many positive reviews.

For Athletic venues, you can't go wrong here. It is truly first class and famous for the Birchfield…read moreHarriers. With many different leisure activities available here, you are spolit for choice! The staff are all very helpful and so friendly. The only draw back with Alexander Stadium is the gym, its quite old and very small compared with a lot of other gyms out in Brum, I mean compared with Kingstanding gym, Kingstanding wins as it is larger and has more updated equipment, but it is still goodwhen it is quite like in the day. All in all, a great stadium with equally great staff.

I have always been quite intrigued by racing and especially greyhound racing because I just love…read morethe dogs and I find them so elegant and absolutely stunning and even when they are racing they seem to enjoy it but then again all dogs love chasing after things. When my company decided we were going to put it forward as a night out I was up for the idea and off we went to Perry Barr Greyhound racing club and what a great night was had by all and here is why. - Location: The Perry Barr Greyhound racing track is situated inyes you got it Perry Barr which is extremely close to Birmingham city centre. The full address if anybody is interested is; Aldridge Road Perry Barr Birmingham B42 2ET - Packages: There are plenty of packages you can get for your night and the simplest is simply just paying your admission fee which is £5.50. They do specials though which do work out better especially if you are planning to spend the whole night there. One of the cheapest and best is a punters pack which for £6 - £7.50 (depending on the night) you can get admission, a couple of bets paid for you and also some drinks vouchers. There is a top dog deal if you want food which is £11 13.50 and includes admission, two bets and a food and restaurant voucher. The package we went for because there are a lot of us was the restaurant party package which cost us £98 per four people and we got admission, race cards and a three course meal plus half a bottle of wine each which always goes down well as you can imagine. You can book in parties of multiples of four or six as these are how the tables are set out. If you give the stadium a ring though and tell them what you want they are pretty good and the guy I spoke to was extremely helpful when I told him how many were going and for him to give me the cheapest package. - The Restaurant: The restaurant is pretty good and it is spread out over a couple of floors. We were right up at the top on the third floor and everything is set out sort of like you expect a school hall at lunch time to be set out. the tables all have their matching table cloths and they are all square tables set out in seats of four and six. The restaurant is quite large so I think you can get hundreds of people in the whole restaurant for one night. The decoration is just simple with white walls and then there are nice pictures over the walls and nothing else. Within the restaurant you can see the bar and also a small betting table and the kitchens. The whole place looks cramped in terms of how many people they cram in there but quite spacious and airy because of the way the place is decorated. Of course all along one wall are large windows giving you a perfect view of the greyhound track. - Fast Food: There is a smart looking fast food place on the bottom floor of the stadium but I didn't really get to inspect as we were up on the third floor. It basically just looked like it sold burgers and fries so the sort of thing you would get at a football stadium. - The Track: The actual track is like a huge stretched circle. You can actually go by the track if you are spending the night in that area but we were in the restaurant so we really didn't get to see it. I was impressed that they looked after the track after every single race so that it was safe for the dogs. - The Dogs: I thought they must be worth a mention as they were stunning. Chasing after this plastic rabbit you could tell that they were all having fun and they almost looked disappointed when it had stopped. The dogs racing here are obviously looked after very well as I even saw some getting treats after the race and the owners who had their dog win looked positively gleaming. - Betting: The way you are able to place bets is pretty much the same format as you get everywhere. You can place any priced bet which here is a minimum of £1 or £2 and you can place as many bets as you like. The bets which I made were as follows; Win Obviously here you place a bet on which dog you want to win the race. Place Bet on any dog to come first or second. Trio Bet on three dogs to come first, second and third. You can also reverse this so they do not have to finish in order. Forecast Pick two dogs to finish in a specific order. Other bets were things like betting on which dogs were going to win several races and you got quite a lot of money for those if you win although it would be pretty hard to win. Bets in Perry Barr can be made at the special betting booths around the ground or if you are eating in the restaurant people walk around so you can make your bet at the table and not have to get up every ten minutes. - Food: We ate in the restaurant and the food was lovely. They were three course meals with an extremely generous choice of meals available. For the starters the favourites were king prawns with sweet chilli sauce, melon and soup. When they came they were very

This place was a great experience going there in the winter period. You get to watch the dogs race…read moreat blistering speed doing 2 laps around a large circuit, it was quite literally impossible to get a snapshot of them when they were racing. You can either go outside and get a closer feeling when the dogs are doing their job or you can be upstairs in the restaurant watching them from their large windows. There is a cafeteria downstairs aswell and i have to say they do one of the best chips i have tasted.

I've spent many an evening down at this place. Either for works related kickabouts, or, more…read moreusually, after receiving a desperate phone call from a friend who is a player short and when kick off is fast approaching. "Can you get here in 20 minutes?"...sometimes I'll agree to a hectic half hour in the rain at 10pm on a Tuesday. Sometimes I can't be bothered and make up an excuse. There are several pitches on site and each is an enclosed, netted area with a decent surface - not the harsh and burning astroturf that I grew up with, but an all together more modern, forgiving surface. The pitches are wide and short, which takes a bit of getting used to, but the emphasis is on passing and movement in this form of the game, so this short/wide configuration discourages aimless punting (most of the time). There are decent changing facilities with lockers and showers and a very decent bar area for a few post-game drinks. It's often the case that you'll be dragged to Power League for a game and then, high on your stellar performance in an 8-8 draw, you'll find yourself moaning about how rubbish the highly paid professional on the big screen are as you stay for another round.

A great destination for a group of mates, just looking to have a kick-about, whether it be in the…read morepouring rain or the baking sun, Power League offers a great venue to do so. Ever since I can remember, my friends and I have travelled down to Power League for a days football, whether it be rain or shine. The establishment offers several decently sized pitches, that can easily host a 5 a-side if not 6 a-side game. It always offers the chance, especially during the holidays, the opportunity to 'challenge' other teams playing there, in what can often be a harmless bit of fun, or sometimes a competitive mess. Either way, Power League is great for a organised kick-about with friends, allowing you to play on a good surface in secure surroundings, as opposed to a rough park or one of your friends gardens.

A decent multi purpose stadium. Maybe lacks a bit of a football feel compared to Etihad or Anfield.read more

As Peter Gabriel once sang, "Ricoh... Ricoh, Ricoh, Ricoh." Steven Ricoh, a South African…read moreanti-apartheid hero, a teacher who was brutally murdered by the police. Racism is one of the most f***ed up concepts on the planet, so if you have racial prejudices, trust me, if you ever trust me about one thing, trust me on this, get the f*** over them. We are all the same. You are wrong. Thanks. Speaking of wrong, it's wrong to put this stadium where it's hard to get to, and to put the prices so damn high, and for that reason I have to give it a 4 instead of a 5. First-Hand Experience: More info about my personal experience at this stadium - I couldn't believe how much I had to pay for a ticket. Is this the Premier League? I think not. I paid more here than I paid even at a Fulham game... a home Premier League game in London! I'm not sure why this is the case and believe me it's the only reason it scores a 4 instead of 5. Because this is an absolutely remarkable stadium. State of the art, beautiful, magnificent, with intense and loud support from the rabid Coventry fans. I love it. It's a great place to watch concerts too. It's twice the stadium Highfield Road was. But as long as the prices are this high, I can't give them more than 4. The last game I saw here was 2011, and I'm hoping to go back to another one in 2016... if I can afford it. It reminds me of Manchester City's stadium, believe it or not. I've been inside both - lucky boy. I've been to most UK & US stadiums, due to lifelong obsessions with travel, sport & especially footy (soccer to Americans). Born & raised in England, I followed Oxford United (hometown team) to stadia all over the country at away games, and later Liverpool (fave team) around. Every stadium review - like all my reviews - are from first-hand personal experience, usually from several visits. In 2011, I was on music tour in the UK, and visited most stadiums for fun in my spare time. As recently as Fall 2014, when I was "stuck" in UK for 3 months, I went to hundreds yet again while travelling. I have pictures of me at most, which I'll post later. Also, when back in UK I'll take more pix, and add more stadia! *** return to regular review *** But I still love this place. It's capable of a great atmosphere (the team will need to get back to the Prem for that, they're 2 tiers down), it's held rock concerts like the awesome Bon Jovi an the awful Nickelback and someday hopefully me, and it's a cute sky blue like the team. It looks great inside and out like my gf. It was part of the Olympics and can hold a whopping 32k fans which is fantastic for a new stadium. It cost a whopping 113 million which is crazy. Because the stadium is owned by ACL I'll keep it at 4 stars, they're really mean to the club itself. It's an AMAZING stadium, but CCFC need to own it in order for this to work properly.