Tag Archives: B’ham

Will World Cup Soccer return to Birmingham?

Soccer ball. thebuffafamily/FlickrLost in the talk about the City Council approving an extra $250,000 for this year’s City Stages (bringing the total amount to $550,000) was the announcement by Mayor Langford that Birmingham, AL would be submitting a proposal to be one of the facilities that could be used for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Now, to put this in perspective, there are 37 potential host cities (with 45 facilities total) across the United States being asked to submit for a chance to hose the soccer matches. The hope is to have the final list ready by the end of the year, allowing them to be included in the bid book, due in May 2010.

If successful, it would be the first time Birmingham sees World Cup action since the 2005 qualifying match between the U.S. and Guatemala at Legion Field. The U.S. is competing against several countries for the honor, including the United Kingdom, meaning that our sister city across the pond wants in on it too.

Photo: Soccer ball. thebuffafamily/Flickr

UPDATE: The Lego Store’s coming to The Galleria

legocolours

UPDATE: 7.14.2009The Birmingham News has now reported the story and has additional information.

Yes, it’s true – no longer do you have to travel down to Orlando to get your Lego fix. you won’t have to drive all the way to Charlotte either (since they’re getting one too). You’ll just have to go down the road to Hoover and the Riverchase Galleria…

Metro Birmingham is one of twelve U.S. locations announced for the building block’s stand alone stores to be opened in the near future. The store’s site is already up, allowing folks interested in specifics to keep track of the store’s progress. Now, if we can only score some Lego sets based on Birmingham landmarks, similar to the Frank Lloyd Wright series (or a relaunch of the Zack commercials)…

Photo: Lego bricks. Courtesy of The Lego Group.

Pay cuts, part-time layoffs at The News

News buildingsWe’re joining Birmingham Weekly in reporting that The Birmingham News has made an additional 7% average reduction in salaries for its full-time employees. They also announced the closure of all suburban news bureaus by September and layoffs of some part-time employees, though there are no additional furloughs expected for now.

We also learned that employees at The Anniston Star and its subsidiairies found out that they would also be experiencing a 10% reduction in salary, just days after launching its new website. 

Ike Pigott broke both stories via Twitter earlier this afternoon.

Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo

Earth Day plans?

BTW – how about letting us know what your plans are for Earth Day over on Magic City Question?

Just wondering…

Blogging in the ‘Ham: A great resource for “Mom”

Birminghammom.com screenshot

Screenshot from Birminghammom.com

Searching around the web to see what we haven’t seen about Birmingham always brings some interesting results. The most recent discovery was that of a blog started to help make life easier for area moms. Birminghammom.com started last October as what has become a resource for area families to spend more time together. I’d try to do a better job describing it, but I will leave that to the original Birmingham Mom herself.

Looks like we got two right…

City Stages formally announced part of their 2008 lineup via The Birmingham News as a front page article in Sunday’s (today’s) paper. This list includes a couple of big names – like Diana Ross and The Flaming Lips.

Looks like we were correct in identifying two of this year’s acts , The Roots (March 18) and Old Crow Medicine Show (yesterday). The News was able to figure out a couple of them as well (and a lot earlier than we were – see the Old Crow post to find links to those posts).

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McCain stumps in downtown Birmingham

McCain in Birmingham 2.2008

Bob Farley/f8photo

More than 800 people showed up for Sen. John McCain’s appearance at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Birmingham on Saturday afternoon. He was introduced by his wife and U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus.

After speaking for about 30 minutes, he greeted his supporters before addressing the media directly in a series of one on-ones.

Click on the image above to view more from the event.