Monday Moan 24

Olympic Stadium - Get on with it!

The Olympic Stadium was a wonderful venue.  80,000 spectators accommodated with ease, good sightlines for all, plenty of catering and toilet facilities, good access to the venue and to the area.

So what’s the delay over deciding what it should be used for in the future?  Interminable wrangles over whether it should be used for football and, if so, who is to pay for the ‘conversion’ work required, seem nonsensical to me.  There is no reason I can see for it to be used for football, especially if huge amounts of money have to be spent to make it ‘adequate’ for the task.  The stadium was fit to hold the Olympic Games and drew approval from everyone who used it.   Why does it need to be converted into anything else? 

 

According to David Bond, the BBC’s Sports Editor, some of the arguments currently being put forward include the following:-

‘Premier League Football is the only way of filling the stadium on a regular basis’ – well, no, that’s just an assertion.  There is a long list of other uses that could bring in huge crowds on a regular basis, from concerts to other sporting events.

‘The roof needs to be extended so that all the seats are covered’ – why? Have we all become so cossetted that we cannot now be expected to get a little wet on occasions?

‘Retractable seating needs to be installed so that fans can be nearer to the action’ – why?  Even if the stadium was to be used for football there is nothing inherently wrong with watching from a little further away, especially given the huge cost involved in installing such seating.

‘The toilets need to be refurbished’ – excuse me?  Were the toilets good enough for 80,000 spectators every day during the Olympics, but not up to standard for football fans?  Or maybe it is that the toilets were too good, too clean, too plentiful, and they need to be trashed a little before football fans would feel comfortable?

As far as I’m concerned the stadium is ready right now to be used for other events, subject only to the Olympic site being cleared of the other renovation work taking place. Stop this endless debating about its future, give it to a proper management company to run, let them offer themselves and the venue in the same way as happens with the O2 and Wembley.  Above all, keep football out, unless they choose to hire it in the same way as anybody else.

 

Nothing to do with us ……..

Do you ever read the small print, or the disclaimers attached to virtually all communications from corporates these days?  Thought not.  Nor do I make a habit of doing so, but I took the time to look at the disclaimer provided by E.ON when they emailed me recently to let me know their meter-reader would be calling round soon.

“This email has been sent by E.ON Energy Solutions Limited, while we have checked this e-mail and any attachments for viruses, we can not guarantee that they are virus-free. You must therefore take full responsibility for virus checking.”

 

OK, I accept that as a responsible internet user I ought to have some kind of virus protection.

“Internet communications are not always secure and therefore E.ON does not accept legal responsibility for this message. The recipient is responsible for verifying its authenticity before acting on the contents.”

This one is a bit harder to swallow.  E.ON accepts no responsibility for its own message and asks its customers to ‘verify its authenticity’.  So we are supposed to do what, call them to check that they really did send the email?

 

“Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of E.ON.”

 So this means that an official email from E.ON, which I have checked for viruses, the authenticity of which I have checked to my satisfaction, is then considered to contain the views of the author and not those of E.ON?  Come on E.ON, you have to take some responsibility here don’t you?  If it comes from you and is written either by one of your employee’s or, most likely in this case, is a standard communication generated automatically by your system, then I think I’m entitled to hold you responsible for what it says.

p.s. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily my own and it is the responsibility of the reader to verify their authenticity and to take steps to ensure that no damage is caused to their mental faculties as a result of having taken the time to read this message.

 

Give us a smile

The Moan has an editorial policy of not gloating about football results, so let’s be clear that the following piece is actually about ‘Honest’ Harry Redknapp and not his beloved Tottenham’s abysmal showing against Arsenal at the weekend.

A few weeks ago ‘Honest’ Harry was positively revelling in Arsenal’s predicament (as he saw it) after they had lost to Norwich, a team he cast (by implication) as the sort of no-hopers that the top teams should beat with their eyes closed.  Incidentally, I wonder whether pundits like ‘Honest’ Harry might care to revise their condescending attitude towards Norwich now that they have also beaten Manchester United?

Anyway, leaving that aside, it was hard to believe that the chirpy, wide-eyed ‘Honest’ Harry we saw that day was the same person who appeared this week on Match of the Day after Tottenham had, again, lost 5-2 to Arsenal.  This time his body language was rather different. He sat on his chair with his body turned slightly away from the other two pundits, with the most miserable of looks on his face that you could imagine.  Just like a sullen teenager who has been forced to accompany his parents on a visit to his relatives – he was not going to smile.  He was determined to be grumpy whatever they said, and although he was full of praise for Santi Cazorla he refused to join in anything that resembled praise for Arsenal, even insisting that Tottenham, would still finish above Arsenal and that they had a stronger squad.  Sat next to him was Vincent Kompany, captain of Manchester City, who was invited to agree with ‘Honest’ Harry’s assessment.  Instead, Kompany said that Arsenal were the best team Manchester City had played this year, he had nothing but good to say about them, and he wouldn’t be surprised to see them finish a lot higher than now – and above Tottenham. 

Of course, it is possible that Tottenham will finish higher than Arsenal, but the likelihood of this happening is about on a par with the proverbial pig being able to fly – it might happen but don’t bet on it.