Iv'e got an official tottenham hard hat and hi viz from a mate that you could borrow if you want a wander round the site
So, yesterday saw the parliamentary debate on safe standing on football. Here is an article from football.london detailing what the idiots had to say... https://www.football.london/premier-league/safe-standing-debate-parliament-result-14825804 It proves 3 things... There's no chance of this happening in the next 10 years; There's no chance of this happening in the 10 years after that; There's no chance of this happening.
To the surprise of nobody, typing Hillsborough into the search function gets fourteen results - and equally unsurprising, it's what people opposed to safe standing shriek at the top of their lungs because they're maintaining it was standing that caused the disaster, as opposed to police incompetence, unsafe stadium design, and The FA not being bothered with the safety of spectators (although that third part always gets overlooked)
I really loved the MP who thought the best people to speak to about the safety of standing at football were the loony brigade from 'Spirit of Shankly'. Not Celtic FC, Bundesliga clubs, a stadium designer like Populous, stadium safety body the Football Licensing Agency or anyone like that. Oh no. The whole thing's a complete travesty. Only Hilary Benn had anything useful to say. People stand at football already. Currently it's ****ing dangerous when they do. Pretending that the current situation is safer than the suggested alternative is what's really dangerous.
Until society is mature enough to understand and separate the legal aspects (negligence, lies) from the physical aspects (caged terraces, stadium capacity wilfully exceeded) of Hillsborough, then you are unlikely to see significant standing sections in major stadia.
Nice for supporters of a peer club to comment without their non-tribal hats on. Everton have a few years to finalise a design for their new stadium before construction work proper starts, so hopefully they will use the time wisely.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/footb...stadium-gaffe/ HIT THE ROOF Tottenham’s new stadium: Around 15,000 seats set to be ripped out of new ground after building blunder FAULTY seats fitted at the £1billion new Spurs stadium are being ripped out in the latest setback for the Prem club. Up to 15,000 padded seats already installed were not fitted with a pigment to make them durable in bad weather. Bungling workers were meant to add the pigment to navy blue dye used to coat the seats in the North London club’s colours. Without the special formula, they will fall apart within months and fade to light blue after being exposed to the elements. Humiliated staff at plastic injection moulding firm Certwood only noticed the mistake days ago. And Spurs’ management “hit the roof” after being told the seats already in the stadium – up to 25 per cent of the eventual 62,062 capacity - must be torn out. The club has already had to switch next season’s Premier League fixtures, starting with a series of away games and a home fixture at Wembley Stadium. The first match at the new, as yet unnamed arena, will be against Liverpool in mid-September. Spurs chiefs were adamant last night that the latest set-back will not disrupt test events ahead of opening. But one insider at the stadium said: “There has been blood on the walls over this. It is very embarrassing. “It isn’t Tottenham’s fault, but it looks very bad. “The contractor was very sheepish about their blunder and will be working around the clock to ensure there are no further time delays. "The fault was with the back of the seat and the padding. They were not fit for purpose." There are three test events scheduled at the stadium - the first in early August - to ensure it meets stringent health and safety standards. A source said the contract to make and fit the seats in the new stadium was worth more than £10million – and replacing up to 15,000 seats would cost Certwood a “fortune”. A Tottenham Hotspur spokesman told The Sun: “All seats affected are being swiftly replaced and it will not have any impact on the scheduling of our operational test events that are due to commence at the start of August or our first home fixture in our new stadium against Liverpool.” Luton-based Certwood said the problem related to the production of a component part used in the seat. A spokeswoman said: “In trying to deliver the very best product for THFC a phenomenon called ‘heat stress’ occurred in the process. “Stress marking became evident within days of leaving our plant as a localised lighter patch on the affected part. They were subsequently recalled having already left our plant. “The problem was identified internally. THFC have been provided with replacements and there are no delays in the delivery, build or opening of the new stadium resulting from this. “Manufacturing is a demanding business and never without issues that can occur from time to time, we pride ourselves in supporting all of our customers and promptly addressing any issues that may arise. “The faulty parts will be re-cycled into other, non-cosmetic moulded components that we produce.”
Headline naturally different to the reality.... "The problem was identified internally. THFC have been provided with replacements and there are no delays in the delivery, build or opening of the new stadium resulting from this." So much for the 'latest setback' narrative
The article's bollocks from start to finish. Padded seats, such as these, are not in the GA areas, but in premium seating only. There are only 8,500 premium seats in the stadium to start with, so 15,000 is just a made up figure. On Skyscraper City, nobody's seen any seats being 'ripped out' at all and those guys miss NOTHING. The seats take zero time to fit with the rail design Spurs have gone for, so any replacement will be paid for by the supplier and be done in no time, so will have no impact at all on meeting time lines. Very poor hacking ramped up well beyond its worth.
Says a lot he couldn't even get 200 words out of it, so stumbled off into the usual BankruptcyBeforeGlory waffle and slagging off Alassane Plea...while exposing the fact he hasn't actually bothered looking into who Plea is, even though it took me a couple of minutes to do that when his name first popped up.
Now seems to be a lot of comments on the Group H games, and does he understand what "market rate" actually means.
My prediction for his next blog: how it's shameful the spine of our team is made up of a youth teamer, somebody bought on the cheap from a League One team, and a Sporting Lisbon reserve player bought for peanuts...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44658769 The Beeb are going with an estimated cost of 750m. Typo ??
Those on Skyscraper City who have knowledge of such things, reckon it's a lot less than that [maybe £500 - 600m]and that the club ramped up the build cost very significantly to garner support from the local authority in relation to minimising the amount of affordable housing on their proposed residential developments. At the end of last year, we borrowed £400m to complete the build and there's been no sign of any additional borrowing for the supposed growth in costs since. That was a replacement on an existing loan of £100m and £300m additional borrowing. Taking into account how far the works had got when we needed the additional borrowing and what was still outstanding, it seems very unlikely that we'd borrow with a massive shortfall, given that we're only missing the completion date by a matter of weeks on a 3 year build. These additional costs must relate to some unforeseen costs and there's no sign of that kind of problem. If you consider the significant wage rises on offer - pretty much double offered to Toby and the same to Harry Kane and Dele and Christian Eriksen, then the idea that we're massively over budget seems unlikely. If we have a net spend this summer, then all the gutter press guesses can be completely discounted and we won't be anywhere near the suggested figures.