United, Radio Sheffield and the WC

[shorehamview]

If grounds need building/up dating then let the industry that uses them fund it not the tax payer.

Exactly. Why the hell the country has had to pay a bean towards any major football building is beyond me. Wembley shouldn't have had a penny from the public purse, and nor should any other stadia. Perhaps the possible exception should be for any new stadia which will be owned by the bodies that paid for them, like the City of Manchester stadium still being owned by the council - City are just paying rent.

If Wendy want any money towards paying for their sty to be brought into the post-war era then they should have to pay every penny themselves - and the same goes for all the other clubs getting any improvements to their grounds.

Logically England could possibly stage a World Cup tomorrow, and if the bid had involved Wales and Scotland as well then there are plenty of grounds already in place - Wembley, Old Trafford, Millenium, Hampden, Ibrox, Celtic Park, St. James', Villa Park, Emirates, and possibly Twickenham would give ten grounds all perfectly capable of coping with big crowds. The only one that might need any work out of those is Twickenham, simply because it wasn't designed to host football matches and some segregation work might be needed. The only money needed in the main would be for "fanzones" so hordes of Dutch blokes in orange and fit Brazilian birds in not much can get pissed together, and they could be paid for by those who would gain most from it - breweries.

Wednesday and other clubs shouldn't get a penny in grants. Loans are another matter, and if the clubs struggle to pay them back and go bust then tough.

 

[Melbourne Blade]

Althought I tend to think there's a slight over reaction here, I am very angry deep inside that Hillsborough has been given a 'psychological' edge over BDTBL. Now as I'm sure everybody is aware, nobody gets owt, if, as expected England fail in the attempt to lure the world cup here in 2018....... and I think it won't be held here (I feel it in me waters).

However as somebody previously pointed out, England has AMPLE (F'kng ample!!!) stadium which are perfectly suited AS IS to host world cup games. This IS NOT the point - hosting a world cup held here is about the potential to invest in underdeveloped cities and /or stadium in the country, as per the east end of London for the Olympic games in 2012.

Ordinarily such scenarios rarely have 2 teams/stadium within such close proximity in the same city vying for pole position in these events. Ultimately, the prestige and potential lies at the 'city' level and not the stadia/club level. Which is where the Sheffield controversy begins.

The above puts me firmly on the fence, however, the UNIQUE aspect of the Bramall Lane vs Hillsborough bids is fairly controversial purely on the funding side in my opinion. Had both stadia vied for public funding then yes, it was down to a one on one battle; the winners of which potentially receiving a fair amount of investment and the the subsequent developments and reputation of being a world cup city. However the ongoing investment in and around Bramall Lane, all of which are self funded, drastically undermines the FA's decision in my opinion. Hillsborough obviously needs investment, however, by choosing it as a potential world cup stadium and thus receiving grants/funding to redevelop is extremely unfair to us, the 'other' stadium within the city of Sheffield.

Selfishly I'd now wish for Sheffield to be overlooked as a WC city to be honest............. give it to a city with only a single club to avoid this controversy.

 

[grafikhaus]

Now I've had some time to reflect on the Zimbabwe-esque bias in selecting Hillsborough over BDTBL (I don't think many pig fans would have been up in arms in the decision had gone to us - better ground, location, area, history, Devonshire Green/Quarter for fans zone which has already hosted big-screen events etc. etc.), I'd like to say the following:

Firstly, WTF is TAMUS who is thanking every single poster on this thread?

Secondly, despite the obvious corruption going on with this decision, we've got to be careful not to portray ourselves as the biggest whingers in football. Samuels would lap it up.

Thirdly, this process is years off and, hopefully the pigs will have gone bust by then.

Fourthly, after all the lies about 'imminent investment', a let down on this - which is highly likely - would be a serious pisser for them.

Lastly, we need to plan a coordinated protest re. any public funding going into Wendys re-building.

On a slightly different note, it's always pissed me off that the Blades have to pay their own way when shitty clubs such as Bolton, Wigan etc. get ready-made grounds bought for them. No wonder they can buy and pay top players. And on that note, isn't it hilarious that Leicester are joining in the grumbling. Yes, that Leicester who had a ground paid for and who, shamefully 'went bust' a few years ago, only to re-emerge stronger. Same with Watford. They're being threatened with a 10-point deduction (big deal) for going into administration. Something, I'm sure, that hasn't escaped the attention of Strapon.

 

[GRUMPY BLADE]

And why are we [tax payers] spending millions on an Olympic stadium and not using for the WC?

Don't say it's because it's an athletic stadium, so was Man City.

 

[GlosBlade]

.... Yes, that Leicester who had a ground paid for and who, shamefully 'went bust' a few years ago, only to re-emerge stronger. Same with Watford. They're being threatened with a 10-point deduction (big deal) for going into administration. Something, I'm sure, that hasn't escaped the attention of Strapon.

The Pigs are starting to look doomed this season, presume if they went into admin fairly quickly (ie the next couple of months and well before its mathematically certain that they will be relegated ) they would get the minus 10 this season wouldn't they ? Hopefully its not as simple as that otherwise Strapon would be a mug not to do it !

 

[lenners]

The WC bidders and Sheffield's own bid team could potentially be in for an interesting time if the worst happened to SWFC.
Is it feasible for the English FA to advance a bid where one of the clubs is unable to guarantee funding? Should Sheffield's own bid team make representations that BL should be put on standby?
All decisions that could have been avoided if they'd only picked Sheffield as a city at this stage.
As it happens, I don't think Wednesday will go down but if they did, is it feasible for them as a club to commit to the kind of spending that would be needed?

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

The Pigs are starting to look doomed this season, presume if they went into admin fairly quickly (ie the next couple of months and well before its mathematically certain that they will be relegated ) they would get the minus 10 this season wouldn't they ? Hopefully its not as simple as that otherwise Strapon would be a mug not to do it !

I think it would depend on how many point they end up on. If they went into Administrator while in the bottom 3 and then went down by 20-30 points they would probably get it next season. I certainly would hope so.

One other question if they go into Admin do all their players become available at sensible (i.e. lower) rates? Grant and/or Tudders could be good cheap buys.
Could we also do a job with Beavers, turn him around to looking like a quality centre half again?

 

[beechblade]

I think it would depend on how many point they end up on. If they went into Administrator while in the bottom 3 and then went down by 20-30 points they would probably get it next season. I certainly would hope so.

One other question if they go into Admin do all their players become available at sensible (i.e. lower) rates? Grant and/or Tudders could be good cheap buys.
Could we also do a job with Beavers, turn him around to looking like a quality centre half again?

I imagine they'd go for cheaper, the adminstrators would be wanting to grab as much cash as quickly as possible a suppose. Here's hoping it happens in a few week just in time for some cheap buys in Jan,

 

[boo radley]

As pointed out before the host cities if chosen have to be wittled down to eight i think.
What an easy way to get cities to drop out by choosing ones that may not be able to conform to the requirements.

 

[Blade]

surprised to see more than one poster suggesting we scavenge round those dirty fuckers again. To be honest I wouldn't hire any of their squad even at £90 a week cleaning the toilets with their tongue, there really is nothing left there. Tudgay is there best player and I the only player I'd consider swapping him for up front would be Cresswell - he's not as good as many people think and will get you 5 - 15 goals a year at the very most - we should be looking at better or at least bringing sharp back into the fold ahead of signing him.

I've stayed away from the topic since the decision was announced mainly because I don't have too much information from the bids themselves other than basic detail and design drawings/videos but I must say it puzzles me how we can have spent so much longer on the plans. put together a proposal that sounds like it's mostly if not all self financed, recent history shows we're more in need of a larger ground than they are, they're by no means a good bet to even be around in 2018, the flooding damage showing the potential for problems however slight and the fact that Strafford so far is clearly failing like a floundering fucker. Given the promises that he has broken to fans already, the fracas caused as he left his last job, his fag packet business plan and failings to get anywhere near predicted targets up to now I'm disappointed that the decision went their way.

Having said that if they hadn't gone for this and we'd been beaten off by Nottingham, Birmingham, Derby etc then I wouldn't really be bothered. It's mainly the fact that their 20 minute bolted together application has beaten one we seem to have spent a lot of time and money on, added to the fact that out of any chairman I can think of in football at the moment you would put money on McCabe knowing what he's doing in terms of the work that will need to be done.

Under McCabe there can be no doubt that BDTBL has come on leaps and bounds and that's always been just the start in a longer term strategy, you can look at his time here and see genuine tangible evidence that we'r capable of making sure the ground is good enough to host a WC game, across the city however the much discussed work to improve their ground has resulted in a few lads turning up to paint the ground and going home again, giving away free pies but not being able to organise anyone to give out the free pie vouchers and putting up two tv's in the concourse, one of which wasn't even tested before it's unveiling and didn't work and both of which are are smaller than most tv's people have in their living room nowadays.

My longwinding way of saying it's all bollocks.