Don Valley Stadium Deomlition

Just wandering on what peoples thoughts on this are? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-25005073

I’m in the “seems like a shame but I never actually used it” camp.

Athletics isn’t a great spectator sport. Finals night at a high quality event, maybe, but the rest of the time, no. Sheffield paid heavily for the vanity project that was the World Student Games. You could argue that Jess Ennis should have stumped up 1/4 of her sponsorship money to keep it going, but that’s not a long term solution. Running circles in the rain isn’t what most people who want to keep fit want to do. I don’t know the ins and outs of it, but with the University provision, the English Institute of Sport all in town, Sheffield isn’t badly provided for, maybe the Universities should have been more involved from the start and saved on duplication elsewhere.

Def Leppard baby!

I remember going to see a few Sheffield Eagles v Salford fixtures ages ago there.

My memory of it as an away fan was that it was a soulless, vast and expensive empty box.

It’s sad, a real shame and a hell of a waste, but I think it’s the right decision. I doubt anyone making that decision at Sheffield Council is delighted about it.

Local government has been crapped on from a great height funding-wise by the delightful Mr Pickles, with northern, metropolitan ones being disproportionately hit (accepting that the underlying reasons for the systemic constraints might be Gordon Brown’s fault). I’d rather they got rid of things that are, lets face it, luxuries, than cut more needed services for the vulnerable and needy. There are simply more important things for the council to spend money on than expensive, little used athletic stadia.

Longer term, the problem is going to be that councils will have made the “easy” cuts during the life of this parliament, so when there’s further cuts to make after 2015, which seems almost a certainty now, it will be a lot harder to achieve without doing things that will really impact on essential services. When that happens, thoughts of protecting “nice to have” things like world class athletic facilities really won’t seem like an important subject.

Sheffield city council are also planning to close my local library to save cash. I was quite irate about this as my kids use it all the time so when I got the “Save the Library” flier through the door I read with interest.

However my support soon wavered when one of the objections was that although the council couldn’t afford the librarys they were spending £900,000k on the Tour de France.

I mean, do these people not see how important cycling is! Librbary saving cretins! 🙂