I live in Cardiff and we’re about to be ‘treated’ to having the whole of the city centre effectively closed off for 4 days so that two teams can play a game for 90 minutes!! WHY!?!

It’s incredible the amount of effort is going into putting this on. All the manhole covers within 2 miles of the stadium have been tar-sealed, there’s a security fence and barriers blocking off loads of major roads (more than they used when NATO was in town 😯 ), all deliveries are going to be blocked from the city centre shops for 3 whole days, you’ll only be allowed into the area within a mile of the stadium if you have a ticket for either the match or the fanzone, three major car parks will be inaccessible by even the fans travelling to the game and there seems to be about a million Police around!!

They’re basically creating a no-go zone for non-fans for a whole weekend! What makes it worse is that this is only for the men’s final! The women’s is being played before the security measures come into force and no more fuss is being made than when Cardiff City play.

When a big 6 Nations match happens, Wales v England for example, they close the immediate streets round the stadium for an hour before and 2 hours after the match. No big problem as it’s usually in the evening so minimal disruption. For this match they’re effectively cutting the city in half, from the centre down to the Bay area, so that overpaid primadonnas can kick a ball around a bit.

I know security is high currently after Manchester but this was all planned before that happened, there have been flyers delivered to homes detailing the plans for the last few weeks. It is going to cause absolute chaos for residents, workers and visitors.

Thankfully I’ve planned ahead and am going to the IOW for the weekend to ride and camp in peace, I feel really sorry for my neighbours who are staying.

Hate football 👿

Chill. Fancy a kickabout?

I’m in.
Bagsy not goalie.
🙂

Boo. someone likes something I don’t. How dare people have fun that doesn’t meet my standards!

I lived in Cardiff while Wembley was being rebuilt. All the big domestic matches happened in Cardiff instead (fa cup, league play offs, etc). Was great. Good lively atmosphere and nice to have those big events on. Would love something like that where I live now but that is very unlikely despite being the European city of sport 2017.

Because football fans cause a lot more trouble than rugby one

Boo. someone likes something I don’t. How dare people have fun that doesn’t meet my standards

Totally missing the point, answering a statement that was never made and being a twunt to boot. Top effort, 10/10

Chill. Fancy a kickabout?

Usually, yes! Playing 5-a-side is fun between mates but watching isn’t my cup of tea.

Boo. someone likes something I don’t. How dare people have fun that doesn’t meet my standards!

Always happy for people to enjoy themselves, watching football included. But the size of the closures etc just seems massively out of proportion! Normal life will have to grind to a halt for 4 DAYS to cater for 90 mins of a sport being played inside a secure building.

Because football fans read the sun and vote where Murdoch tells them?

I think you’ll find the security services are nailing things down because of either intelligence/threat/just doing thier job as is now the norm.

Ya May (cough) as well get used to it.

I’m assuming cities voluntarily put themselves forward for these big matches. You would hope someone somewhere has worked out it is worth the hassle in terms of revenue both short term and longer term (advertising the city for future tourism). How much that goes to the big corporations and how much to the folk genuinely inconvenienced I’ve no idea. All seems too much faff and too much potential risk for my liking. In 5 years time no one will remember Cardiff for hosting it….unless it all goes tits up.

‘Yeah we could have prevented the bomb being planted, but would have to have inconveniced a few residents for a few days, so we thank those that sacrificed their lives to stop people having to go the long way to the shops’

Bold press conference…

Football matches have been terrorist targets and this is the highest profile match this year. Hope it goes off without any trouble and that the fans from Spain and Italy have an enjoyable, safe trip.

Some inconvenience in our daily lives is going to become more common if we want to maintain normal activities and events.

It’s arguably the biggest live televised event in the world after the World Cup final (can’t be bothered looking for stats 😀 ) so is a massive target from a terrorists point of view. I think it’s more to do with viewership than football specifically – if the tiddlywinks final had that many viewers some nut job would probably want to attack it and it would get the same level of security.

Less flippantly…

It’s the biggest club game in Europe, so any incident would have a massive effect/impact, and would possible be seen areound the world.
Fans go without tickets, to watch on a big screen outside, massive exposure to risk if nothing is done.

Plus fans getting in and out of the ground
He CL final is rotated so it probably won’t be back for 10 years. It’s only a few days….
Few days of inconvenience to prevent potentially 100s of deaths, ill take that…

specific intelligence would be my guess.

It’s a big event that’s enjoyed by loads of people around the world so not too fusssed about a couple of days disruption. The NATO conference, however, was absurd with the city turned into militarised zone so that a few dozen people could have a private buffet.

I live near a ground, its annoying. I can’t think of any other occasion where its socially acceptable for people to piss in your front garden. At least the clubs pay for all the extra policing now though.

you do know that it isn’t just any game, but the biggest game in football, outside of the world cup final?

It seems a bit over the top / odd – as others have said Manchester was a terrible reminder of what can happen, but the NATO ring of steel was planned and partially built pre-Manchester, there’s been no mention of changes post-Manchester.

We’re not unused to world class events in Cardiff, including Olympic events, FA Cup finals, Rugby World Cup matches and as milky said the last time we saw anything like this was for the NATO summit.

fitba, in particular the CL final, is quite simply bigger than these piddly events you mention. get used to it! 😆

I’ve designed a few overlay schemes for large football and sporting events, they are incredibly complicated and even more so on a congested inner city site such as Cardiff. The champions league final is probably the most complicated after the world cup final, I’m glad i had nothing to do with this one.

Security is obviously a major part that causes significant disruption and there will be an extended secure line (ticketed area) away from the stadium perimeter, within that outer secure zone there will also likely be 10k+ people in hospitality and sponsor areas, 1.5k media personnel including workrooms and huge amounts parking for outside broadcast trucks and satellite uplink, large backup power generation, staff and accreditation areas and so on. Although the millennium stadium has a large capacity it’s very compact so very few of these things will be within the stadium.

You would hope that the powers that be in Cardiff have done their sums and worked out that the exposure and additional spend within the city will more than make up for a few days of relatively minor disruption.

Yep big group of us meeting up to watch, something we’d only do for a world cup final (rugby or football), so huge spotlight event for Cardiff so hope all goes well.

I went to the CL final when it was at Hampden, was a superb event, and the entire city was buzzing. Zidane’s goal was also something special! 🙂

We are flying from Bristol to Zante tomorrow afternoon and just had a call from the forge accommodation where I’m parking to say get to them around 4 hours before the flight as the police may be closing the roads around the airport. The car park is in walking distance (ten minutes )
Bloody crazy if that’s true

Giving up football comes a close second to giving up fags as a life improving change.

Suppose they show so much on the TV to get the bungs and keep the halfwits happy.

I live near a ground, its annoying. I can’t think of any other occasion where its socially acceptable for people to piss in your front garden

Guess you have never been to the Notting Hill Carnival, or to any major event where people are drinking and have to walk through the streets…. There used to be a phone box outside of a bar we used to go to that someone took a dump behind every week.

The maddest bunch I’ve ever seen was picking the good lady up from a take that gig at hampden. Made an old firm crowd seem reserved.

Have to agree it seems a bit excessive, 4 days is a crazy amount of disruption to a major city for a couple of football matches (there’s a women’s one as well isn’t there…?). As someone else said I wouldn’t be surprised if there was specific intelligence that influenced size of the operation.

*dons UKIP HAT* itz not evin inglish teems *dons UKIP hat*

It’s pretty annoying, its nothing like the rugby internationals, it’s a full blown lock down. Police with big guns wandering round, bus services to the rest of the city curtailed.

At least the football organisation is giving 1.4million to the cost I’m sure that’ll pay for the whole thing… NAHT!

Sadly the same ****wits who complained about the velothon are staying quiet.

My office is between central train station and the stadium. As soon as I’m done today, I’m taking the bike, riding into the brecon beacons and staying there for the weekend!

The maddest bunch I’ve ever seen was picking the good lady up from a take that gig at hampden. Made an old firm crowd seem reserved.

I’ve got a mate who used to stay on the road between Newton train station and Hampden. He still talks about the utter carnage he witnessed when Take That played.

Including shooing away a bunch of drunken women with a broom who were trying to pee in his close!

Including shooing away a bunch of drunken women with a broom who were trying to pee in his close!

There were women pissing (I hope!) in pretty much every garden around hampden, the only place that was busier was the St Andrews ambulance tent, with the ones who had gone too far…

I find it hard to believe people can’t grasp that football is MASSIVE, financially, physically, emotionally, not just in the UK but worldwide, it’s HUGE as a participation sport, a spectator sport.

Anyway, Back to the OP – The answer to your question is that probably the biggest sporting event in the calendar is going on just a few days after one of the most sickening, needles and disgusting tragedies in recent history.

What’s hard to comprehend?.

just had a call from the forge accommodation where I’m parking

I’ve stayed there, it’s easier to walk to the airport than wait for the minibus to show up.

Suppose they show so much on the TV to get the bungs and keep the halfwits happy.

That makes me a halfwit then ? I have been to hundreds of matches, have a Liverpool FC tattoo on my arm and took my son to see both Liverpool and Reading this season…

Is he a halfwit too ? Or just me.

I live in Cardiff and we’re about to be ‘treated’ to having the whole of the city centre effectively closed off for 4 days so that two teams can play a game for 90 minutes!! WHY!?!

And we’ll be closing your streets for the Velothon next month. Enjoy!

That makes me a halfwit then ? I have been to hundreds of matches, have a Liverpool FC tattoo on my arm and took my son to see both Liverpool and Reading this season…

Is he a halfwit too ? Or just me.

Yes, but do you look around corners on a DH track? send a sentry ahead? That’s the real test… 😆

So that the OP can waste time moaning on the web about something that will have next to no impact on his life.

I’d rather you didn’t go to the Isle of Wight, clogging up the roads with your car/van, tearing up the ground with your bikes tyres and taking up parking spaces that the locals might want to use.

Hate cyclists.