Diamond_Jim

I assume the club has a back up plan as I can only see this plan working if there are massive compromises. The days of building ovals in CBD parklands are pretty well gone. Assuming this doesn't fly what do people think of other venues. Would the Port oval with some form of sharing with Port be a possibility. It's centrally located and there is office space potential nearby. Don't know but I suspect the VFL clubs train late in the day as the players have work commitment so there would be no clash. Not sure if it is used for cricket.

It's 6:15 and just getting myself together to head for the stadium for the 9pm Poland v Colombia clash. It has been a very hot day here and the temperature is still around 31 and shows little sign of decreasing. The Colombian fans are here in force.My son verily informs me from his many late night bar outings that there are lots of Colombians at the university here. Vuvuzelas galore I suspect The Polish border is a long way from Kazan so I am not sure how many Poles will turn up. As well as the usual items that are banned from the stadiums they also clearly list selfie sticks and vuvuzelas as banned items. I was silly enough to think that no one would break the rules in a society that is so absolutely rule driven as Russia (they are like Singapore and pedestrians wait for lights). Not to be and I will have my ear plugs ready if it becomes unbearable. Not many round 2matches to go now and the various possibilities are in many instances clearer. We have Germany v South Korea next match which will be like that day at the Whitten Oval back in '87 for the German fans.

As Korea bows out this evening along with the already departed Iran and Saudi Arabia (and probably Japan to join soon) one wonders whether Ange was right or is simply getting here a result in itself. In soccer terms there is nothing wrong with being mid table as the money etc is well stacked in the various leagues in favour of the powerful and wealthy few. Not so sure the Australian ethos will accept it going forward. Have an English friend who supports Manchester City. Will not accept that like others they have purchased their way to somewhere near the top.

The last Australian game is played in Sochi..the site of the Winter Olympics. The city is on the Black Sea and is a major tourist resort. Predicted weather for kickoff is 30 degrees. Bad luck we are not playing one of the European teams as I suspect the Peru team is used to the warm. Could however be a tough day at the office. Nearly 30 degrees here in Kazan and boy is the sun warm. Had Russian dumplings for lunch...they are called khinkalis and if well made are absolutely delicious. Also had my first borscht... very good ?

he would have perhaps given us more than Juric in those last ten minutes... who is almost Pedersenesque.... great at VFL but in the big league .. doesn't quite have it Mclaren perhaps ?

My Kingdom for a Striker !!!

Always thought Yarra Park was controlled by Melbourne City Council. I remember several years back there was a stoush between the Council and the MCG over the food vans outside the ground.They are on Council land and the MCG doesn't get a take on the licence fees etc for the food vans.

Iran V Span was our match last night. Cannot say I loved it...there were the Iranian tactics and then there was the noise. Having airhorns going off constantly (and I mean constantly) together with people leaping to their feet at the slightest touch by Iran didn't make for the ideal viewing experience. And what is it about people and phone cameras... yeah take a few as I do but a few hundred. Perhaps there is truth in the sayng that "It never happened unless they have a photo and it's on facebook !!" Enough of my rant...today is our big match from an Australian perspective. It's 3pm local Russian time and the weather today is very pleasant. Go the Socceroos

One of the things that needs to be done is for all the stadium deals to be made public. All of the stadiums are built and maintained substantially on taxpayer money. There is no real need to keep them secret as their is no natural competitor that could make use of the information such as might be the case for the Australian Open and the tennis centre. The deal offered to clubs should be identical and I have no objection to clubs getting bigger revenue if their crowds are higher. At Docklands they really need to do something to resolve the Medallion club impasse. Absolutely ridiculous for the best seats to be left empty for so many matches.

Just saw the news report that SBS will show all the remaining group games live and that the Optus streaming service for the remaining games will be free. Plus a refund for anyone who paid. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/20/optus-world-cup-sbs-to-broadcast-all-group-stage-games Hopefully they get it right by the next WC as this is the future. In Russia the local network streams all the games as well as showing them on TV. Our apartment has an internet speed of 70 down and 80 up which makes for a reasonable product but it does have the occasional freeze frame. Must try the optus stream later as the Russian commentary is not that helpful. Mind you the half time shows are definitely different !!

I'm starting to like the Alice game but the 7k capacity together with hotel and flight limits doesn't bode well for a long term strategy. The only saver would be some serious national TV coverage. Not sure how to do it but perhaps we could play the highest ranking interstate team from the previous year and thus make it into a must see match. Ticketing would be balloted etc and it would become a"hot" event.

The Blue Samurai win their first ever World Cup game in Europe. It will be a wild old night in Saransk. Our match in Kazan this Sunday is Poland V Colombia .... another crunch match perhaps

the business case for the Council would presumably run along the lines that with reduced car park revenue the Council will need to replace that money in order to maintain the park etc etc. So we would rent the oval for an agreed amount. The development over the rail lines will stand or fall in the first instance as to whether trains need to be re-scheduled for building works. Then there is the acquisition cost issue that the Government will need to subsidize or forego.Finally there is the additional build cost by such a site. A bridge too far or a a mountain too tall spring to mind but let's see.

One has to try but it's not a good time to be asking. Look at the complaints State governments are getting regarding stadium developments in Melbourne and Sydney. To make these schemes work you need to take a complex that has a cost to Council and say we will maintain it in return for using it for x hours and then it is public space for the remainder. Yarra Park doesn't meet the criteria. Gosch's paddock on the other does albeit that it is not a great site. Another example is the Magpies with the old greyhound track.

In your dreams... The annexation of public parkland (sure we call it a car park) for an elite sporting code... Even over in Royal Park there was enormous pushback to the hospital expansion. Good ambit claim

Not sure if I have mentioned my two flights on Aeroflot. Athens to Moscow and Moscow to Kazan. Great full service airline but what is the standout are the flight attendants. Think Pan Am outfits of the sixties complete with white gloves and hat plus stilettos to complete the uniform !!

Korea.. another victim of VAR... ok the penalty was arguably there. what I couldn't understand is that I thought they kept playing until the next break of play. Korea were streaming forward and then the ref stops play. Not sure I thrill to this system when it comes to making decisions on penalties

We have tickets for the Germany v Korea game in Kazan. As the last of the group matches I was concerned that it would be a dead rubber. For Germany it's now looking like a must win game !!

While the game against France was great the atmosphere around the stadium and at the Fan Fest was relatively forced in my opinion. First the Fan Fest: I went to watch the opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia.It was early evening and while cool it wasn't cold. Arrived 30 minutes before kick off and it was lucky to be a quarter full. It was in a park area but the grass had been covered by woodchips. There were very few seats and they were mainly at the food venues and thus a fair way from the two big screens. When Putin came on to make his opening speech there were a couple of claps but at the end of his speech there was a gentle roar. Considering the Russians won the match 5-0 they should have been delerious but in truth they were medium level only. Very few drinking or eating. At the match itself we arrived 2 hours early because there had been stories of long queues.In fact while security was tight and you go through a security check and then two ticketing checks it was relatively pain free.(For the next match we will plan to get there around 45 mins before kick off.) The stadium is great but its big surrounding concourse is concrete and the waiting crowd simply got lost in the space. They had good wandering entertainers but there was simply no buzz. Emptying the stadium took much longer than it does in Melbourne.It seemed that the exit to seat ratio was low and then there were few general exits. Parts of the stadium had been cordoned off for VIP's which also seemed to limit the natural flow. With Fifa controlling the food and beverage rights they were rather non descript. Fancy having Budweiser beer as the only beer at a Russian football stadium. What would we say if Bud bought the tap rights for the MCG. Don't get me wrong the game made up for everything but it just goes to show that atmosphere cannot be artificially generated. By the way the fan fest sits right on the river but they have put up big fences so you cannot see it.

Starting to really warm up here on the border of Asia and Europe with temps in the high twenties and even 30 degrees for Saturday. Because the sun is up so early you hit and maintain the peaks relatively early in the day. Not sure why but the temperature predicted for the socceroos afternoon match in Samara which is south of Kazan is only 19 compared to 24 here for Kazan. Samara is 500kms south of Kazan so one would naturally expect it to be warmer. Getting from Kazan to Samara has proved very difficult for most fans with the easiest being flying to Moscow and then to Samara. A great pity that one can't take a river cruise down the Volga between the two cities. I am starting to realise that the average Russian is not that well off and what we think of as reasonable prices are as a percentage of an average Russian workers wage quite high. Believe it or not chicken at the supermarket here is only $2 a kilo as compared to $4 plus in Australia. My host works in real estate but I don't think he a high flyer by any means. There is certainly a feeling that the wealth is limited to a few.

Interested to hear your experiences with the Optus streaming product. Have seen a few articles in the media saying it has some problems. Anybody getting good coverage on ADSL and how is it when you play it on a big screen .. say 70 inches. Must say at $15 you cannot complain about the price if the product is good. The TV here in my Kazan apartment is a 17inch cathode tube model which doesn't make for optimum viewing. Will head out to watch the bigger games. Our remaining games in Kazan all start at 9pm local time which will make for late nights ?

Welcome PT.... it's great to see another face on the board. Peru v Denmark... what can one say... Peru should/could have won 3-1 but they lost 1-0. Socceroos v Denmark..the game of our tournament ? Beat Denmark and who knows !!

The VAR was like a kick in the guts... At the ground you see the ref wave play on... you sigh with relief and then a minute later when the ball goes over the line for a regulation out all hell breaks loose. You see nothing on the screen until maybe 3-5 minutes later. Some rough justice with the hand ball call. We had great seats .. 10 rows from the fence (just right for seeing over the dugouts) and on about the 25 metre line. Without any running track or the like the view was fantastic. I'll post a little more about atmosphere another day. It was different perhaps from what I had expected.

It was enormous ..at least three times the French support. We had at least 10k of the 40k crowd and the Russians who made up about half the crowd were mainly behind the socceroos. A point would have been so good for the Aussies. The clock moved so slowly from that 75 minute mark. Not sure if it is the same at A league but the scoreboard does not count down the injury time so I was doing a lot of watch checking during that 5 minutes of injury time.

Fantastic atmosphere at the stadium... great game. France full of individual brilliance but we played as the better team perhaps. We have avoided the opening round thrashing of the last two world cups... all in front of us now. Interested to hear from you experts as to whether you think we played differently today than we might have under Ange. Today was not the time for Tim C in my opinion.We simply didn't have enough of the supply he needs. My son is hoping for an Argentine draw with Iceland as that way the round of 16 match we are scheduled to watch could be France v Argentina. That Spain V Portugal draw has pretty well done for the other teams in that group bar some big upsets. Cheers and great to interact.