Diamond_Jim

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.

After the two relatively dour early games the Spain v Portugal match was one for the ages. The goal by the lone Spanish player against two defenders and the keeper was astounding. Blue skies and sun here in Kazan with a match commencement temp of around 17... a perfect day for football

It's building in Kazan. Summer is coming and after a week of 14 it hits 18 tomorrow !! My son has headed for the bars of Bauman street which will be full of Australians. I just realised that although I have seen many Aussies I am yet to see a Frenchman. Perhaps they are waiting for the knock out phase a la Hawthorn supporters. Both games so far today decided almost at the death. O that own goal by Morocco(Met a lovely Moroccan couple based in Dubai while standing in the Aeroflot check in queue in Moscow... they must not be happy.) Spain v Portugal kicks off in an hour. I am becoming an expert (not) in the Russian TV commentary.

Wow... what can one say... Saudi Arabia thrashed by the unranked home team. KSA were so bad ... even when they were 3-0 down they couldn't get any attacking play going. Could Russia have the fairy tale of making it out of the group stage. Egypt v Uruguay tomorrow completes Group A's opening round.

Overcast in Kazan and around 16 degrees. I am staying in what they call the new city which is over the river from the old Kazan. The good thing is that it is on the same side of the river as the stadium and the fan zone which are both within walking distance. As is my norm I am doing airbnb's and the Russian apartments have proved to be interesting and different. I think it is to keep out the cold but the street doors to the apartments are dual chambered solid steel doors that one opens with a magnetic key disc. Then the apartment itself has two more doors with strange keys. Would definitely be challenging after a night of over indulgence. Went to the big supermarket this morning. Much the same as ours with some different products. Try as I might I couldn't find the margarine.What took my eye though was the entire supermarket aisle (one side) of different vodkas!! My son arrives from Melbourne tomorrow in time for the opening match in Kazan. Tonight I will go off to the fan zone to watch the opening game of Russia v Saudi Arabia. Being the opening game it may be full in which case I am sure I will find somewhere to enjoy the world's beautiful game.

Kind of understand the conflict of interest but it seems to be an over reaction. Hard to think of it as other than chest thumping. Mind you as our Ange demonstrated the coaches can be as prickly as the Associations.

A Night at the Bolshoi... When in Moscow one does what the Muscovites do. The Bolshoi ballet is certainly no longer the "people's ballet" with tickets at a few roubles but it was worth the money to see this wonderful company. I'm no follower of ballet so there was a lot of googling beforehand to work out what was going to happen.Even with my prior research I nearly left before it finished.How you may ask.... well after about two hours or more we got to a spot where the whole cast took a bow etc with everyone clapping etc as they do at the end of a show. Strange I thought they haven't done the "Shade dance" which this ballet is famous for. Off to pick up my backpack from the cloak room and the Russian matron said, "Not Finished". Back I went and watched the last act. It seems that as many of the dancers don't appear in the final act those not needed take their bow mid show and go home !! The ballet was called La Bayadere one which the Bolshoi made famous and the spectacle of the final act as the corps de ballet descends from shade into light is stunning. To ballet aficionados it rivals swan lake as one of "the" scenes in ballet. While the dancing was great , the theatre itself is a star. Completely renovated and re-opened in recent years it looks like when it was visited by the czars. A great night and worth the obscene price. And yes .. it went for three and a half hours!!! Arrived in Kazan today ...more on this city almost bordering Asia tomorrow.....( The Aussie training camp is behind a very high wall so no free views.)

Sure did ... and very good it was. My favourite however was at the Central market where they sold little dishes like Tapas and ice cold draught beer. The fresh sardines were delightful. In Moscow the Doner Kebabs are an artform and are everywhere.

Just a little more: Russia as you all know is an enormous country. Luckily the games are being played in the western third of the country but that area is probably at least one half the size of Australia. The days are long. In Moscow it's sunrise at around 3:30 am and sunset somewhere after 9pm. The night games start at 9pm local time presumably to go into Europe at prime time of 8pm. There are no real traditional Russian bars. There used to be vodka joints but they have been largely replaced by sports bars and themed bars .. Irish, Bavarian Belgian .. you name it. There are very nice tea shops that sell beer and food at quite reasonable prices.