Cod Almighty | Diary
Diary - Monday 23 June 2008
23 June 2008
...sorry. Idle Diary here, sat looking at a little list of today's news, and I'm just thinking how amateurish our beloved club is looking through today's coverage. Could it just be me? Maybe it's a maudlin Monday feeling, returning to a workplace of ineptitude and a sense of lacking after a weekend of love and happiness.
First up, cast your mind back to the early days of the Fentydome project. Number one on John Fenty's list of Things I Need To Do Before I Can Build My Field of Dreams was to get the council onside. A pass for that point, and extra credit now that Councillor Fenty can ward off any dissenters in the town hall with a threatening word round back o' chambers. Number two was to get on board an anchor tenant for the proposed retail outlet attached to the ground. And where is the club with that? Probably retracing several of the steps of its cha-cha-cha to Great Coates with the revelation that Henry Boot, who recently opposed the Fentydome development much to the club's public display of jubilation, is not only proposing a development in the middle of Top Town, but is well on with finding tenants. Henry Boot has "six very interested parties" and name Debenhams, who "still have a requirement for Grimsby. That is a company we continue to have dialogue with. We cannot commit to them until we have a commitment to the planning. They should be here." In these days of development and regeneration, an inner town development is always going to be preferred to one built on fields on the outskirts of a town, so full marks to Henry Boot for taking advantage of Town's dithering and being bullish enough to be up front. It's looks like it's not just the footballing side of GTFC that's being made to look rubbish by more streetwise rivals these days.
Last Wednesday the Football League published its supporters' survey, which the club's superb not-quite-so-new-now official site diligently reported. Your diarist suggested that the club could do with conducting a little market research closer to home, because the four Ps for the country don't necessarily match North East Lincolnshire's. And on Friday the club responded, albeit it lazily, ill-thought out and yet another case of missed opportunity. You could shrug and say "ah well" and "at least they tried". But, yeah Town's a small club, Small Club, and all that, but these people are paid for this. They just don't think these things through, do they? By the way, if you're going to sell a half-price shirt deal, you can't entice people on the teaser without indicating the terms.
And to top it all off, the club's tried to tap in to your inner greenie (if such a thing resides in North East Lincolnshire) asking you to use the club's less-than-secure online season ticket renewal system. Save the world, yeah? It'll take more than booking your season ticket online to reduce your carbon footprint. Car pooling, using public transport, Peter Bore getting a season of purpose. These are the things that will help the planet, not some poxy, contrived, and half-thought-through story on the OS. I'm reducing my carbon footprint next season by not bothering to drive from Leeds to Cleethorpes and back every other Saturday. And why? Sure, times are hard and life will be easier if I can reuse my monthly £100 pocket money for Town games. But above all else I want some time off from the ineptitude of it all. I just want a rest.