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EFL regulations mean guests at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel can?t watch the game ? our writer checks in for a trip into the dark
It seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a ?Superior Room with Pitch View? at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would expect a hotel room with a view of the pitch. And that is exactly the case except ? bizarrely ? when Blackpool are actually playing, with some hotel guests recently scuppered by the smallest of fine print when booking: ?Due to the EFL rules and regulations, bedroom curtains have to be kept drawn throughout a match.? Failure to do so could result in a ?2,500 fine. Ouch.
Across the 14 years that I have worked for the Guardian, there have been a few occasions where I have been tempted, perhaps after a stressful shift, to go and lie down in a dark room. I just didn?t think that this could be an actual assignment. But off I go to Blackpool to investigate this special type of 3pm blackout, and shortly before kick-off between Blackpool and League One relegation rivals Northampton, I find myself pulling a very heavy curtain across a panoramic window facing the Bloomfield Road pitch and the Blackpool Tower beyond. That?s my daylight done for the day.
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It seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a ?Superior Room with Pitch View? at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would expect a hotel room with a view of the pitch. And that is exactly the case except ? bizarrely ? when Blackpool are actually playing, with some hotel guests recently scuppered by the smallest of fine print when booking: ?Due to the EFL rules and regulations, bedroom curtains have to be kept drawn throughout a match.? Failure to do so could result in a ?2,500 fine. Ouch.
Across the 14 years that I have worked for the Guardian, there have been a few occasions where I have been tempted, perhaps after a stressful shift, to go and lie down in a dark room. I just didn?t think that this could be an actual assignment. But off I go to Blackpool to investigate this special type of 3pm blackout, and shortly before kick-off between Blackpool and League One relegation rivals Northampton, I find myself pulling a very heavy curtain across a panoramic window facing the Bloomfield Road pitch and the Blackpool Tower beyond. That?s my daylight done for the day.
Continue reading...
More...