Bamford - Are clubs & fans damaging the Planet [Travelling to games] ?

[Monaco_Totty]

Bamford is involved with a sustainable sportswear company and is using his social media platform to raise awareness of environmental issues and is working with Leeds to make changes at the club like introduction of more electric car charging points at the TA training ground and behavioural change among commercial partners.
He admits to feeling conflicted about flying to domestic games - such as his club's trip to Norwich in October.

He's recently stated - "At Leeds we try to fly as little as possible. We always get the train to London. We only fly if it's the last option - if there are no trains to get us back or if it's a really long way back, like Southampton."

Not sure what the consensus is on here but as a fan living in Europe I've flown in to matches this year & caught the trains on another occasion & been driven to Calais port, caught the ferry, then got a train up North to relatives in Leeds whilst I came over for a medical review - so should I become a TV fan now to save the planet ?

Difficult one to answer for some folks - My Dad goes to most matches & Mum to aways.

[cherrypie7]

Bamford is involved with a sustainable sportswear company and is using his social media platform to raise awareness of environmental issues and is working with Leeds to make changes at the club like introduction of more electric car charging points at the TA training ground and behavioural change among commercial partners.
He admits to feeling conflicted about flying to domestic games - such as his club's trip to Norwich in October.

He's recently stated - "At Leeds we try to fly as little as possible. We always get the train to London. We only fly if it's the last option - if there are no trains to get us back or if it's a really long way back, like Southampton."

Not sure what the consensus is on here but as a fan living in Europe I've flown in to matches this year & caught the trains on another occasion & been driven to Calais port, caught the ferry, then got a train up North to relatives in Leeds whilst I came over for a medical review - so should I become a TV fan now to save the planet ?

Difficult one to answer for some folks - My Dad goes to most matches & Mum to aways.

Interesting question. the planes or trains you take are going to go to those destinations anyway, so you aren't adding to the energy crisis to a huge extent. Now if you charter a private plane, that's a different story.

[joellufcprice]

As ususal with these things the issue gets diluted by people focusing on tiny aspects of a much bigger picture.

Not much will change till countries in Africa and places like India, Pakistan, China start clamping down on cars that are polluting the atmosphere I've been to Egypt, Saudi, India and the amount of cars on the road that aren't fit for purpose chugging out black fumes into the air is ridiculous.

Yes clubs should do more to reduce their footprint but a club doing a once a fortnight flight rather than a 4 hour coach ride is not the problem. However, any car/train journey for a team under 2 hours should never be a flight.

[george_kaplan]

As ususal with these things the issue gets diluted by people focusing on tiny aspects of a much bigger picture.

Not much will change till countries in Africa and places like India, Pakistan, China start clamping down on cars that are polluting the atmosphere I've been to Egypt, Saudi, India and the amount of cars on the road that aren't fit for purpose chugging out black fumes into the air is ridiculous.

Yes clubs should do more to reduce their footprint but a club doing a once a fortnight flight rather than a 4 hour coach ride is not the problem. However, any car/train journey for a team under 2 hours should never be a flight.

Think they should get a barge and jog to away games, maybe a hoss and cart over yon Pennines.

I happen to have been to the places you listed, take a peek at North American last 70 years, industrial rev etc.
Ffs.

[george_kaplan]

Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Rio, Keighley, Mexico City, Lima, Panama City. What are we going to do?
I suggest read Second Sleep by Robert Harris

[BelfastAndy]

New York, London, Paris, Munich, everyone talk about.....?

[joellufcprice]

Think they should get a barge and jog to away games, maybe a hoss and cart over yon Pennines.

I happen to have been to the places you listed, take a peek at North American last 70 years, industrial rev etc.
Ffs.

Difference between North America and those places is though there are a tonne of cars they're not fitted with the necessary equipment to reduce fumes and the cars currently in these places most of the time are battered old relics chugging out diesel.

[george_kaplan]

Difference between North America and those places is though there are a tonne of cars they're not fitted with the necessary equipment to reduce fumes and the cars currently in these places most of the time are battered old relics chugging out diesel.

You wanna see the big v8’s 402’s etc all through the the 50’s to 2000’s I know I have one. Big strides in NA yes, but still. We’ve all had the luxury why cannot the places you mentioned not have it. The west churned enough diesel for years??? Glass house comes to mind.
Second Sleep. See where leci takes us.

[Monaco_Totty]

Interesting question. the planes or trains you take are going to go to those destinations anyway, so you aren't adding to the energy crisis to a huge extent. Now if you charter a private plane, that's a different story.

Carbon EMISSIONS ?
PLANES CARS and TRAINS comparison for a single one way journey.
[London to Nantes/France distance - 285 miles is my journey, 570 total miles]

The table below shows the carbon emissions in tonnes per person for a family of four and a couple taking a typical single journey to France from the UK. Figures are fromwww.co2balance.com, one of the few calculators that includes ferry travel.



The London to Nantes car 'one-way' journey included a Dover-Calais one-way ferry crossing and the figures for the car are based on a family saloon of about 1.8 litre engine - Obviously the figure doubles for the full 'return' trip.

The impact of 4 people flying is two and a half times greater than travelling by car and one and half times greater for 2 people. The train was less environmentally damaging than the car, but not by much. For a family of four, rail travel is certainly the most expensive option for me and often presents obstacles in terms of practicalities.

Currently Leeds French based fans hire a coach/bus from Lille-France with 55 fans on it for London or Southern England venues and for further afield venues we hire cheaper minibuses with 15 seats or travel over in shared/journey cars to later hop on various Leeds official supporter coach/buses based in England - so whichever is cost effective our weekly trips over do leave a carbon footprint I suppose.

But it's a culture I & many others will continue to do wrongly or rightly.

Time wise & costs wise it's cheaper to fly for my family particularly if you book in advance for discounts which isn't easy with Sky changing match days/times.

[george_kaplan]

It ain’t going away until its outta vogue. I see kids driven 5 min to school. I am doing a install at a big home ($22 mill) the amount of wasted energy, water etc. There is five luxury cars in the heated garage…..Figure it out.