Much has been made of the shameful attempts at extortion in various US cities around transport costs, but one host venue is, at least, bucking an ugly trend.
Kansas City, which will host the training camps of both England and Argentina, is offering a free direct shuttle from the airport to downtown and to the FIFA Fan Festival.
In addition, officials will provide a ‘stadium direct’ matchday service to ticket holders, where fans can head to the stadium from five different park and ride locations for the princely sum of $15 return.
That stance is in marked contrast to that seen by some other hosts. In New York/New Jersey, a 30-minute train ride from Penn Station to the MetLife Stadium is being priced at a deplorable $150 – more than 11 times the normal return fare of $12.90.
In Boston, trains from the city to Gillette Stadium, which cost $20 for an NFL game, are being charged at $80, with coach tickets for the 34-minute drive priced at a staggering $95.
Back in Kansas City, $50 will secure fans a Tournament Pass, which will provide unlimited trips.
Issues on the east coast line affected thousands of football fans on Saturday, with Daily Mail Sport revealing how Rotherham United manager Lee Clark, who had returned to his native north east on Friday from the team hotel following the passing of his mother-in-law, was forced to jump on a taxi from Doncaster to his side’s clash at Leyton Orient.
One southern-based Leeds United supporter was left stranded at King’s Cross and got chatting to two fellow Whites in the same predicament. It transpired that the pair were two of a group of around 40 US-based investors invited by owners 49ers Enterprises for their match with Wolves.
The trio immediately hit it off and decided to take a train to Nuneaton before sharing a £150 Uber to Elland Road, making it for half-time of a 3-0 win that pushed the home side closer to safety. Who said the special relationship was dead?
Amazon aired an advert for a Champions League semi-final – featuring Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain – before either team had qualified.
In a move some saw as incredibly disrespectful to both Real Madrid and Liverpool, who were playing both of those sides in the quarter-finals, the ad featuring Harry Kane and Ousmane Dembele for the first leg on April 28, was shown 23 minutes into Liverpool’s second leg against the French side.
At the time, Arne Slot’s men were 2-0 down on aggregate but would obviously have retained hope of a spectacular turnaround. Real, defeated 2-1 in Spain, were due to play Kane’s side the following day in the second leg. As things transpired, Amazon got the semi that they had advertised after PSG won 2-0 on Merseyside and Bayern edged a classic 4-3 in Bavaria.
It is understood station bosses looked into the matter and blamed the graphic, which was shown for a second time later during the game, on an error.
Forget England manager, Tottenham Hotspur are advertising for what some may feel is the toughest job in football. The surprise relegation battler is seeking a ‘Health and Wellbeing Executive’ to join its staff.
According to the job description, the selected candidate will ‘champion health and wellbeing across the club’.
In all seriousness, Spurs are to be praised for taking the mental health of their staff seriously however, following Saturday’s agonising late draw with Brighton it may be an idea to extend the offering to some of the club’s suffering fanbase.
This column recently reported on the failure of billionaire owner of the Head sports brand to be nominated by his dual-native UK and Sweden for re-election as president of the powerful international Ski Federation (FIS) in June.
With Monaco and Azerbaijan reportedly turning down Johan Eliasch for a passport-for-nomination deal, documentation seen by Inside Sport shows that Armenia, which sent the grand total of five athletes to the Winter Olympics, has put a candidate forward for the role. Could it be?
The R&A has pulled funding for radio coverage of this year’s Women’s Open as it celebrates its 50th year. Bosses had paid for a joint IMG and BBC production which was well-received.
However, television coverage on Sky has been extended by three hours on Thursday and Friday to include the morning session and ensure that – if you are a subscriber – you can watch all of the action from Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Insiders say the radio coverage was aimed at ensuring nobody missed out on the early action and that, given the extension, it is no longer deemed necessary. The BBC say they, regardless, will have a broadcast team at the venue and will be providing radio coverage and commentary throughout.
