Tuesday 18 November 2008

Council Wants Dorset Location for Ironman UK 2009

A comment on one of my previous postings here, pointed me to an article in the Western Gazette this weekend. The Western is my local paper and also covers Sherborne, the previous location of Ironman UK. It was only a small piece, tucked away on page four. To be honest I even had to wait until Sunday to read it when I was at my in-laws. I get the Yeovil edition of the Western and my in-laws get the Sherborne version, this piece didn't make it into the Yeovil version.

The article said that the local council was spending some money, somewhere in the region of £5000 I think it said, to try and keep Ironman UK 2009 in Dorset. Information was also given about promises by the owners of Ironman UK, to show the council their books, that had not been kept.

After I had read the piece and given it a little thought, the most interesting thing was the completely different responses to this small piece of writing by the two people I know who have read it. Both people focused on different aspects of the information presented due to their differing attitudes to the Ironman event and the prejudices this engenders.

One person, the poster of the comment, has a business that is adversely affected by the Ironman and is prejudiced against the Ironman while the other person, me, is equally prejudiced in favour of keeping the event locally. On my first reading of the article I saw all the positives and skimmed over the negatives, the poster, I suspect, did the opposite. We are both equally biased in our views, just in opposite directions. Whether the event is held locally in 2009 or is held somewhere else one side is going to complain and there is no way to keep everyone happy.

Personally, I hope Ironman UK stays local as I feel it shows the area in a positive light to a worldwide audience, it brings money to local businesses and has become part of the fabric of the area with many local people taking part that probably would not if it was somewhere else. But I am biased.

5 comments:

Doris said...

You brave man.. I read all those comments from the previous post and dare not leave any comment for fear of being hunted (or angled) down...

OF course Mr Fisheries I AM only pulling your leg/line! (Just in case you're reading this comment!)

As for me - I would like Ironman UK just to take place - location, well anywhere that is relatively easily accessible!

Anonymous said...

Event moving!! New location!!! Hurraghh!!!

I have done the event 4 times and always struggle to find decent acommodation - once having my room cancelled the week before due to a large wedding party taking prority!!

It takes ages to get there due to the poor transport infrastructure - and as for the lake... we would probably be better swimming at Revels Fishery !! ( maybe thats the new location??!!)

Anyway time for a change - maybe a big city or near the coast - or if we are really lucky somewhere FLAT!!

We can but dream...

MikeyB said...

I don't really mind where it is.

As long is it is no more than 20 minutes drive from home and they give us the location soon.

revelsfishery said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MikeyB said...

Maybe the people at Sherborne Castle have been saying bad things, maybe not. There does seem to be a hint of sour grapes there on the side of Ironman UK now that the negotiations have broken down.

From my point of view it is just disappointing that we don't have an agreed venue yet, wherever it is. This is something that takes a lot of organising and if a location is not selected soon the race may not happen. I don't think anyone really wants that.