Worries

It now appears that Pinnacle have pulled out of negotiations to buy Southampton Football Club. The group headed by Matt Le Tissier have withdrawn interest over an argument to do with contesting the 10 point deduction. With that, the club now have to find a new buyer by the end of the week otherwise it could well be Journey To The 91 after all. Of all the things to go wrong, a team dropping out of the league before we start our quest really would be catastrophic.

Here's hoping for a white knight...

Sometimes, it really is who you know and not what...

I spoke to a very helpful guy called Nick a couple of weeks ago. He toured round the 92 grounds for charity a couple of years ago and did a lot of the same things i'm doing. Letters to teams etc. I talked to him about teams i'd recieved negative responses from and he suggested sending the email to the football in the community (fitc) department at all the clubs including the ones i've already recieved negative feedback from. There's only 2 clubs that have really fallen into that category but thanks to Nick's advice, i've just been able to take one of them out of the 'reject' pile.
As i returned from lunch today I noticed an email from a League Two side that had earlier said no chance of any help and been very rude in the process. The reply from the FITC department said to just arrive on the day and come into reception between 10 and 4 and we'll be happy to let you into the ground. Amazing what sending the same message to a different person can achieve..

Better late than never!

As promised, here's a picture of the embroidered shirt i've had made. It's a lot better than this picture actually makes it look. Website designer I may be but amateur photographer i most definately aint..

The shirt is fantastic quality and is long as well which is always helpful if you're 6'5. I'll be ordering more tomorrow along with orders from a lot of friends and family. Despite the bad picture, you can make out the Journey To The 92 logo. I'm very impressed and really cant complain for £7.55! A Bargain.

Embroidery

Arrived home to find the embroidered shirt i ordered had arrived. It looks absolutely fantastic for the price i paid - £10 - so i'll most certainly be ordering a few more of those on Monday morning.

I'll post a picture of the shirt tomorrow!

Politeness costs nothing

I'm well aware that i wont get positive responses from each of the 92 clubs, but politeness isn't too much to ask for. So far all i've done is request a contact name to send the letters to and a few clubs have given very blunt, blanket replies that have nothing to do with my request. It's a shame that some clubs cant even send a polite email back explaining why they cant help.
One reply said that my email had been given individual consideration and unfortunately they were unable to donate at this time. My email asked about a parking space and having our photo taken in the ground. Nothing to do with any kind of donation. Very very poor and these clubs will be named after the tour.
Southampton on the other hand proved just how easy it is and exactly how a club should be. "Just come in to reception and we'll let you into the ground to have your photo taken". They even talked about donating. This is from a club going through a huge take over and suffering serious financial problems. A credit.

Elsewhere, it'll be interesting to see how the ESPN - Setanta takeover goes. If ESPN start trying to charge £12.99 like Setanta did, are people going to pay it? And if they do only charge that much, is it enough to keep them in profit?

Also, my local newspaper contacted me yesterday enquiring about doing a piece about our tour. Really starting to pick up on that front so it'll be good to get the shirts embroidered so any media photo's can have those in them. Very impressed with the company i've used for the shirts so far. The shirt i've ordered should be here in the next couple of days. I'll post a picture of the finished article.

Media

Yesterday was quite an exciting day. I arrived at work to find an email waiting for me from the editor of Kent News Online. Being big Gillingham fans, I guess he stumbled across one of my sites promoting the tour whilst looking for news to do with the Gills or the local area. Anyway, he asked one of us to call him as he'd like to feature us in the paper next week. I phoned him today and we had a long talk about what we're doing and why. The story will be in the paper Wednesday after next. I've asked him to send us a copy as it'll be the first piece of media interaction we'll have done towards the tour. I already have phone and radio interviews with Phoenix fm planned for September and expect a lot more to happen between now and then. I notice that i'm being followed on twitter now by a BBC news correspondent, the voice of West Ham United and another sports journalist.

It's exciting, and getting closer every day!

Is it me, or is it hot in here?

Last night I was lucky enough to go and see 'Oliver' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The show itself was fantastic and although the theatre let itself down by charging £2.20 for a small bottle of water and never having heard of a thing called air conditioning, it was still the setting for the best moment of the day!

My partner Terri and I were accompanying my Mum, Dad, Auntie and Uncle to the show as birthday presents to both Terri and my Dad. We were sat right in the middle of our row, which brought with it the obvious ups and downs. The upside being that we had one of the best views in the house, the downside, we had people sitting either side of us which meant it was tough to get in and out of the row without disturbing anyone.

The other downside, as my Uncle Jeremy found out, was that you may be unlucky enough to sit next to someone that's, larger shall we say, than you. The theatre was very hot and at the interval he turned to us and complained about sitting next to this person as it was making him even hotter than the rest of us. When the family to Jeremy's left returned, they'd switched places and now sitting just a few small inches away from him was a very attractive 18-19 year old wearing a mini skirt. He turned again and simply said "it aint getting any easier is it"..

The collar was loosened and the use of a fan was most definately required. Classic!