Sheffield Half Marathon is a shambles

[Happ Hazzard]

Look, regardless of whether the council actually organised the marathon, they are in charge of the city and the organisers of the marathon would have had to have had the go ahead from the council. It is perfectly reasonable to blame the council for this. You can't have a council that absolbs blame down the line, the buck has to stop with them. Now hopefully there was something in the agreement to compensate the city for the bad publicity caused by this debacle. I say "hopefully", but in actuality I am not very hopeful that this is the case.

 

Now I would like to think it would be a foregone conclusion that the same people will not be organising the marathon next year...

[Scabbydog]

What are you on about?

 

You can't just run a marathon and close streets to traffic. Someone has to vet the application and decide who can do it. Perhaps they need to be rather more selective about which cowboys they take cash from

[boyfriday]

It's the sponsors who should foot the bill not the council but you think there would have been contingency plans in place

 

You mean like p****** in the wind?

[Scabbydog]

Look, regardless of whether the council actually organised the marathon, they are in charge of the city and the organisers of the marathon would have had to have had the go ahead from the council. It is perfectly reasonable to blame the council for this. You can't have a council that absolbs blame down the line, the buck has to stop with them. Now hopefully there was something in the agreement to compensate the city for the bad publicity caused by this debacle. I say "hopefully", but in actuality I am not very hopeful that this is the case.

 

Now I would like to think it would be a foregone conclusion that the same people will not be organising the marathon next year...

 

A bit like the Hillsborough disaster.

[999tigger]

The tdf organisers and potential visitors won't have been impressed with such reports though - if the city is incapable of being able to run a relatively small scale half marathon, on what is an established route, then you could hardly blame them for having some concerns about how the city can organise something of much more international importance. The 'just do it anyway' attitude that the runners displayed today in spite of organisational incompetence, won't be possible in the tdf!

 

Please note, not blaming the council above. But to outsiders, they will just see that Sheffield as a city has bungled today - regardless of the actual people that cocked it up.

 

Except the TDF people will know what needs doing and will have been working closely with the organisers. If asked am sure the relevant people will point out it is nothing to do with them. Visitors might not know, but hardly going to put them off imo.

[LeMaquis]

The tdf organisers and potential visitors won't have been impressed with such reports though - if the city is incapable of being able to run a relatively small scale half marathon, on what is an established route, then you could hardly blame them for having some concerns about how the city can organise something of much more international importance. The 'just do it anyway' attitude that the runners displayed today in spite of organisational incompetence, won't be possible in the tdf!

 

It was all about water. SCC won't have to do anything except close off the roads. There will be other agencies involved to make sure things run smoothly. The TdF finishes every year in Paris. It hasn't been taken away from there despite a lot of municipal failings by the Hotel de Ville.

 

---------- Post added 06-04-2014 at 17:46 ----------

 

It is perfectly reasonable to blame the council for this.

 

Your concept of reasonable however is most people's concept of insane.

[forgetnails]

doesn't sheffield council's Events Unit play a part in the orgnaisation and running of the event?

[999tigger]

doesn't sheffield council's Events Unit play a part in the orgnaisation and running of the event?

 

Dunno you tell us. hard to see what they could have said that would have averted the problem, especially if it happened that morning. Looking at their page it seems they assist and answer queries. They dont do the organising.

Edited April 6, 2014 by 999tigger

[Fudbeer]

Be interesting to see if people get a refund or some compensation.

 

Think they should they paid for a service that was not delivered.

[PeteM01]

This is my point too ,there were at least TWO major errors here the lack of water and the fact that nobody had checked if the runners could hear important race announcements from the organisers.

 

I said before it even started that it was odd we could not hear what the announcer was saying unlike in previous years.

 

We had no idea it was cancelled or that there was limited water.

 

Anyway well done again to all who ran and the graet Sheffield public.

 

The tannoy system in the Don Valley Stadium was great last year. I suppose if you really wanted to pin the blame on the council, you could start there...