The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur News and Links for Friday, February 16

Hello, Hoddlers!

I’m doing that whole “How are you not dead?” routine again, this time watching Skeleton. Anyway, here’s the ramble.

Ramble of the Day

Earlier this week, Bayern Munich announced a partnership with Courtyard Marriott. Being that this is one of my rambles, though, it clearly is not just any ordinary partnership. As part of this deal, Marriott has built a hotel room overlooking the field at Allianz Arena.

The room is available to members of the hotel chain’s rewards program, and also includes “a Courtyard bar serving crafted cocktails and elevated menu options,” per Marriott’s website. They offer a different experience where members can travel with Bayern on their Champions League away trips. On the away trip, members can eat “post-match dinner with the team,” get “tickets to the game, and an overnight stay in the FC Bayern hotel.”

Back to the hotel room, I do wonder how the sound quality is through the window. The Allianz Arena crowd is probably one worth hearing when in the stadium, and I hope the window is not too sound proof. I cannot tell how close the room is to supporters in the stadium, especially since I can somewhat convince myself that the picture above has the bed facing a giant screen and not an actual window.

The hotel room with views of the Allianz Arena pitch seems like a good idea if one is just getting off a plane and just wants to watch some football. I have not tried this, but my mother did once and I think she would have liked a bed more than a seat in a stadium. We have all gone to a match every now and again when you are just a bit too tired to be there, so the idea of a bed at a stadium sounds nice, in theory. I have to stop convincing myself this might be a good idea, since I will probably never actually experience this. It still seems like a weird way to watch a match, at least to me.

Whatever. I hope the people who actually do this enjoy it. I wonder what their fine dining options are...

tl;dr: A hotel room in a stadium is a little bit weird.

Links of the Day

Alex McLeish will be the Scotland coach again.

Former Portsmouth owner Sulaiman Al Fahim is going to jail after stealing £5 million from his wife to buy the club.

Birmingham City defender Paul Robinson (not the former Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson) will retire at the end of the season, 22 years after making his professional debut for Watford.

Today’s longer read: an explainer about the much-discussed Premier League television rights.