It might be a completely philanthropic gift to the city, respecting covenants, charters, listed buildings and appropriate guardianship of a community asset. It might be that there are no commercial gains to be made through the scheme. It may be that although he's talked of merging the two rugby clubs, he didn't [ureally[/u mean it. It may be that the request for some detailed plans and funding proposals requested at the council meeting 3 weeks ago was misunderstood. It may be that he has afforded FC benefits in the last 6 months of equal worth to a £1m loan/gift to Rovers. Any or all of these may be completely true. The point is that no one other than the council seem willing/able to examine the detail.

don't really see what a sporting village would bring to the city!

we already have an ice arena so do we need another? an ice hockey team that barely attracts 1000 fans to most games, so an ice 'arena' will become a white elephant. An olympic size swimming pool? is this actually needed when there is a centre of excellence in sheffield purposley built for aquatics, (plus there is albert ave baths round the corner from walton street!), seems a lot of facilities that we don't really need as we already have them!

You been in Albert ave baths? was in there on sun with my youngest....what a dump....much prefer Hatemprice but thats East Riding run and you can tell the difference..a lot cleaner.

As for Allam...the blokes a certifiable loon.He may have made his money in buisnes but,when it comes to sporting matters,he is more like Balderick..."i have a cunning plan".

to be fair, most of Baldricks were sensible compared to his.

Thought that said HAD a dump at first

Ice Arena is at least 10 years out of date, wants condemning, its in a very poor state.

Would be great to have a larger one that could double up as a mid sized concert venue or used for other smaller events

Hate intruders.

Hosni Mubarak !

This city is in need of good facilities, having the attitude of "theres a centre of excellence in sheffield" isnt the answer, talented kids in Hull are getting overlooked because when they reach a stage where they have to go to another level, our kids have to travel out of town, gymnastics in the city, if there good enough have to travel to Leeds for training, football for girls have just had their centre of excellence taken off them, now I dont think for one minute Mr Allam is going to provide these facilities, but he talks a good talk, and people in Hull will fall for it (if it goes to a public vote), hes already spoken to the local gymast academy on what they would require to progress, they think hes the next messiah, promising the earth if he gets the village, it would be good for the sporting talent in Hull if this village was built, but he in reality isnt going to provide it! and i wouldnt want him too, but i would love to see it provided, just not by him!

When I was burra nipper, I was walking along the edge of Madeley Street threepennies, making my way to ninepennies, when I was overtaken by a blind eel about 10" long, steaming down the baths like a German U-boat.

If he wants to build a sports village so much as a 'gift' to the city, he could quite easily buy some cheap land elsewhere in Hull and build one. That would be nice.

I just "nudged" Hull City Council, asking why I hadn't received acknowledgement of my F.O.I request on May 20th, reminding them of their obligations under the act, roughly 30 minutes later I got this:

Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Information Request - 000786/11

We acknowledge receipt of your information request received on 20/05/2011 which is being processed according to the Freedom of Information Act (2000).

The legislation allows us 20 working days to respond which takes us to 20/06/2011. There are some circumstances under which this deadline may be extended legally but we will inform you as soon as we know if these apply.

So, by Monday I should have some answers, or some excuses.