I just read the following in swissinfo earlier this afternoon:
Euro 08 faced with shortage of hotel beds
Thousands of fans are expected to come to the Euro 2008 football [soccer] championships being co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria - but not all of them may find a bed.
The four Swiss host cities - Basel, Zurich, Bern and Geneva - do not have enough hotel accommodation for such a huge influx of people and are searching for solutions. But they have already encountered problems.
An estimated five million visitors [the population of Switzerland is just over seven million] are expected to visit the championships - the third-largest sporting event in the world - next summer...
"We have too little capacity, and added to this there is a week's overlap [June 4-8] with the Art Basel contemporary art fair," Christoph Bosshardt, the Euro 2008 delegate for Basel, told swissinfo.
Basel is therefore planning to BUILD FAN CAMPS: CHEAP, PRIVATELY RUN CAMPING GROUNDS FOR AROUND 2,500 PEOPLE [caps mine]. But the plans...have already run into problems...
Bern [might]...open up its civil defence installations, such as bunkers, which are equipped with beds...
Both Basel and Bern have turned to their local populations for help with accommodation. Basel is looking for about 500 host families to take in fans... In Bern, people can sign up on the city's tournament website if they are willing to house fans...
Let's see now...
Hosting a bunch of drunk, soccer hooligans in our apartment? Where do I sign up?
NOT!!!
Am I taking crazy pills, or should the lack of hotel rooms in Basel, Zurich, Bern, and Geneva been a consideration before Switzerland was elected as a co-host of Euro 2008.
Mark my words: we will be far, FAR away from Basel during the first ten days of June, 2008!
Oh, and King? Don't even think about trying to rent out our bedrooms!
6 comments:
Eeeek! I'd never do that, either! You never know what you get (in your house AND in your bed). Noooo, thank you!
Sweet, does that mean we can stay at your house during Art Basel? I'll feed and cuddle King...
I'd never do it but I saw last summer a few news reports about people letting people who came for the World Cup crash at their place and they ended up having a great time together.
I suppose it's all a matter of luck.
Just been looking at my blog stats this morning and one of the search terms used to find my blog was:
"finn minced meat". It works thanks to you! And minced beef!
On a similar note...
Many people in Vancouver have already rented out their house/condo to out-of-towners for the 2010 Olympics held here. Apparently, from the news stories I've read, they can charge enough money to pay for a nice holiday away from all the insanity!
But I agree with CS! Our bed would never feel the same, hehe.
Darn! Missed the ticketing phase.
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