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Global News
6 days ago
- Business
- Global News
Victoria city councillors want to preserve downtown movie theatres
Three Victoria councillors are trying to save the handful of movie theatres that remain in the downtown area for fear of losing key cultural spaces and experiences. Councillors Matt Dell, Dave Thompson and Krista Loughton will bring forward a motion at the Committee of the Whole meeting on June 5 'Downtown cinemas play a vital role in supporting local culture, walkability, and economic vitality,' the motion reads. 'Unlike suburban mall movie theatres, downtown cinemas bring people into the city centre where they can walk, bike, or take transit. Moviegoers grab dinner before the show or drinks afterward, supporting local restaurants and shops. This activity helps businesses and keeps downtown lively. Losing downtown theatres means losing both cultural experiences and economic benefits for local businesses.' Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Victoria City Council's 2023 to 2026 Strategic Plan committed to supporting small businesses and the visitor economy, while investing in artistic, theatrical and musical spaces to keep the downtown culturally vibrant. Story continues below advertisement MOVIES! We have a motion at council this week asking staff to look into preserving downtown movies theatres, incentivizing new theatres, and supporting film. We're at risk of losing all our large downtown theatres in Victoria – bad for culture, vibrancy and the economy! #yyj — Matt Dell (@mattdellok) June 2, 2025 The three councillors would like to see stronger policy tools as part of the new Official Community Plan and an updated Downtown Core Area Plan to provide additional tools such as zoning incentives, leveraging Development Variance Permits to fast-track or relax requirements for projects that retain or integrate theatres, explore if any city-owned land downtown could be future theatre space and strengthening heritage tools by exploring protections for theatres in historic buildings. Councillors will be looking for council's support to direct staff to 'report on additional options to support cinema in Victoria, including incentivizing the construction of new movie theatres, assisting in maintaining existing theatres, incorporating the support of cinema into its broader strategy for supporting arts and culture in the city, or any other potential policy options.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
UEFA warns Man United and Tottenham fans about unofficial sales of Europa League final tickets
Tottenham's fans cheer prior to the Europa League semifinal first leg soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Bodo/Glimt at the White Hart Lane stadium in London, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Walton) Manchester United's Casemiro celebrates with fans during the Europa League semifinal second leg soccer match between Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao in Manchester, Britain, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson ) Manchester United's Casemiro celebrates with fans during the Europa League semifinal second leg soccer match between Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao in Manchester, Britain, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson ) Tottenham's fans cheer prior to the Europa League semifinal first leg soccer match between Tottenham Hotspur and Bodo/Glimt at the White Hart Lane stadium in London, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ian Walton) Manchester United's Casemiro celebrates with fans during the Europa League semifinal second leg soccer match between Manchester United and Athletic Bilbao in Manchester, Britain, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson ) BILBAO, Spain (AP) — With tens of thousands of fans of Manchester United and Tottenham expected in Bilbao this week for the Europa League final, UEFA warned them Monday about buying unauthorized tickets which should not get them into the stadium. Both clubs, which have huge fan bases, were each allocated 15,000 tickets in the 50,000-capacity venue with some priced at just 40 euros ($45). Those numbers are typical for a Europa League final. Advertisement Prices in the thousands of euros (dollars) have been demanded on secondary ticketing websites and UEFA said buyers could be refused entry Wednesday at Athletic Bilbao's stadium. 'Such tickets may be canceled by UEFA at any time and fans are likely to be refused entry or be ejected from the stadium,' the European soccer body said in a statement. 'In addition, fans may not receive the tickets which they have purchased from these unauthorized third parties,' UEFA said, specifying 'websites, agencies, touts' as problematic sellers. UEFA also sold about 11,000 tickets in a global sale through its website and nearly 9,000 were retained for sponsors, broadcasters, European soccer federations and guests. Advertisement All tickets were distributed digitally with security features in a UEFA ticketing app for cellphones designed to prevent the buyer transferring them. 'Only the phone used to download the mobile tickets will be able to access the stadium,' UEFA warned. 'Screenshots of mobile tickets are not valid tickets.' UEFA typically chooses venues for European club competition finals at least two years in advance, and has long faced criticism it regards as unrealistic for not switching stadiums to suit the two teams. Those teams advance through semifinals played just two or three weeks before the final. Bilbao was allocated the Europa League final in July 2021 as part of a compensation package for the city being dropped by UEFA as a host for the men's European Championship played that summer one year late because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Advertisement In April 2021, UEFA replaced Bilbao with Seville because the city could not give UEFA guarantees on how many spectators would be able to attend games due to public health rules during the pandemic. Bilbao was picked as a Euro host in 2014 when the most senior Spanish official in soccer was Angel Maria Villar, then a FIFA and UEFA vice president and a native of the Basque city. ___ AP soccer:
STV News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- STV News
STV to air first-ever Coronation Street and Emmerdale crossover episode
STV is to air its first-ever crossover between Coronation Street and Emmerdale, with fans able to vote for the characters they would like to see meet and interact. The hour-long crossover episode will air in January 2026 as STV announces a new hour of soap schedule, which will see half hour Emmerdale episodes air at 8pm, followed by 30-minute episodes of Coronation Street at 8.30pm. Producers of the two soaps say the special episode will have 'everlasting consequences for everyone involved', saying the two shows' universes in Manchester and Yorkshire had been linked in an 'ingenious way'. They say the episode will be self-contained, but its events will have 'repercussions for both communities and see them linked forever as familiar faces depart and exciting new characters arrive into both soaps'. PA Media The characters of Coronation Street will meet those of Emmerdale in a new crossover episode (Dave Thompson/PA). PA Media From next month, fans will be able to vote on the soaps' Instagram, Facebook and TikTok accounts for the two characters they want to see interact. The new scheduling comes after STV said its research showed that 30-minute episodes attracted higher audiences in 2024. Coronation Street currently airs for three hour-long episodes a week, while Emmerdale's weekly schedule is made up of four 30-minute episodes plus one hour-long instalment, but from next year both soaps will only air 30-minute episodes. Episodes will continue to drop at 7am on STV Player, before they air in the evening. PA Media Producers say the two universes will be linked in an 'ingenious way' (Tim Whitby/PA). PA Media Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Everton FC braces for finale at 133-year old Goodison Park before moving to a new home
Everton fans display a banner before the Premier League match on May 3 against Ipswich Town FC at Goodison Park in Liverpool. (Simon Stacpoole / Offside via Getty Images) How does an iconic team that has had just one home for the past 133 years pack up all that history, culture and tradition when it comes time to move across town? Very carefully. Everton FC has been playing at Goodison Park, just north of central Liverpool, since the Victorian Era. And in that time the so-called Grand Old Lady has hosted more top-flight games than any stadium in England. Advertisement But Sunday's match with Southampton will be the last. Next season, the club will play in ultra-modern Everton Stadium, built upon a former dock alongside the River Mersey. And while the move was necessary and probably long overdue, it's being mourned nonetheless. A general view of Goodison Park stadium ahead of the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Liverpool on Feb.12. (Dave Thompson / Associated Press) 'Every stadium move is unique, regardless of what club they are. Especially in English football. There's history and heritage in every one of those clubs,' said Mo Maghazachi, Everton's senior liaison and engagement manager. 'But specifically to Goodison, Goodison has played a major part in football.' There is no equivalent in American sports. Fenway Park, the oldest professional sports stadium in the U.S., was built in 1912, two years before Wrigley Park opened. Advertisement Goodison was already two decades old by then. And when it opened in 1892, it shared the honor of being the world's first purpose-built soccer stadium with Celtic Park in Glasgow, which opened the same day. Not only is it the world's oldest soccer stadium, it's the only one with a church on its grounds. (The club does not play early games on Sunday to allow for morning services at St. Luke's, a 124-year-old Anglican Church enclosed on two sides by the stadium.) Cars are parking outside of Goodison Park ahead of the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Liverpool on Feb.12. (Dave Thompson / Associated Press) Goodison Park grew over time, becoming England's first two-tiered stadium in English soccer in 1909. There would be other firsts. The first flood-lit match in England was played there in 1957, the first underground heating system was installed a year later and the first scoreboard made its debut in 1971. Goodison has been home to so much history, Dan Meis, the Colorado native who designed Staples Center (now Arena), among other sports venues, almost turned down his first meeting with Everton about 10 years ago because he didn't want to be involved in a project that would replace an intimate, unique stadium with the kind of soulless multipurpose venues then being built in the UK. Advertisement 'From the very start, [the new stadium] had to be a proper English football ground,' Meis said. 'From our perspective, it was don't focus on the architecture. It's about the experience. 'So I dove very deeply into the history of English football and that was a driver of the design from the start.' He wasn't working alone; Evertonians would never allow that. So when the club conducted a public consultation during the planning phase for the new stadium, 65,000 people took part, making it the largest commercial public consultation ever in Liverpool. And what Meis and the club heard was that the fans wanted something that reflected Everton's gritty blue-collar pedigree. 'There was a lot of, 'We're not fancy, you know, this is about history, and it's about generations of support throughout,'' Meis said. 'It was a sense of history that we had to respect. Advertisement 'As an American, I was a little bit shy of this, but I talked about their similarities to Fenway or Wrigley, baseball stadiums [that] tended to grow up over time. That's how those buildings became these kind of quirky, different things like Goodison. You plop down 65,000 seats one time and you lose a lot of that sort of quirkiness. We're very conscious about that.' The grass is freshly cut inside Everton FC's new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock Stadium on March 25 in Liverpool, England. (Anthony Devlin / Getty Images) So Everton built its new home on a site that is nearly as historic: the Bramley-Moore Dock. Part of the port of Liverpool in the inner-city district of Vauxhall, the dock opened in 1848 and played a major role in England's coal trade for nearly 140 years. 'People from Liverpool have a romantic attachment to the docks,' Maghazachi said. 'The docks played such an important role in in this city's history. And it looks like it's going to play an important role in the city's future as well.' Advertisement The new $989-million stadium, the 12th to enter the Premier League in the last 24 years, was designed to be unique. The stands, for example, are straight rather than curved at the corners. And the 14,000-seat South Stand is the steepest in Europe, placing the fans on top of the action. The Guardian called it 'the most striking, ambitious addition to the Liverpool waterfront since … the early 1900s.' The views are superb, there are no obstructions and there is an impressive panorama of the city's skyline from the back of the South Stand, the paper added. But for the club's most devoted supporters, it's still going to take some getting used to. 'I felt dirty,' Dave Kelly, the fan-elected chair of the Everton Fan Advisory Board, said of his visit to the new stadium for the first of three test events required for the club to operate at full capacity when the new season begins in August. Everton fans wave banners featuring great players during a match against Ipswich Town FC at Goodison Park on May 3 in Liverpool, England. (Visionhaus / Getty Images ) 'I felt like I betrayed [Everton] football. There was certainly a strange feeling to go there. It felt something that I didn't particularly have an affinity with.' Advertisement Richard Gillham of the Everton FC Heritage Society felt the same way. But those feelings changed when he entered the stadium in February for that test event, a U-18 game between Everton and Wigan Athletic that drew 10,000 specially selected fans. 'I've been watching forever; over 50 years now,' said Gillham, who saw his first game at Goodison in 1972. 'And I would never, ever want us to move. Until I went to the first test event. 'The new stadium is absolutely awesome. It's ready for European and international football.' And Goodison, for all its history and charm, is not — because the stadium, like most things that are 133 years old, has not aged well. Advertisement It's capacity, which peaked at nearly 80,000 just after World War II, is about half that today. Many seats, located behind thick steel girders, have obstructed views and the stadium can feel dark and dank on cold Liverpool nights. More significantly, Goodison Park, with just 12 corporate suites, was limited in its ability to generate both match-day and commercial revenue. That has made it difficult for the team to compete in the most expensive soccer league in the world. Two years ago, Everton took four points from its final two games to narrowly avoid relegation for the first time in 69 years. The Toffees haven't finished in the top half of the 20-team EPL table since 2019 and haven't played in a European competition in a decade. Arsenal and Everton players in action during a English Premier League soccer match in Liverpool, England, on Feb. 4, 2023. (Jon Super / Associated Press) The new stadium not only has a capacity of 52,888 — about 13,000 more than Goodison, making it the seventh-largest in the Premier League — it has as many as 100 suites and other VIP hospitality options as well. Those packages, the club said, are already sold out. Advertisement But what can't be moved from Goodison Park to the banks of the Mersey is the community Everton has built in the Blue Mile, the neighborhood that surrounds the old stadium like a warm hug. The 10,000 residents of that area are among the poorest in England and the club has risen to meet that need with a paid and volunteer staff of more than 300 that administers more than four dozen club-funded programs addressing issues including education, dementia, poverty, health, substance abuse and employability. Everton runs its own school and community center. The team said none of that work will be affected by the team's move across town. Goodison Park may even be spared the wrecking ball. Although the stadium was scheduled to be torn down and replaced by a housing complex, a community health and medical center, an education center and a park, among other things, the Friedkin Group, the team's new American owner, recently commissioned a feasibility study to determine if the venue could be preserved for use by Everton's academy and women's teams. In the meantime, Everton will play three games in the U.S. before its first Premier League match in its new stadium, facing Bournemouth at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium on July 26, West Ham on July 30 at Chicago's Soldier Field, and Manchester United on Aug. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Whom the Toffees face in their first competitive match in the new stadium won't be announced until June 18. Yet even after the new stadium opens, Maghazachi said the Blue Mile will remain the team's home. Because while you can move the players, 133 years of history in one spot tends to leave deep roots. Advertisement 'We've never talked about Everton leaving Goodison Park, or leaving Liverpool L4 as the area is called,' he said. 'We talked about the playing side leaving and the men's football team leaving and heading to the Bramley-Moore Dock to play. 'But the football club isn't leaving. It'll always be our home.' ⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week's episode of the 'Corner of the Galaxy' podcast. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Palace won't field a weakened team at Arsenal in potential title decider, coach says
Crystal Palace's head coach Oliver Glasner enters to the pitch prior to the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace at the Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson) LONDON (AP) — Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner said Tuesday he will field the 'best available team' at Arsenal on Wednesday in a game that could hand the Premier League title to Liverpool. Arsenal is 13 points behind Liverpool with five games remaining and needs at least a draw against Palace to keep the title race alive. Advertisement Palace is 12th and has little to play for in the Premier League but is heading into an FA Cup semifinal game with Aston Villa on Saturday. 'We have to look at what's best and which players are in the best shape, but that doesn't mean we will make 10 changes tomorrow," Glasner said. 'Maybe we will change two or three, but that is not because we value the Saturday game more than tomorrow's game." He added: "The fans deserve to see the best teams and we will play with the best available team tomorrow.' ___ AP soccer:
