Soap, wifi, but no football: a room without a view at Blackpool’s stadium hotel

EFL regulations mean guests at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel can’t watch the game – our writer checks in for a trip into the dark

It seems perfectly reasonable that anyone booking a “Superior Room with Pitch View” at the Blackpool Football Club Stadium Hotel, located inside the Bloomfield Road Stadium, would expect a hotel room with a view of the pitch. And that is exactly the case except – bizarrely – when Blackpool are actually playing, with some hotel guests recently scuppered by the smallest of fine print when booking: “Due to the EFL rules and regulations, bedroom curtains have to be kept drawn throughout a match.” Failure to do so could result in a £2,500 fine. Ouch.

Across the 14 years that I have worked for the Guardian, there have been a few occasions where I have been tempted, perhaps after a stressful shift, to go and lie down in a dark room. I just didn’t think that this could be an actual assignment. But off I go to Blackpool to investigate this special type of 3pm blackout, and shortly before kick-off between Blackpool and League One relegation rivals Northampton, I find myself pulling a very heavy curtain across a panoramic window facing the Bloomfield Road pitch and the Blackpool Tower beyond. That’s my daylight done for the day. Continue reading...