DON’T REVEL IN MEADOWBANK CLOSURE
SO this is how a piece of history is sent before the wrecking ball. Accompanied by beaming grins and gushing spinning by apparatchiks trying to pretend that the new will always be better than the old. Yes, there will be much to admire in the £42million rebuild of Meadowbank. An outdoor running track complete with 500-seat stand. Multi-use gym halls and all-weather pitches. But the lack of an actual athletics stadium able to host a decent-sized event — the outdoor equivalent of the indoor Grand Prix coming to Glasgow in February, or even the European Indoor Championships heading to the Second City of the Empire in 2019 — feels like a missed opportunity. Having already closed the doors on the Meadowbank Velodrome where Sir Chris Hoy and so many others enjoyed their first tastes of racing on the boards, Edinburgh’s councillors have reminded us that no number of gold post boxes can pay for actual facilities to accommodate the next generation of Olympians. As a resident of the city, someone who sees the state of the schools, playing fields and the like up close and in muddy person, it’s hard to argue against prioritising the basics over ancillary benefits. Nor was there any shock about last week’s announcement that, after much chatter, Meadowbank will close its doors on December 3. But do the hired hands involved have to sound so pleased about it all, rattling on about how ‘excited’ they are to tear down a stadium where so much history — two Commonwealth Games plus numerous annual summer athletics events featuring major stars — was made? It all seems rather distasteful.