FCB Ticket Scalping Gets UEFA Boost; New Traffic Lights to Debut at Schutzenhaus Intersection; Convenience Stores to be Closed on Sundays...Again...; Basel Canton Merger Affair Aflame...

The upcoming UEFA championship schedule has been released at it appears Basel and its home team FC Basel will be hosts to a number of high-profile matches.  Both Real Madrid and Liverpool will be coming to St. Jakob's stadium and fan interest has already stoked interest in tickets available through official and grey-market channels.  Because a large portion of the seats and tickets available are sold out well in advance to season ticket holders, those that are interested only in the championship games should prepare for paying large premiums.  Officially, the Basel football club allows annual pass holders to sell back their tickets they will not use ONLY as a credit for their subsequent season tickets...at FACE VALUE less a service charge.  This of course leads to massive scalping opportunities when demand for game tickets is expected to be as high as they are.  The ticket holders know they can get more for their tickets from scalpers than the official channel, and the scalpers are happy to step in and use auction sites like ebay or ricardo to help shield season pass holders from revealing their identity when selling their tickets.  With recent annual UEFA championship schedules attracting interesting international teams to basel, officials have even become concerned that a ticket MAFIA of sorts has evolved, that buys up large blocks of annual passes with the intention of marking up the tickets for the most sought after games. For the officials at the FCB all of this poses a nuisance and spokeswoman Andrea Roth was quick to point out that the club explicitly dissociates itself from anyone selling tickets outside official channels and points of sale.     ***********************************************************************************

A new traffic light system is to be installed at the Schutzenhaus plaza in Basel connecting the Steinenring, Spalenring and Schutzenmattstrasse roads.  This heavily used intersection sees some of the highest density of public and private vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the city.  In addition, the crossing is the most complex, coordinating the safe crossing of multiple lanes from each approaching direction.  Apparently, only the Bergauer corporation hailing from Aargau was able to meet the specifications the transportation department required of the vendor.  the new system needs to coordinate 64 different traffic control lights while responding to 92 different inputs from detectors at pedestrian and vehicular and bicycle crossings.  The system is expected to go on-line in late September.

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One of the new laws Basel expats came to appreciate is a referendum a little less than a year ago that liberalized the labor rules affecting convenience stores.  Shops that were deemed to service major roads, motorway service areas and heavy tourist traffic could employ workers the entire evening and Sundays - something a lot of expats are used to having in their home countries.  Well, it appears the happy days may be short lived - according to the TagesWoche newspaper, all baseler convenience stores recently received a letter from the local Labor Inspectorate urging proprietors to comply with the old rules.  This of course has led to significant confusion among the operators of the stores as they try to figure out which law to comply with, while servicing the needs of their clients.  So far, the only advice offered by Hans Jurg Dolder of the Basel Office of Economics and Labour is that the laws need to be more carefully interpreted to find a compromise.  In meetings with the Labor department specific details were discussed to determine which stores meet the criteria of servicing major traffic and tourist areas to allow their continued late and sunday service.  For now, one can still get a late night or sunday gipfeli at the local gas station...

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In case you've not heard, a major referendum is underway with balloting to be held on September 28th to determine if Basel Land and Basel Stadt will merge into a single canton.  Both cantons have undertaken major efforts to express their points of view and urge their respective voters accordingly.  In the city, BaselStadt, placards show the coat-of-arms of the two cantons entwined suggesting a love-like embrace and a happy fusion.  However, it seems in basel-land the love is unrequited, as the most typical placard is one of the BaselStadt staff offering flowers with one hand while holding a mallet behind its back as a staff of baselland folds its arms and looks suspiciously at the offer.  It is interesting to note that the two cantons have repeatedly tried to merge in the past, and continue to make the effort, despite the difference in opinion...