Ground Watch

[SillyCowCorner1]

The light shows at drinks break sometimes delays the run of play even longer...
Today the players were all in their positions and the entire stadium was light up by cellphones.

lol

 

[Molehill]

Like it's not to say that Gujarat doesn't have a proud cricketing legacy and history of its own. But it transformed a 50k stadium into something no one was really asking for, and now despite having one of the best nations in the world for loving cricket, they can't even give the tickets away properly.

What sort of sized crowds do they get for IPL games here? I'm guessing it still doesn't sell out, just seems unnecessarily big.

Question for Aussies too, how often does the MCG sell out? Grand Final and Boxing Day Ashes?

 

[Molehill]

Pretty poor turnout in Lucknow so far for one of the bigger games of the Group Stages. Looks like it's filling up a bit, but nowhere near a third full at the moment.

 

[honestbharani]

What sort of sized crowds do they get for IPL games here?

Mostly full.. Finals was an absolute mega event.

The afternoon heat even now in most of these centers is a factor you cannot overlook too. A proper capacity would be reached around 7 or 8 PM in most venues IMO, except for the India games.


Edit - i meant esp for India games. Dunno how that came out as except

 

[Molehill]

Mostly full.. Finals was an absolute mega event.

The afternoon heat even now in most of these centers is a factor you cannot overlook too. A proper capacity would be reached around 7 or 8 PM in most venues IMO, except for the India games.

Yeah, you can definitely see the shady spots being significantly busier.

 

[Socerer 01]

What sort of sized crowds do they get for IPL games here? I'm guessing it still doesn't sell out, just seems unnecessarily big.

Question for Aussies too, how often does the MCG sell out? Grand Final and Boxing Day Ashes?

big matches are sold out but i dont remember seeing a completely full house for some smaller teams. still its filled to a big enough capacity that would fill nearly every other stadium on the planet

 

[Flem274*]

India vs Australia should have been the opener followed by England v NZ. Space out the big money or rivalry games through the round robin, so make India vs England in the middle and maybe save India vs Pakistan for the final or nearly final pool game so even if one side has a disaster campaign, they've still got that prestige match to go for.

I'd probably try give Netherlands and Afghanistan each other first round to warm them up for the tougher challenges to come rather than throwing them to the wolves. Sri Lanka v Bangladesh would be a good one too as they're even enough. Basically try and stack the opening weekend with big game or close game match ups.

Potentially not schedule games not involving India in 120k capacity grounds.

 

[Socerer 01]

India vs Australia should have been the opener followed by England v NZ. Space out the big money or rivalry games through the round robin, so make India vs England in the middle and maybe save India vs Pakistan for the final or nearly final pool game so even if one side has a disaster campaign, they've still got that prestige match to go for.

I'd probably try give Netherlands and Afghanistan each other first round to warm them up for the tougher challenges to come rather than throwing them to the wolves. Sri Lanka v Bangladesh would be a good one too as they're even enough. Basically try and stack the opening weekend with big game or close game match ups.

Potentially not schedule games not involving India in 120k capacity grounds.

India has at least 1 match at every stadium except for Hyderabad which in itself caused controversy because Hyderabadis felt they got the short end of the stick if more than 1 group match of India went to Ahmedabad there would have been even more howls of favouritism than already is

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Embarrassing crowd at Aus vs SA WC match. Top tiers all empty

 

[ankitj]

'House full', but far from full house - fans frustrated by arbitrary World Cup ticketing process

Tickets are being reopened for sale even at the last minute, and the ICC and the BCCI don't seem to have answers on what's caused the confusion

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[honestbharani]

Embarrassing crowd at Aus vs SA WC match. Top tiers all empty

From whatever I saw, it was half full on a weekday for a non-India and non-SC side game. That is as good as you can expect IMO.

While I agree there has been gross incompetence and corruption with how ticket sales and planning have been managed this WC, I think the biggest reason we are not seeing the crowds is actually because the format is in fact losing its sheen. I know I am not as into the ODI format as I used to be. And I wont be surprised if many others, esp. the casual fans, felt that way. When you get the similar/same level of entertainment in a 4 hour contest that happens in the night, why put yourself through an 8 hour one and having to sit in stifling heat?

 

[Athlai]

Get in the bin

 

[Socerer 01]

From whatever I saw, it was half full on a weekday for a non-India and non-SC side game. That is as good as you can expect IMO.

While I agree there has been gross incompetence and corruption with how ticket sales and planning have been managed this WC, I think the biggest reason we are not seeing the crowds is actually because the format is in fact losing its sheen. I know I am not as into the ODI format as I used to be. And I wont be surprised if many others, esp. the casual fans, felt that way. When you get the similar/same level of entertainment in a 4 hour contest that happens in the night, why put yourself through an 8 hour one and having to sit in stifling heat?

the easiest solution would have been making the schedule earlier and opening sales for tickets asap. there is a distinct lack of overseas crowds and they are the ones needed in non India matches. it was a golden opportunity for tourism too thats being wasted at this moment

 

[honestbharani]

the easiest solution would have been making the schedule earlier and opening sales for tickets asap. there is a distinct lack of overseas crowds and they are the ones needed in non India matches. it was a golden opportunity for tourism too thats being wasted at this moment

My point is even if everything went well, I dont think it would mean huge changes to the crowd. Maybe10-20% more but I honestly think more than anything else this is just proving again that ODIs are the least supported format now in world cricket.

 

[Daemon]

Indians rarely ever come out in droves to watch neutral matches in most cities. While there’s no doubt better scheduling, a better stadium experience, traffic, timing, the weather, releasing tickets more than 2 weeks in advance, a bigger expat community, etc would help boost crowds, it’ll never be packed.

For the average person, why take all that pain to watch teams you don’t support? It’s a ton of inconvenience.

This may change in the future but not without fixing the above issues first.

 

[Molehill]

For the average person, why take all that pain to watch teams you don’t support?

Coz it's a World Cup and you only get this opportunity every 20 years or so.........ah, that may be one of the problems!!

 

[Athlai]

Chennai crowd pretty good even early on.

Commentators complaining about boundaries being too small.

Overall high marks thus far

 

[Tom Flint]

I sympathise with the crowd and the heat, but why on earth are people turning up with a shirt on, jumper on top and then a new zealand shirt onto of the jumper

 

[honestbharani]

Chennai crowd pretty good even early on.

Commentators complaining about boundaries being too small.

Overall high marks thus far

Chennai actually has one of the fairest boundaries in the country.

 

[Athlai]

Chennai so big