Sunday, June 15, 2008
All Blacks vs England - Eden Park
I was fortunate enough to drive a busload of people from a courier company to Eden Park last night to watch the All Blacks in action and they gave me a free stand ticket. This was my first live All Blacks watching, all the other times have been on TV (delayed, as I am too stingy to have pay TV).
The seat was on the end of row X, at the top of the South Stand with only 2 rows behind. The view was pretty good, but the only screens were some 21" sized monitors hung up on the roof. They were too small to read the writing of who scored. The sound system was inaudible. All around the field are electronic advertising boards, flashing constantly annoying messages, especially when the action is on the far side of the field. These boards are in a continuous strip, an Air NZ ad has a jumbo jet flying around the field leaving the words spinning. I was really hoping the system would halt and show 'run-time-error'.
Now for being in the crowd: you would think they could sit down and watch the game. No, they are constantly getting up and squeezing past everyone with their view-blocking bodies. Need food, need drink, need toilet. Thanks to one man for spilling beer on me. A Mexican wave started up in the terraces and did about 5 laps, accompanied by bottle and debris throwing. At least all the beer bottles were plastic. A lot ended up on the field.
The traffic was the usual jam-up, with 35,000 people coming and going. Heavens knows what it will be like when the stand is extended to hold 60,000 people for the World Cup.
The game was good, but I will stick to delayed broadcasts on my couch, thanks.
The seat was on the end of row X, at the top of the South Stand with only 2 rows behind. The view was pretty good, but the only screens were some 21" sized monitors hung up on the roof. They were too small to read the writing of who scored. The sound system was inaudible. All around the field are electronic advertising boards, flashing constantly annoying messages, especially when the action is on the far side of the field. These boards are in a continuous strip, an Air NZ ad has a jumbo jet flying around the field leaving the words spinning. I was really hoping the system would halt and show 'run-time-error'.
Now for being in the crowd: you would think they could sit down and watch the game. No, they are constantly getting up and squeezing past everyone with their view-blocking bodies. Need food, need drink, need toilet. Thanks to one man for spilling beer on me. A Mexican wave started up in the terraces and did about 5 laps, accompanied by bottle and debris throwing. At least all the beer bottles were plastic. A lot ended up on the field.
The traffic was the usual jam-up, with 35,000 people coming and going. Heavens knows what it will be like when the stand is extended to hold 60,000 people for the World Cup.
The game was good, but I will stick to delayed broadcasts on my couch, thanks.
# posted by Doug @ 10:06 AM 
