I had my first “inside look” at the Olympics facilities on Saturday night as I attended the Brazil-Ghana women’s soccer match at Workers’ Stadium. The game determined the final qualifier for The Games.
Having neatly ironed the Ghana flag I diligently sourced for the 2006 World Cup, I arrived in the hope that my pennant would not fly alone. That hope was realized. There were dozens of flags – all of them carrying the colors of Brazil, which racked up five goals before Ghana saved a bit of dignity with a late tally. I have no proof, but I believe my team must have gone on a huge drinking binge the night before. You got lucky, Brazil.
In any case, a few “thumbs ups” and “thumbs downs” about the game.
Down
Despite tickets priced as low as 20 kuai, the stadium was only one-third full.
Up
Crowded into half of the stadium, the crowd oh-ed, ah-ed, booed, cheered and had a good time, with those in the nose-bleed sections getting “the wave” going.
Down
The seats were dirty, some dabbled with white paint spots; some rows were 25 seats wide, which meant the guy on the end had to struggle past 24 other people.
Up
Several attendees offered me newspaper pages on which to sit; people were polite about letting each other go by.
Down
The nasty air, with not only visible haze, but also floating tree pollen.
Up
The diligent could have stuffed a pillow with that pollen while they watched the game.
Down
No timer on the score clock, making it hard to know when the game was close to ending.
Up
Replays on the massive TV screen.
Save for the pollution (and the score), I enjoyed the game. The security guards at the gate were polite and efficient, the crowd had a good vibe, and the stadium looked good with its various sections of colored seats. I can only imagine how this stadium is going to rock when it is full!
I’ll see your football and raise you a basketball.
I went to the Women’s Basketball on Saturday. New Zealand went down to Cuba, while Australia put away the USA.
Wukesong is a long way from Chao Yang, but we got there in good time. We were met by a phalanx of security people, who did the usual checks. No problem with that, until they spied my Australia flag in my backpack. “What’s that flag?”, they asked, not being able to read the word Australia down the side. I explained what it was, but they couldn’t understand why I would bring an Australian flag to the stadium. To cheer my team, I said. That drew puzzled looks. It turned out that not even the supervisor knew who was playing that day. We had to wait 10 minutes while the boss found someone who could verify that Australia were indeed playing.
The stadium itself looks great, though it also has a Gods section, which surely needs binoculars. But upon sitting down, we discovered a minor design problem – the pitch of the seats is barely enough for a man of average height to get his knees in front of him. I am 5′ 10″ and it was barely comfortable. We were on the end of the row, so the narrow seating meant there was no choice but to stand up everytime someone came or went.
At half time, I decided to grab some snacks. Now there’s a chance for a little improving. Even though the stadium was barely a quarter full, the service was simply awful. Sausage warmers that served only about a dozen people before needing refilling. The usual Chinese method of queueing (not). The food stored nowhere near where the attendants were working. Virtually no healthy food – junk food was all that was on offer. A full stadium would have severely tested the system.
Overall, a score of maybe 6 or 7 out of 10 for this new stadium. The bizarre incident with the flag, the squeezy seats and the slow food service were more than made up for by the Aussies whipping the Americans.
8 Songs,
The security and food issues should be easy enough to address, but the seats could be a problem (they were a bit tight at Workers’ Stadium though I believe we had more room than you did). Call it “economy-plus.”
By the way, after I posted, I realized that the soccer match was my second experience at an Olympics facility. The first was last month – the baseball stadium.
http://www.beijingboyce.com/2008/03/24/batter-up-baseball-comes-to-beijing/).
Cheers, Boyce