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I didn't get back from Europe until 9/8, so maybe this has been hashed over already, but what was the Organizing Committee thinking about when it sold only the lower level for the morning sessions? We bought tickets for all the afternoon sessions and figured that, since the mornings were all a flat eight Euros, that they would be general seating and we could move around as we wished. Mike Renfro went out on the Thursday before the meet to get our mornining tickets and returned with section N15 for the hep mornings and the news that the deca mornings were SOLD OUT. Huh? How could they sell out 60,000 seats for the decathlon? How about those French athletics fans!
When we arrived, we found that, from out seats, we could not see the jump pits AT ALL, nor could we see the outer couple of lanes of the track, and the sprinters were running directly away from us. The middle and upper decks were, however, completely empty, except for ushers keeping people out.
Later they sold some seats in the middle deck, as we were able to get section E2 for the first day of the deca, but couldn't get anything for day two. We finally managed to get some tickets via some friends who were on the T&F News tour.
A few other things:
- there was a rumor that programs for the first day finally showed up late, but I never saw one
- sometimes heat results never went up on the board for one or more heats of a set, so we couldn't keep track of fastest losers. Thanks to Gary Hill for mentioning this a couple of times, which may or may not have had anything to do with some results being posted later.
- they didn't keep cameramen from obscuring field-event boards and/or the timers inside the track
Thank God, they didn't schedule either marathon during the Opening Ceremony so that we didn't get to see most of it, as they did in Edmonton. The marathoners really lucked out with the conditions, as the 14:20 starting times were almost the worst possible for the runners.
As always, Gary Hill and Bob Hersh did a great job with the English-language announcing; I assume the French announcer did, too, but I couldn't say.
As to the schedule, I still was frustrated by not being able to follow everything. Sometimes there were three field events going on plus a track event. I would prefer more morning sessions, with all the field event qualifying and more of the track qualifying in the mornings, so the evening sessions could be kept to two field events at a time; that's doable with cooperation from your friends:
"Acuff up in the high jump!"
"Gun is up for the 400!"
"Zelezny in the jav!"
Cheers,
Alan Shank
When we arrived, we found that, from out seats, we could not see the jump pits AT ALL, nor could we see the outer couple of lanes of the track, and the sprinters were running directly away from us. The middle and upper decks were, however, completely empty, except for ushers keeping people out.
Later they sold some seats in the middle deck, as we were able to get section E2 for the first day of the deca, but couldn't get anything for day two. We finally managed to get some tickets via some friends who were on the T&F News tour.
A few other things:
- there was a rumor that programs for the first day finally showed up late, but I never saw one
- sometimes heat results never went up on the board for one or more heats of a set, so we couldn't keep track of fastest losers. Thanks to Gary Hill for mentioning this a couple of times, which may or may not have had anything to do with some results being posted later.
- they didn't keep cameramen from obscuring field-event boards and/or the timers inside the track
Thank God, they didn't schedule either marathon during the Opening Ceremony so that we didn't get to see most of it, as they did in Edmonton. The marathoners really lucked out with the conditions, as the 14:20 starting times were almost the worst possible for the runners.
As always, Gary Hill and Bob Hersh did a great job with the English-language announcing; I assume the French announcer did, too, but I couldn't say.
As to the schedule, I still was frustrated by not being able to follow everything. Sometimes there were three field events going on plus a track event. I would prefer more morning sessions, with all the field event qualifying and more of the track qualifying in the mornings, so the evening sessions could be kept to two field events at a time; that's doable with cooperation from your friends:
"Acuff up in the high jump!"
"Gun is up for the 400!"
"Zelezny in the jav!"
Cheers,
Alan Shank
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