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2008-01-23 12:35:00
I’m writing this post travelling at 800 km/h at an altitude of 10 km, as I’m on my way back from the first Grand Slam of 2008. There’s still a lot of action to take place during the upcoming five days, but what a tournament this has been. Some of the highlights include Federer being pushed to five sets against Tipsarevic, Hewitt winning a rollercoaster five set match against Baghdatis finishing at 4:34 in the morning and home crowd favorite Dellacqua causing huge upsets against both Schnyder and Mauresmo.
I would be surprised to find an event offering a ticket with more value than the Australian Open. A five-day ground pass will cost you 100 AUD, which is about 85 USD or 60 Euro. This is a ridiculous price. It’s about what you would pay for a ticket to a concert of a well-known artist or for a sweatshirt of a popular brand. During the first week of the Australian Open, you have access to all courts except the Rod Laver Arena, and can watch pretty much every top player in the world of tennis. Even if you’re not interested in tennis, you will probably have a good time enjoying all the off-court activities. Having come this far, you might think that I’m working for the marketing department of the tournament. But I can guarantee you that’s not the case. I’m just very happy to see a Grand Slam tournament where the organizers really care about the fans. That’s certainly not the case with all four of them.
US Open is another great event for the fans, but the European slams are lagging far behind. At the Roland Garros, the tennis is always spectacular and being a clay court lover I would rate it as the most entertaining Slam. However, it is extremely difficult to move between courts in an over-crowded narrow area. Many times you will end up waiting in line for hours before you can get a glimpse of your favorite player. The organizers have also put up a lot of ridiculous rules making life very difficult for the tennis fan. For example, if it’s raining, you’re not allowed to exit the area and re-enter at a later time without buying a new ticket. Silly, isn’t it? They seriously expect people to wait around for seven or eight hours hoping for the rain to stop. The tickets are very hard to come by with a lot of restrictions, but somehow the aggressive guys representing the black market have hundreds of tickets for each session, selling them at triple face value with the nearby policemen not moving a finger to try and stop them.
Roland Garros is still a lot better than Wimbledon, where all “ordinary people” have to line up for hours hoping to get a ticket. When you’re finally inside, you will be happy to find a seat at any of the five top courts, and most likely you will end up on Henman Hill where you can watch the Center Court action on a giant screen with hundreds of other fans. The area is just way too small for a world class event in the 21st Century.
I get the feeling that the people with power at Wimbledon enjoy the hierarchy with them and their friends walking on the red carpet while the normal fan is begging on his knees to get a chance to watch some tennis.
Tell a friend »
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