40 rupees for a car parking? You have got to be kidding me.
400 Indian fans arrive
*By Our Sports Correspondent
LAHORE, Jan 15: Around 400 Indian cricket fans arrived to watch the ongoing first Test between Pakistan and India at Qadhafi Stadium. But the visitors were disappointed as the inclement weather prevailing in Lahore deprived them of enjoying cricket as only 73 minutes’ play was possible on Sunday, the third day, due to bad light.
The visitors, mostly Sikhs, passed their time walking around the Stadium.
They brought with them banners bearing slogans which were reflecting the increasing India-Pakistan friendship.
While there was no cricket, the visitors from India found time to chat with local cricket fans. A stall established by the Punjab Tourism department, providing information about the tourist resorts in the province in front of the stadium was the centre of attraction for the spectators.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has allowed the contractor of car parking to fix high rates as they are officially charging exorbitant rate of Rs 40 for a car parking and Rs 10 for a motorbike.
Food items which can only be bought from inside the stadium, are also available at high rates.
The fans are not allowed to bring in eatables or drinks including water for security reasons and that is the main cause which has forced most of them to stay away from the stadium.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-rocket)
Seriously, I think Pakistanis give a much better account of themselves when they do not show up in huge numbers in the stadium for a test match.
I have never quite understood why a sane person in his right mind would want to take the trouble of going to the stadium, pay for a seat, sit in the sun and watch a test match from a distance (with no recourse to replays and other good stuff that you have on TV).....and esp so on Week Days.
Contrast this with India......even a match against Zimbabwe/Bangladesh generates audiences in the thousands.....even on weekdays...I think it says something about how many Indians NEED A LIFE.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-roc
Since I asked a question and am not sure about whether or not same conditions applied during the England innings, we did see quite a number of spectators rack up the seats, didn't we?
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-rocket)
^Believe me I have seen a few One-day International Matches at Feroz Shah Kotla (Delhi). The game seems so much less glamourized when you see it in a stadium instead of on the TV.
And to see the game for the whole day , 5 days in a row...(as in test matches)...you got to have some grey cells missing.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-roc
Entirely true. I wonder if the above factor (side-entertainent) came into the picture when England team visited. Certainly had large numbers of crowd in almost every corner of the stadium. Maybe it was because of the "English" team (since every Tom, Dick and Harry there is trying to learn the accent), rather than "Indian". It is common for such 'fashion styles' to run rampant in Pakistan.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-rocket)
Back in the days a 5 day match used to be fun in the stadium. You didn't see guns and the police saluted you if wore a sports jacket. Girls didn't jump up and down and looked at you from the side of their eyes. You ran to the corner to take a quick drag of the cigarette so your dad's friend didn't catch you smoking.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-rocket)
Batting tracks are perhaps the main reason. 7 wickets for (679+400=) 1079 runs, and 2 of them were run outs. What is the entertainment part in it?????? Boundaries are so common that they have lost their (entertainment) value. Cricket is bat and bowl and if both elements are there then crowds will come in big numbers.
Agianst Eng, there were not big crowd in first test as well, but afer that there were sufficient attendance for rest of the test matches as batsmen and bowlers played their roles and every one delivered some aspect of entertainment towards crowd.
As for Parking, drinks and food, they cost a lot at every common public place, whether you are on a railway station, bus stand, airport, or even a shopping mall. Stadium is no exception. It is not the first time they are costly.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-rocket)
PCB should invest in making the whole stadium experience better. Not just seats and stuff, but the entire infrastructure.
There should be electronic score-boards placed in multiple locations, so that each seat has a view of a score-board. There should be giant replay screens in the stadium, so the people who are watching live should not be penalized. If they spend enough money, they may get advanced technology electronic scoreboards that can do multi-task as giant TV screens as well.
In addition, they can do other innovative stuff. Like have school choirs sing the anthem in the afternoons (that will bring their parents etc to the stadium) and bring local flavor to the games. They should have fans participate in the experience by capturing people from the crowd and show them on the giant screens etc. PCB doesn't even have to re-invent the wheel. Major sports all over the world have come up with many interesting ideas to make the stadium experience better. PCB can just copy some of the nicer, practical and relevant ideas. Obviously, if they push for cheerleaders in skimpy clothes, than that will be a non-starter. So Chacha Cricket will just have to carry the load in his green shirt and white beard.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-roc
Faisal bhai, you raise couple of good points, and I do believe most of us have at least given a point or two from your post a lot of thought in the recent past. Right now, it just seems like a "fairy tale" to me. Maybe something to tell your grandkids in the future, something to the effect of 'When I used to go and watch test cricket, there were no such amusements and refreshments (as you described in your post). Look at it now, 30 years down the road. It's all changed.'
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-rocket)
Going back to my question that I posted in my initial post, can anyone confirm if these scenarios were the same during the English series? Did the car parking fees racketed up in the same bracket back then as it is being done now, not to mention the food prices?
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-rocket)
Thing is that cricket boards are far behind other sports in understanding the market.
Cricket boards (at least in Pakistan, India etc) seem to have figured that the real money is in broadcast rights and not in the stadiums. So while they have successfully marketed to the tv audience (all that flashy technology) they kinda give a step-child treatment to stadium audience. This is all fine and dandy, till one day they will figure out that filled-out stadiums not only give the sportsmen their impetus to perform better, but also help TV audience appreciate the game. Watching a game on TV where stadiums are all empty makes the TV viewer look stupid in his own mind, and may be in the next series, that TV viewer will not even bother ordering the test series (this process has already started). This will bring down the broadcasting revenue, in the long term as well.
Blacking out TV in the local market till stadium is filled is another suggestion, but I really dislike it. Its like penalizing people for not showing up. However, the crux of the matter is that all the stuff that I mentioned can only work if the game itself is interesting i.e. spectator sport. The sort of test match thats going on in Lahore, will bring no one to the stadium. Its test cricket at its worst. I had hoped cricket, overall, has gone away from such insane displays of boring cricket. I guess not.
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-roc
It was such a pain yesterday to watch poor people lying directly under hot sun, with no covers, trying to protect themselves from the scorching heat, as well as watching the current match in progress. I feel so sorry for them, they had absolutely no activity, other than watching themselves on the big screen for a split moment, which is not a guarantee in itself. I mean, on one hand, you sit down at home with a hope of watching a good day's worth of cricket (well, this test is an exception), and on the other hand, they kept showing these poor souls over and over again, just sitting there, broiling and blistering with absolutely no protection over them, forced and driven by high prices for parking and food items. Sure the ticket is free, but even then.........I wonder what would be the alternative if such an activity would not have been happening at Qaddafi Stadium for the past couple of days? Anywhere else to go, besides the local "paan ki dukaan/dhaba" shops?
Re: The reason for low crowd turnout (40 rupees for a car parking, food items sky-roc
what hot sun/scorching heat man? there was no “sun” and the weather is “winter” … unless you were switching channels and watching some “other” cricket.
and PCB must provide a “Nargis” performance to keep the crowd in stadium when Younis Khan is batting on a flat track. 