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Friendly Birmingham '22

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    Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
    Completing the weekend's six sessions was the Netball Bronze Medal match between England and New Zealand with the children on Sunday afternoon. It was far from my first Netball match but was amazing for having one of the most intensely (and deafeningly) partisan crowds I've ever been in. The hosts failed to claim a medal but the game was a typical stormer and the atmosphere didn't suffer with both teams and the crowd performing excellently. The post-match scenes of NZ's player performing a celebratory haka and two genuinely moving and wise speeches from two retiring England players were excellent, I really love that sport.
    How serendipitous that we both posted about the brilliance of the netball within seconds of each other!

    Great pictures, by the way.

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      I should also say that generally I thought Birmingham did a fantastic job of staging the games. All the events were well run and organised themselves even if the travel between venues wasn't always the easiest (either because of poor provision or, more likely I suspect, because communication about what was actually provided wasn't good enough). The travel planning section of the generally appalling Games website was only exceeded in its clunkiness by the ticketing section.

      That's my only real criticism though. Birmingham was handed a difficult task stepping in late to host and having to deal with Covid, a tanking economy and lots of other competing sporting events leading to a relatively low profile (something the Commonwealths is facing as an event altogether, much as I love its anachronistic charm). Brum acquitted itself very well and I really hope the city and region benefit and get more major events.

      Last edited by Ray de Galles; 08-08-2022, 16:28.

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        Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
        I should also say that generally I thought Birmingham did a fantastic job of staging the games. All the events were well run and organised themselves even if the travel between venues wasn't always the easiest (either because of poor provision or, more likely I suspect, because communication about what was actually provided wasn't good enough. The travel planning section of the generally appalling Games website was only exceeded in its clunkiness by the ticketing section.
        Yes, transport has been patchy and I agree with your comments about the website too. But overall, a great success in my opinion and extremely well organised on the whole, especially, as you say, given COVID and the fact that stepped in late to host it. I was away in Exmoor for a few days last week in the middle of it so I have been limited in what I could get to and also watch on TV but I have been to a few events and they have all been great fun. The cricket tournament has been a real hit and hopefully will be replicated next time in Victoria and, who knows, maybe even the Olympics in Los Angeles. Regretfully, I haven't managed to get into the centre at any stage to see the mechanical bull or to soak in the general atmosphere.
        Last edited by Jon; 08-08-2022, 16:16.

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          Yo! Ozzy! Heavy metal's high point is a mere fifty-two years old...

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            Haha, I was watching the lights dim and go red and purple before that surprise finale, and was thinking "No, surely it can't be Sabbath, can it...?"

            Brilliant. Enjoyed the closing ceremony a lot more than I anticipated, mostly due to the unexpected musical highlights of which the above was one. Dexys! Apache Indian! Musical Youth! Beverley Knight detonating an outstanding version of Inner City Life with Goldie in a fabulous Wolves-themed outfit. The Selecter. Even Vanessa Amorosi, 22 years after she did both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics.

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              By rights ELO should have been the only choice to close the ELOlympics but Sabbath are a decent substitute, I suppose. A pity that the song based on Breaking The Law wasn't actually Priest playing it though.

              Panjabi MC and the grime acts were great though and it was a lot of fun, seeming to zip along apart from the terrible minor royal's speech and the handover to the next host, which is always crap.

              Friends in the stadium said it very enjoyable too. As ever loved the BBC's montages in the coverage too.

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                Just a nod to Ray and others who've shared their experiences on this thread. Most enjoyable.

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                  A common theme in the post-medal interviews (NZ competitors) has been the crowd support for the events and participants. The athletes seem genuinely appreciative and impressed, many saying it was the best they'd experienced.

                  Watching second-hand, it feels like the organisers got the scale right. A packed 20,000 stadium is much better on TV than a half-full 60,000 stadium. Birmingham done good (with apologies to Leamington, Coventry, and the rest).

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                    I knew Ozzy was going to show up.

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                      Originally posted by tee rex View Post
                      A common theme in the post-medal interviews (NZ competitors) has been the crowd support for the events and participants. The athletes seem genuinely appreciative and impressed, many saying it was the best they'd experienced.

                      Watching second-hand, it feels like the organisers got the scale right. A packed 20,000 stadium is much better on TV than a half-full 60,000 stadium. Birmingham done good (with apologies to Leamington, Coventry, and the rest).
                      Yeah. The crowd has been mentioned so much in interviews that it also became a cliche. Good point about the stadium sizes. The ticket sales have held up really well.

                      I haven't seen the closing ceremony yet. I fact, I'm still watching the opening ceremony on catch up in installments. It's bloody long. But good - I love a good opening ceremony.

                      It occurred to me, while watching the athletes walk in to the stadium, that there's a lot to be said for mixing para athletes with the non-para athletes in the same tournament. They were all coming into the stadium together. I doubt if you could do it with the Olympics because of the sheer scale of the tournament but I think it worked well in these commonwealth games.

                      Another innovation that the commonwealth organisers seem to be trying is esports. They had a few eSports sessions in Birmingham just to try them out. Don't know how successful they were and it's certainly not my thing.

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                        Just out of interest, Ray, did you win the lottery or something? You seem to actually go to more sporting events than I manage to watch.

                        I love reading your reports. Keep them coming.

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                          Originally posted by tee rex View Post
                          A common theme in the post-medal interviews (NZ competitors) has been the crowd support for the events and participants. The athletes seem genuinely appreciative and impressed, many saying it was the best they'd experienced.

                          Watching second-hand, it feels like the organisers got the scale right. A packed 20,000 stadium is much better on TV than a half-full 60,000 stadium. Birmingham done good (with apologies to Leamington, Coventry, and the rest).
                          Alexander Stadium was actually boosted to 32,000 capacity for the Games with those two huge temporary stands over the bends.

                          It will drop back to 18,000 with them removed, up from it's pre-conversion capacity of 12,700.
                          Last edited by Ray de Galles; 09-08-2022, 09:48.

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                            Originally posted by Jon View Post

                            Yeah. The crowd has been mentioned so much in interviews that it also became a cliche. Good point about the stadium sizes. The ticket sales have held up really well.
                            I'm not entirely sure they have, at least in terms of percentage of intended capacities, despite the trumpeting of record sales from the organisers.

                            Obviously the big ticket events sales were very healthy, especially as you got close to the climax of events, but you could pick up tickets for almost anything on the site right up until the weekend and that is a rarity. There was also a sense in some of the venues that capacities had been a little scaled down given the size of the rooms/stadia.

                            The organisers also only had the official resale platform open for a bare minimum of time and shut down even face value (or lower) resellers like Twickets and you only take actions like that when you're concerned about your primary sales.

                            The main problem was that the ticket prices were set at pre 'cost of living crisis' levels and that those levels have kept rising radically over the last decade or more as the UK has firmly established itself as the strongest market in the world for major sporting event ticket sales.

                            Almost every sporting and entertainment event has seen the ticket sales market take a massive dip since the turn of the year and if the Commonwealths were going on sale now I think a lot of the price bands would be lower.


                            Last edited by Ray de Galles; 09-08-2022, 11:50.

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                              Originally posted by Logan Mountstuart View Post
                              Just out of interest, Ray, did you win the lottery or something? You seem to actually go to more sporting events than I manage to watch.
                              Ha ha! I'm just lucky that attending live sport is the only major indulgence in my life and I have a very understanding wife & children.


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                                By the way, I meant to ask when it was started but is there a pun in the thread title? Or is it just a comment on the "Friendly Games"?

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                                  Long may it continue. Despite the clouds over the sport and the pervasive britcentricness, I really love watching big athletic meets on the telly. Always have done. Swimming too.

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                                    Ray de Galles There is no pun, it's an awful thread title and I regret it every time I see a new post in it. It was only a comment on it's historic name.

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                                      Originally posted by Logan Mountstuart View Post
                                      Long may it continue. Despite the clouds over the sport and the pervasive britcentricness, I really love watching big athletic meets on the telly. Always have done. Swimming too.
                                      More clouds over British athletics.

                                      https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/62478211

                                      A shame and, like you said, Logan, there is nothing like a big night at an athletics/multi-sport games tournament.

                                      As regards to having an understanding family, my son is wholly uninterested in watching sport, live or on telly, which can be a real bugbear. I managed to drag him along to one of T20 matches though, which worked pretty well. Luckily though there was plenty of other stuff for him to doing rather than watching the cricket - an activity book, a treasure trail around Edgbaston plus some 'try the sport out' areas. Plus the format of T20 cricket is fairly child-friendly. I got morning session diving tickets for him too but he ended up not going. Just too early a start.

                                      The next big sporting event I'm thinking of getting tickets for is the Rugby League World Cup. Here's hoping they have plenty of bouncy castles in the concourses of the Ricoh Arena to keep him happy.

                                      Interesting thoughts about the ticket sales, Ray. I was wondering whether a 'season ticket' might be a good idea when the tournament is being hosted in just one city. The ticket would then allow you to get to any event you wanted to. But I imagine it would be very difficult to implement, given you couldn't then know for certain how many spectators were going to be at each event.

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                                        Originally posted by Jon View Post
                                        Talking of fairly pointless games, the hockey has intrigued me. There isn't just a Bronze Medal Match but there is a deciding match between the 5th and 6th placed teams, another one between the 7th and 8th teams and another one for the 9th and 10th teams. Anyone have any idea why they do this? My hockey-loving sister in-law thinks it's to do with sorting out the world rankings but surely that can't be right as not all of the hockey playing nations compete in the Commonwealth games.

                                        She came with me to the cricket in the morning and was lucky to also have tickets for the England Australia women's final later on in the day, which looked amazing on the highlights. After that, she stuck around for the game after the final - the aforementioned 5th v 6th play-off game - NZ 2 Wales 1.
                                        Simply standard practice for International Hockey tournaments. The logic driving it is friendly matches are not part of the calendar really, with many teams being amateur - they can get their players together for two week spells for major events, but then won't see them again for months. So they don't actually want their fixtures to end when they get knocked out of the running for a medal, as the extra games are useful in preparing the team for the next qualifying competition.

                                        Those qualifying competitions are also generally done over an extended weekend at a single location as well, rather than home and away fixtures spread over the calendar year. They will also have crossover games (the official name for these placement matches) for that reason, and for promotion/relegation within continental groups.

                                        Hockey players are used to the idea that they may play three games in three days as a consequence. Twice in two days is entirely typical.

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                                          Oh, and yes, the Commonwealth Games Hockey matches will count towards the World Rankings. All fixtures do. It doesn't matter whether the whole world is playing in an event or not. Football is identical in this regard - England's Women's team climbed from eighth to fourth in FIFA's list after winning the Euros despite the obvious absence of USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and Brazil from that competition. The governing bodies use a formula that awards points for the result and then weights those points according to the ranking of the opponent. Therefore any game can count towards the overall rolling ranks.

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                                            Originally posted by Jon View Post

                                            Interesting thoughts about the ticket sales, Ray. I was wondering whether a 'season ticket' might be a good idea when the tournament is being hosted in just one city. The ticket would then allow you to get to any event you wanted to. But I imagine it would be very difficult to implement, given you couldn't then know for certain how many spectators were going to be at each event.
                                            Certain single-venue events such at the Athletics European Championships (which is starting later this week in Munich) do offer that and at very reasonable prices too.

                                            They didn't offer it for the Worlds in London in 2017 so I had to buy each evening session separately but that's probably because it was a guaranteed sell out and the Europeans aren't.

                                            While I am on the subject, the Diamond League's return to London for July 23 next year has just been announced, tickets on sale on Friday.

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                                              Originally posted by Janik View Post
                                              Oh, and yes, the Commonwealth Games Hockey matches will count towards the World Rankings. All fixtures do. It doesn't matter whether the whole world is playing in an event or not. Football is identical in this regard - England's Women's team climbed from eighth to fourth in FIFA's list after winning the Euros despite the obvious absence of USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and Brazil from that competition. The governing bodies use a formula that awards points for the result and then weights those points according to the ranking of the opponent. Therefore any game can count towards the overall rolling ranks.
                                              How does it work with Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Olympics? Internationally, are the home nations traditionally separate in things like World Championships?

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                                                Yes. England rather the GB played in the very recent Women’s World Cup (July). They were beaten by Argentina in the QFs. It was also England in this years World League. The home nations come together in Olympic years to play as GB, i.e. for the full 12 month cycle rather than just for the games. At that point everything England have qualified for morphs into a GB spot in competitions and World Rankings (I suspect that technically it is the highest ranked/qualified home nation whose slot GB usurp for the year - in practice that is invariably England).

                                                Scotland are fairly regular competitors at the Euros, Wales more occasional qualifiers.

                                                Oh, and Ireland play as united team for everything but the Olympics, similar to how Rugby works.
                                                Last edited by Janik; 10-08-2022, 07:19.

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                                                  Thanks Janik.

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                                                    Victoria (Aus) has apparently withdrawn as host for 2026. More soon, as they say.

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