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Post Info TOPIC: ATP World Tour Finals
john


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RE: ATP World Tour Finals
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A131 wrote:
korriban wrote:
john wrote:

Umm korriban. You can queue up on the day and watch Wimbledon for about a tenner, can't you??? One of the most accessible major sporting events in the world, the only where you can still queue for tickets on the day and I believe even show court tickets early in the tournament are only about £50 or so.

Whereas last time I checked, the O2 tickets were ridiculously pricey considering you only see 2 matches in a session I believe. Can't remember exactly but remember looking last year and thinking I would never ever pay that price.

I'm sorry but with no guarantee of any tickets, and very long queues, could I suggest the balance of people in the line are from London and the South East. Could I also suggest that the balance of people inside the venue look the same and sound the same, compared to the O2, which has a very mixed group of people - old and young, GB and foreign, tennis nuts and sports nuts, middle classes and everyone else, corporates and non corporates, families and individuals/couples. There may be a public ballot, but it seems to be the same socio-demographic seem to get lucky every single year.

I love Wimbledon - I just wish more new people could have a realistic chance of attending, without having to go through hoops. Imagine there was a groundswell of public interest in tennis across the entire spectrum of society, perhaps 3 or 4 times today's demand (a bit like the Olympics), then what? We see the same people turning up year after year (I'm excluding the members and debenture holders here) who always seem to manage to get tickets.......I agree the O2 isn't cheap but it beats travelling across the country to queue up for hours on end with no guarantees whatsoever.

 I think it's great that I can still (should I choose to do so) go online and book a ticket for the O2 where as at Wimbledon I can't do that - not even for a ground pass. I know there are perhaps good reasons for that but nonetheless it's a shame.I have some respect for those that queue and it's also a shame/disgrace even that some of real fans - like the ones who post here and who follow the sport 12 months of the year not just when Wimbledon is on - should have to go to these lengths to get in. I suspect a lot of those who enter the ballot aren't genuine tennis fans - only Wimbledon fans who pay little interest once its over or who do nothing for the game and who and helps deprive the real fans from obtaining tickets, but is there a better way? Possibly there is a better way, and I don't know what that is yet, but I don't think there will ever be an ideal way. The only trouble I have with the O2 is you still get the likes of Pippa Middleton and other celebrities latching on who only seem to care about the big players/events but I realise that seems to be how it is now. It is one of the reasons I love Birmingham so much - still a celebrity free zone.

 

 

 Only because it's also a hygiene free zone. What an awful smelly stinkhole Brumland is these days



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Jan


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When I was younger I used to go and queue up at Wimbledon - in the days when the queue was round the streets (and there was standing room on the showcourts!!). I have also had some success in the ballot a couple of times - when you could apply for tickets for specific days. I do think it was a retrograde step when they stopped that. No way I could cope with camping out overnight - but I'd love to be able to get a ground pass online. Queens might be more expensive/elite, but it's very easy to get a ground pass and see some great tennis close up.

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steven


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Yes, that's true - it's very strange that it's possible to get showcourt tickets in advance but not ground passes - the closest option is to go for a Court 3 ticket online, but that costs more money and may mean a Court 3 seat left empty for much of the day, so it's not ideal from anyone's perspective (us, Wimbledon or fans in the ground who'd like to get on Court 3)

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Spectator


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Agree on Queens. Think their grounds pass is one of the best deals going.

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imoen


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I actually think the Wimbledon ballot method is great. We are always complaining on here how elitist tennis can be but this is one way that it is accessible in my opinion. You don't have to be a card carrying member of a tennis club, you don't have to be poised online at some time when you should either be sleeping or at work and you have just as much chance as anyone else of getting final tickets. In fact a friend of mine at work got men's finals this year having never seen tennis live before on his first entry to the ballot and I think that's marvelous. Especially as he now has a long lasting memory and interest in tennis that he previously focused on football.

Two weeks of every year the country goes mad for tennis and I believe it is in part because they know that anyone can get a ballot ticket, or can go and queue and as a result some are inspired to be fans and/or players for life. I know that's how I started being a year round fan instead of a Wimbledon only, it was when a family friend took me to queue for ground tickets when i was an impressionable teen!

Having said that, I do understand the frustration of the true fan not getting tickets, but as true fans surely we should just shrug the shoulders and go to the futures down the road and enjoy the world class tennis there that only we know about?

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john


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imoen wrote:

I actually think the Wimbledon ballot method is great. We are always complaining on here how elitist tennis can be but this is one way that it is accessible in my opinion. You don't have to be a card carrying member of a tennis club, you don't have to be poised online at some time when you should either be sleeping or at work and you have just as much chance as anyone else of getting final tickets. In fact a friend of mine at work got men's finals this year having never seen tennis live before on his first entry to the ballot and I think that's marvelous. Especially as he now has a long lasting memory and interest in tennis that he previously focused on football.

Two weeks of every year the country goes mad for tennis and I believe it is in part because they know that anyone can get a ballot ticket, or can go and queue and as a result some are inspired to be fans and/or players for life. I know that's how I started being a year round fan instead of a Wimbledon only, it was when a family friend took me to queue for ground tickets when i was an impressionable teen!

Having said that, I do understand the frustration of the true fan not getting tickets, but as true fans surely we should just shrug the shoulders and go to the futures down the road and enjoy the world class tennis there that only we know about?

 Well said, thank you



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A131


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john wrote:
imoen wrote:

I actually think the Wimbledon ballot method is great. We are always complaining on here how elitist tennis can be but this is one way that it is accessible in my opinion. You don't have to be a card carrying member of a tennis club, you don't have to be poised online at some time when you should either be sleeping or at work and you have just as much chance as anyone else of getting final tickets. In fact a friend of mine at work got men's finals this year having never seen tennis live before on his first entry to the ballot and I think that's marvelous. Especially as he now has a long lasting memory and interest in tennis that he previously focused on football.

Two weeks of every year the country goes mad for tennis and I believe it is in part because they know that anyone can get a ballot ticket, or can go and queue and as a result some are inspired to be fans and/or players for life. I know that's how I started being a year round fan instead of a Wimbledon only, it was when a family friend took me to queue for ground tickets when i was an impressionable teen!

Having said that, I do understand the frustration of the true fan not getting tickets, but as true fans surely we should just shrug the shoulders and go to the futures down the road and enjoy the world class tennis there that only we know about?

 Well said, thank you

 Totally understand the argument about Wimbledon being the catalyst for getting some people interested and playing the game though I would still argue that the a significant number of people (maybe not quite the majority) that enter the ballot completely switch off from tennis until the following year. The ballot is only fair in the sense that everyone has got an equal chance of being drawn out. In most other senses it certainly is not but appreciate it is not easy, perhaps impossible, to come up with an alternative, or an alternative that would be foolproof.

I would also give a bit of support to the fact that you need not be a member of a club to enter the draw because in my experience I don't think it necessarily follows  that those who may be a member of a club, are, or spend a great deal of time following the sport or are any bigger fan that those who are not. A lot of the past and present members of my club would struggle to name the current top 10 of either gender without looking it up let alone who knocked Tara Moore out a futures event in France. They may simply prefer playing rather than following/watching which of course is their perogative but they rarely (if at all) do anything to help the general running/welfare of the club but that's another issue.

 



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Coup Droit


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I read as a side-comment in an article that this year at the ATP World Tour Finals, they're going to have an exhibition event of top world U-14 tennis.

Did they do this before and I've just forgotten - or is this new?

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JonH


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I dont know if this is the place to post this or not but I found this story interesting

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/45566104

In essence, the PGA Tour is changing how it determines the Tour Champion. Currently they take points into the final event of the Fed Ex Cup, they then add points at the Fed Ex Cup and the Tour Champion is the person with most points (forget the reset for a second).

In tennis, we do the same - top 8 points scorers qualify for Finals, they then gather more points in the Tour Finals, top points scorer at end is World #1 for the year.

But Golf is changing it - now, the Top 30 who qualify for the tour Finals have their points changed into "strokes" so the top qualifier gets a -10 stroke score, and so on and so forth they reduce that shot benefit until they have 0 strokes for the last qualifiers. So in the FInal event, the last qualifier has to outscore the field and outscore the top qualifier by at least 10 strokes to win.

I wondered how in tennis we could have a similar system - only way would be games advantage or sets - so Nadal qualifies top, maybe gets a 3 games a set advantage start, next best player gets 2 games, then 1, then maybe 3 points in first game etc etc down to no points advantage. So Nadal starts up on say Dominic Thiem as 8th placed in the Race by 3-0 in first set. Or even a set up? Or whatever...

Wouldnt really work would it?? And why on earth does golf think giving the best player an advantage at the start of the event is going to work either? Player ranked 30 of 30 may as well give up at the start. Ridiculous!

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JonH
indiana


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Jon, please don't give the ATP ideas like that !!

The WTA might be up for it though ...

 



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JonH


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indiana wrote:

Jon, please don't give the ATP ideas like that !!

The WTA might be up for it though ...

 

 Or a new idea to try out at the Next Gen Finals - I can see it now in next years finals, Jack Draper, risen up the ranks got into Milan. 

Commentator - "Draper has done so well, I hope he plays well at these finals. So Draper to serve the first point, 0-5, 0-40 to Zverev. Oh and set over, first set to Zverev one point played and such a shame for the fans it ended on a double fault"...etc etc  

 

Or maybe, maybe Pique can use something for the new DC finals...now that would be interesting?! 

 



-- Edited by JonH on Friday 21st of September 2018 05:00:44 PM

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JonH
the addict


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Now then Jon, careful what you say, someone from the LTA might be reading, and you know what happens when they get crazy ideas.

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flamingowings


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the addict wrote:

Now then Jon, careful what you say, someone from the LTA might be reading, and you know what happens when they get crazy ideas.

There is already this floating around, a winner takes all competition after the US, although not LTA related

https://twitter.com/TelegraphSport/status/1042890601782501376



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JonH


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flamingowings wrote:
the addict wrote:

Now then Jon, careful what you say, someone from the LTA might be reading, and you know what happens when they get crazy ideas.

There is already this floating around, a winner takes all competition after the US, although not LTA related

https://twitter.com/TelegraphSport/status/1042890601782501376

 fact following fiction. Oh cripes 



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JonH
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Well unless I felt pretty sure I'd be in the last eight and with realistic tilt at the purse, I wouldn't bother to enter.  I'd probably go somewhere where I'd get points and probably some remuneration for my efforts.



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