Bob in Spain wrote:

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gattolibero wrote:

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Bob in Spain wrote:

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On a separate note, I was one of those who travelled over to Naples for the the Davis Cup. And with the exception of one taxi ride, I actually had a fantastic time. The people were great and the atmosphere in the stadium was amazing at times.

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 Good to hear that! I felt ashamed for the condition of the court in Naples, I would have preferred Foro Italico in Rome to show to the world, nice courts on the clay, beautiful scenario and same chances to win. Of course the atmosphere in Naples was a huge support for the Italian team (that's why they chose it), maybe Rome would not have been the same.

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Yes. I would be lying if I said there weren't a few things that could have been done better, but I am sure that is the case at a lot of venues. Our biggest complaint, and I made this complaint on the Saturday when I was there, was that the stadium announcements were not duplicated in English.  For example, when we finished Day 1 with the Murray v Seppi singles part way through, the Saturday start time was brought forward from 2pm to 11am to accommodate the completion of the match. This was not announced in English and we only knew through looking on the internet. In fact, apart from the warning not to put off the players, NOTHING was announced in English.

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The warning announced in English is infinitely more than was announced in Russian when we played the Russians in Coventry (indeed, more than is announced in any language other than English when we play a home tie!), I seem to remember.

Also, while I don't know whether there were any Italian speakers among the GB supporters, I know there were at least 2 or 3 Spanish speakers there (I'm replying to one of them right now ) - did none of them pick up on the time change when it was announced? I only say that because I've never had much trouble picking up the basics of what Italians are saying based on knowing Spanish, despite never learning any Italian. Then again, I realise that's easy for me to say without having been there - I guess if the crowd was a bit noisy at the time and/or you weren't expecting to hear something important and/or the announcer had a heavy Neapolitan accent, it may have been very easy to miss it!

Anyway, I'd agree with you that at Davis Cup ties, when it's obvious which two languages the vast majority of spectators will be speaking, it would make sense for any important announcements to be made in both languages. Maybe that already happens in some ties in other countries ... or maybe we could take the lead when we next hold home ties ...

 

Yes. I did think about the Russian situation at Coventry when I posted that comment, but I'm not sure the Russians had 700 travelling supporters at the tie. I was able to pick up on some of what was being said, but certainly not everything. Strangely enough, when I went to the office to complain about the situation, I ended up having the conversation in Spanish.

Other issues included the control at the entries to the stadium. There were no signs as to which entrance you should go to. On day 1, there were a group of Italian fans in front of me as we waited 30 minutes in the queue. When we finally got to the gate, they were told "wrong entrance" and had to go around to the far side of the stadium and join the even longer queue. Quite a lot of people missed almost the whole of the 1st set because of delays getting in.

Wish I had heard the interview with Fleming & Murray though, that must have been hilarious.