Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Round 1 - 6-8 Mar

paulisi · Tennis legend

Davis Cup 2015 - World Group Round 1 - 6-8 Mar

indiana · Tennis legend

To be fair, with a known in advance more than 7,000 footfall each day of the Davis Cup tie and a pretty captive audience, I think that the catering effort should have been much better than it apparently was.

philwrig · Hall of fame

indiana wrote:
A bit concerned about philwrig. Last heard of annoying the security heavies at the Emirates !

No need haha, just been busy, got one eye on the Cheltenham Festival, got a few thoughts to write down soon.

philwrig · Hall of fame

I can concur for starters that the catering was poor, myself, Jaffa and his mate, queued for about 20 minutes after Andy's win on Friday for food /drink and the only proper food that was left was a hummus dip and some carrots, nothing else left food wise bar a few chocolate bars ! On Sunday learning my lesson I got a couple of sandwiches in before play started but they weren't of the highest quality. Apparently there was some hot food being sold outside the venue in vans, not sure how good that was.

The cafe downstairs was only accessible to people with passes etc.,.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Re transport to the Emirates Arena - quicker to walk than wait for a train if you could manage it. 40 mins to city centre and good exercise after hours of sitting down. Didn't look at catering vans very carefully but noticed Mexican food and sushi available amongst other things. Also notices guaranteeing re-entry to arena. Very annoying that you were led to believe that you couldn't take your own food or drink in as no-one checked.

philwrig · Hall of fame

goldfish wrote:
Re transport to the Emirates Arena - quicker to walk than wait for a train if you could manage it. 40 mins to city centre and good exercise after hours of sitting down. Didn't look at catering vans very carefully but noticed Mexican food and sushi available amongst other things. Also notices guaranteeing re-entry to arena. Very annoying that you were led to believe that you couldn't take your own food or drink in as no-one checked.

I brought some food and drink in, but was completely oblivious that there was a no food/drink rule, also surprised no checking of bags.

Julia Carrot · All-time great

philwrig wrote:
I can concur for starters that the catering was poor, myself, Jaffa and his mate, queued for about 20 minutes after Andy's win on Friday for food /drink and the only proper food that was left was a hummus dip and some carrots, nothing else left food wise bar a few chocolate bars ! On Sunday learning my lesson I got a couple of sandwiches in before play started but they weren't of the highest quality. Apparently there was some hot food being sold outside the venue in vans, not sure how good that was.

The cafe downstairs was only accessible to people with passes etc.,.

Ah, now I'm one of those rare people that would have been over the moon to have hummus dip and carrots !!!!

philwrig · Hall of fame

There might have even been a bit of cucumber with the carrots !

philwrig · Hall of fame

A few observations from my DC experience, obviously most people have watched all the coverage in the TV, but a few things which may not have come across which I was surprised about.

1. It was very very LOUD !!!!

I've never been to the O2 or watched a match at a full capacity centre court at Wimby, but I couldn't believe how loud it was.

2. It was very hot, basically no need for anymore than a t shirt.

3. The Stirling Uni Barmy Army didn't have the level of impact that I thought they would, you could hear them but no more than that.

4. The GB team/bench were clearly much more pumped that the US team

5. There was probably only 20/30 American supporters who had made the trip

greatunclebulgaria · Lower Club Player

scottie1 wrote:
greatunclebulgaria wrote:
Fantastic tie, brilliant atmosphere,

but my thoughts on taking it back to the Emirates?

the Emirates wasn't big enough for this tie,

never mind the quarter-finals against France, catering was shocking and transport left an awful lot to be desired, I stood for over an hour in the pouring rain along with many other people waiting for a train back to the centre of Glasgow
The catering was rubbish I asked an official with LTA t-shirt on if there was catering inside the arena to be told yes when in fact all the catering was in the foyer choice of crisps sandwiches fruit pot is not exactly what most people were looking for. There is a café downstairs but I couldn't see how to get to it unless going out of arena! As regards transport there were frequent buses no 2 and 61 running past Celtic park took 15mins to ARGYLE street you should have taken that!
I think Emirates could be sold out twice over for the next tie and if in Scotland it will be back there

When you don't come from the area and are told to take public transport, preferably the train and which station to use, that's what you do and in the queue for the train I stood behind a gentleman doing his nut saying "it's never like this after a Celtic game and that's 60 thousand people they have to shift!"

Jaffa · Challenger level

I think Phil has that spot on, the 'Barmy Army' if you will were definitely louder on the tele than in person and were well behaved.

The uneducated fans were the ones that wound me up unfortunately but that's just me being a proper snob!!

It was hot but only because they had to make it that way so the court was quick enough - if it's there again I'd imagine they will use Wilson or Babolat balls rather than the heavy Slazenger ones.

I wouldn't have it there personally but realistically where else is there that's bigger? NEC? Newcastle?

indiana · Tennis legend

Leon was saying tonight on 5 Live that the heavier balls were deliberate against the Americans as, of course, was the slow court. I was interested that you don't have to let the opponents know what the court pace will be, just indoor hard.

This was incidentally in Leon's diary of the week featuring his nightly thoughts plus some thoughts at different times from the whole team as the week ( including practise days ) progressed. It seemed a very good atmosphere, a team very much together.

It was an interesting half hour : 9.00 - 9.30 pm tonight, Radio Five Live.

daisy · County player

goldfish wrote:
Re transport to the Emirates Arena - quicker to walk than wait for a train if you could manage it. 40 mins to city centre and good exercise after hours of sitting down. Didn't look at catering vans very carefully but noticed Mexican food and sushi available amongst other things. Also notices guaranteeing re-entry to arena. Very annoying that you were led to believe that you couldn't take your own food or drink in as no-one checked.

The lack of decent transportation BACK was, for me, the only downside of the weekend; do they lay on extra trains when Celtic play home ties? I thought of walking but those I was with couldn't manage it so we queued for buses/trains.

The ticket information ref taking in food and drink was misleading; the only thing the Emirates objected to was taking in of canned drinks for some reason although they allowed bottles (of beer) sold from their own catering stands. On the first day we didn't risk taking things in - only to find the 'catering' had sold out of sandwiches BEFORE the tennis startd. So, I had a fantastic burger (erm, 2 actually 'cos so yummy) from one of the outside vans; worth getting wet for!!! We'd found a Tesco local, Sainsburys and M&S in walking distance of our hotel and stocked up with 'lunch' there for days 2 and 3.

smile

emma · Strong Club Player

thanks indiana

here's the link for Captain's Diary in case anyone missed it www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054pfmk

its good to hear, all the guys seem to get on well with each other. hope the link works for Bob in Brazil as Beechy is mentioned.

indiana · Tennis legend

Thanks, Emma, that's good that someone more with it than me has provided a link.