Madrid -Empty Seats

JRstriker12 · May 13, 2009

Been catching a little of the Madrid masters in the morning before work and a little in the evening.

One thing I noticed is that there seems to be a lot of empty seats. For example (at least when I turned it on) the Del Potro / Berdych match, there didn't seem to be anyone in the stadium.

Am I just catching the early matches? Have others seen the Madrid matches with more people in the stadium?

l_gonzalez · May 13, 2009

it's true, a lot of empty seats. only seems to start filling up after 6pm. Having said that I still haven't seen a completely full stadium at any time.
Guess the credit crunch has hit Madrid particularly hard.

featherlight · May 13, 2009

the girl matches are the wrost you harly see a crowd of more than 100

rosenstar · May 13, 2009

Nadal/Melzer is pretty packed right now. Really good match.

cucio · May 13, 2009

In Spain the usual business opening hours are from 9 to 2 and from 4 to 8, so most people are working or in class.

Tickets range from 20-50 EUR morning and 35-65 EUR evening, so they are hardly affordable for the people who could use them like students and senior citizens. That's for thursday, I guess the prices will be much higher for the weekend sessions.

On the other hand, this happens almost everywhere, doesn't it? First rounds don't fill the stadiums, especially in the morning. First time I noticed was in Dubai, so I thought it was because tennis was not too popular there, but since then I paid attention and it is more or less the same everywhere.

Safinator_1 · May 13, 2009

Nadal/Melzer looked pretty packed o.o pretty shocked since all other matches looked empty, 'oh so thats where everyone was'

West Coast Ace · May 13, 2009

JRstriker12 said:
One thing I noticed is that there seems to be a lot of empty seats. For example (at least when I turned it on) the Del Potro / Berdych match, there didn't seem to be anyone in the stadium.

Am I just catching the early matches? Have others seen the Madrid matches with more people in the stadium?

I think they were first up, 11AM local time. Are there any non-major tournaments that middle of the week, first on would be more crowded?

cucio said:
Tickets range from 20-50 EUR morning and 35-65 EUR evening, so they are hardly affordable for the people who could use them like students and senior citizens. That's for thursday, I guess the prices will be much higher for the weekend sessions.

When I showed up Saturday I was a little shocked the prices were that high for the qualies/early rounds. Think they made a mistake there. And I saw some posters around town - but I had trouble finding anyone who knew exactly where the new complex was (once you got off the subway) - had to ask a few people. So I also wonder if they did a good enough job of marketing - especially since it moved from Oct to May.

Cucio, is school still in session?

fedtastic · May 13, 2009

The spaniards have better things to do than watch tennis. Dance to flamenco music and then a long siesta. No time for tennis.

cucio · May 13, 2009

West Coast Ace said:
Cucio, is school still in session?

If I get your question right, last term finishes at the end of June.

JRstriker12 · May 13, 2009

West Coast Ace said:
I think they were first up, 11AM local time. Are there any non-major tournaments that middle of the week, first on would be more crowded?

That's what I was sort of wondering - if I was catching the fisrt match of the day early in the morning. Seems like I end up catching the same early match on repeat later in the day.

FWIW - the other clay court touneys I've seen recent seemed a bit more full, but it could be the size/scale of the madrid stadium. Looks huge.

NickC · May 13, 2009

Combine the high ticket prices with the fact that Spain has the highest unemployment number in the entire EU. There's your answer.

skip1969 · May 13, 2009

yeah, the crowds have been disappointing. recession notwithstanding, i wonder how on top of it the organizers were. i mean, the complex is not quite finished. it's new, and like westcoast said, i'm sure that might have been an issue for people.

so far, it looks like an opportunity wasted. all the hoo-ha over the changes in schedule, masters 1000, combined event, new surface, new complex . . . so many opportunities to make a huge splash on the first year of this (newfangled) madrid masters. it should have been marketed to death, after all, nadal is no #1. how hard is it to see a tourney in spain when you've got the best player in the world? sell the tickets for cheap, get the grounds packed, create a buzz, hit the ground running . . .

not so much.

cucio · May 13, 2009

You just have to look at the website to get a feel of the marketing savvy of the tournament organization.

skip1969 · May 13, 2009

cucio said:
You just have to look at the website to get a feel of the marketing savvy of the tournament organization.

LOL. uh . . . good point there.

West Coast Ace · May 13, 2009

cucio said:
If I get your question right, last term finishes at the end of June.

Thanks. Yeah, what we in the States call kindergarten through 12th grade.

cucio said:
You just have to look at the website to get a feel of the marketing savvy of the tournament organization.

Scrolling sideways... trippy!

skip1969 · May 13, 2009

well, the saavy fans came out in full force tonight to watch roddick on the dirt!

THESEXPISTOL · May 13, 2009

I planned to visit Madrid with a friend for the final..
A roadtrip from Portugal of 562km but when we saw the prince of tickets for the final 295E (upper seats) 395E (lower sears) we just forgot about it.

West Coast Ace · May 13, 2009

THESEXPISTOL said:
I planned to visit Madrid with a friend for the final..
A roadtrip from Portugal of 562km but when we saw the prince of tickets for the final 295E (upper seats) 395E (lower sears) we just forgot about it.

If I'd known ahead of time I would have cut a hole in the fence at a pre-determined location for you!

That is evil pricing...

THESEXPISTOL · May 13, 2009

West Coast Ace said:
If I'd known ahead of time I would have cut a hole in the fence at a pre-determined location for you!

That is evil pricing...

ahahha i'm still laughing of this!

almost 300E for watch a 3 hours match.... i would rather spend it with a high class hooker :twisted:

Marc The Shark · May 13, 2009

I'm sure there are a lot of factor at play but you also have to think there might be a lot of people on the grounds.. Specially in early rounds.. For example at the Sony Ericsson Open we only grounds passes once the stadium sells out... And when we are sold out we always get people at the ticket office complaining but hey I saw tons of open seats... The fact of the matter is that the seats might be empty but the people might be on the outer courts..

tenis · May 13, 2009

The stadium looks cold - like warehouse; it's usually half empty and if not, the people don't care about game and walking around when the players are ready to play; some echos; unfinished; shadows; etc. Disapointed, very.

theZig · May 13, 2009

Del Potro is Argentine. Spain is rivals with Argentina when it comes to sports, so I wouldn't expect much support for him.

Pet · May 13, 2009

fedtastic said:
The spaniards have better things to do than watch tennis. Dance to flamenco music and then a long siesta. No time for tennis.

... yes and cookin paella, seen bullfighting, drinking sangria or going to fiesta. You are ********.

cucio · May 14, 2009

THESEXPISTOL said:
ahahha i'm still laughing of this!

almost 300E for watch a 3 hours match.... i would rather spend it with a high class hooker :twisted:

Being a clay tournament and Nadal's era, a 3 hours final is even optimistic. Rome was 123 min, Barcelona 106 min and MC 163 min.

Gen · May 14, 2009

The announced price for the final was 120 euros. If you look at the ticket page, it is still the same. Another thing is that it's hell of a problem buying the tickets for this tourney via Internet. The new site is terrible, the ticket page is so slow that it takes hours for downloading. I tried to buy the tickets for Madrid and failed. Later on a fellow-fan who managed to accomplish this act of courage told me that it took her five hours to buy six tickets. Maybe I'm not the only one who didn't have enough patience. Hopefully, they'll do something with their I-site which sucks all over.

Leublu tennis · May 14, 2009

cucio said:
In Spain the usual business opening hours are from 9 to 2 and from 4 to 8, so most people are working or in class.

Tickets range from 20-50 EUR morning and 35-65 EUR evening, so they are hardly affordable for the people who could use them like students and senior citizens. That's for thursday, I guess the prices will be much higher for the weekend sessions.

On the other hand, this happens almost everywhere, doesn't it? First rounds don't fill the stadiums, especially in the morning. First time I noticed was in Dubai, so I thought it was because tennis was not too popular there, but since then I paid attention and it is more or less the same everywhere.

I was in Madrid a couple of years ago. Went every day around 10 - 11am and never saw empty stands like we are seeing now. Didn't you love Dubai, though? What a great tennis complex.

alonsin · May 14, 2009

Tomorrow is San Isidro, Madrid's patron saint, so starting today's afternoon I don't think you'll see any more empty seats. It's true that previous years there weren't any empty seats, but I think it is because the new venue has more courts so the public distributes among them.

Tomorrow is the day I'm going too, I have tickets for the evening session, so hopefully I'll see Nadal-Verdasco and Djokovic-Simon

35ft6 · May 14, 2009

Man, they need to give some discounts out. Yeah, the seats are 99% empty for a lot of matches I'm watching. And I bet they continue to charge full price. I want to go to this tournament next year. Then spend a week in Barcelona.

ty slothrop · May 14, 2009

the lack of fans reveals the surprisingly uninviting nature of the new "magic box." looks more like eastern european communist-style architecture from the 1950's.

Anybody seen the Palast der Republik in eastern Berlin? That's what I think of every time I see the hollow, airplane hanger stadia...

BorisBeckerFan · May 14, 2009

Overall I like the architecture of the magic box as seen from tv. It does seem odd though as a dedicated tennis stadium/complex.

tenis · May 14, 2009

...yes, the box seats looks like boxes for rabitts...

Zaragoza · May 14, 2009

JRstriker12 said:
Been catching a little of the Madrid masters in the morning before work and a little in the evening.

One thing I noticed is that there seems to be a lot of empty seats. For example (at least when I turned it on) the Del Potro / Berdych match, there didn't seem to be anyone in the stadium.

Am I just catching the early matches? Have others seen the Madrid matches with more people in the stadium?

The attendance in Madrid is really high. TV can be misleading because it just shows the lowest rows (VIP boxes) most of the time and we know there are always empty seats in those VIP boxes but you will see there are a lot of people when the camera shows the whole arena. The centre court has a capacity of 12,000 and it was packed on Wednesday afternoon. The attendance in night matches is also really good, much better than in Rome for instance. Of course, the attendance decreases in other courts like in any other tournament.
I'm sure the attendance in Madrid is higher than in Rome and Monte Carlo. I'm surprised nobody complained about the empty seats in Rome, especially in night matches.

Zaragoza · May 14, 2009

fedtastic said:
The spaniards have better things to do than watch tennis. Dance to flamenco music and then a long siesta. No time for tennis.

Maybe, while others are drinking tea and playing cricket.
The attendance at tennis events has always been really high in Spain. That's why Tiriac put his money on Madrid and made it a bigger event this year. You don't know what you're talking about.

Moose Malloy · May 14, 2009

The centre court has a capacity of 12,000

outside of Wimbledon & RG, is that the biggest center court in Europe? I know its much bigger than Monte Carlo Or Rome, but how about Paris Indoor?

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