What bad planning.

Went to watch the Aussie played the Germans at the Sengkang at 7pm. It was worth the $2.50 and the long drive home after the good match. The Aussies were skillful over the ball while the Germans were tencious; Both team really strived for the full game; it was an exciting match that saw both teams tying at 1-1, down to the last 69th min, giving away 1 penalty corner each within the last min which could likely turn the outcome in the other direction, but not converting either one eventually. Depending on goal difference, the Aussies will either meet Netherlands or India in the next round, both very good matches no matter how.

But that is not going to be the bulk of today's entry. I am so going to bitch about the bad planning and lack of common sense.

By the time my car reached the vicinity of Sengkang, the snake of cars parking illegal around the stadium was horrendous. In the end I still had to park about 5 mins walk away along the roadside. And this is only the prelim round. Wait till the semis on the 20 Jun.

I was already late, and the Aussie game would have started 5 mins ago. As I walking from the car towards the stadium, I could hear the announcement from Pitch 2, that Netherlands won India by 3-2 and the crowd was going mad cheering (that could be the reasons of the number of cars there..the Dutch turn out was overwhelming the last weekend).

I walked past the tables that served as the gantry with a few of the kids wearing the "CREW" t-shirt chitchatting. They were supposed to be checking tickets and doing bag check. But as I mentioned, they had done away with the ticket system and they no longer do bag checks. I wonder what they hell they were standing there for. Then I noticed a small crowd gathering in front of the stairs leading to pitch 1.

"Sorry the stand is full. We cant allow people in. There are no more seats inside" a guy wearing a "Security" vest and another woman wearing the "Crew" t-shirt were saying. They were bombarded by the audiences coming from the other pitch after the Ned vs Ind ended and wanted some action before the NZ vs SG game.

Called a friend who was already inside. " Got seats leh." he said. But the gatekeepers had firmly refused entry. Ok lor..even my helpline cant help much. So it was watching the game from the other side of the pitch behind the fencing, while waiting for another friend to come. And as I stood at the other side of the fence and looked over to the stand - ok, cant really see..those red spots at the far end seemed to look like the unoccupied plastic foldable chairs. And there were at least a handful. Oh well. Nay mind..maybe half time can try again.

Friend came and we were peering at the action through the metal fencing and mesh netting. A guy who were sharing our side of the fence said that he had tried to get the free tickets from the ticket booth, but they said no more tickets. (of course..they are not using them anymore..)

Half time came and both of us went to the entrance again to try out luck. And there was a group of 15 people trying to get in.


"No, there are no more seats. " the "CREW" people said.

"But we looked from the other side of the pitch. There are seats!" "My friend called me from inside, he said got seats!" "But I got tickets!"(all of these were not said by me, though I would have gladly collaborated)

As the group parried with "the CREW", ang mohs were steaming out.

The Crowd : "Why can't we go in?There are people coming out"
The CREW : "We have to let people who walked out to toilet or get food come in again"

The Crowd: "I got tickets!"
the CREW: "People inside also have tickets" (I wonder if the idiot who said this was asking for it. I could have easily slapped reality in his face by saying that "No, your guys in front are not even checking. How can you be so sure?")

The Crowd: "But my friend said there are seats inside!"
the CREW: "Sorry we cant let you go in cos we havent receive any new instructions"

The Crowd: "Then get the instructions!"
one of the CREW : "I'm only a student!" (ooppss.not very professional)

And concurrently they are just letting ang mohs in from the other side of the barricade. Not even checking if they had previously walked out or whatever.

WTF??? You are already not checking tickets which led to this mayhem! And why defer so much to the ang mohs?

Eventually the Crowd managed to grab an ang moh wearing "The CREW" t-shirt, and was demanding for some actions. Eventually, about 5 mins after the second half started, the CREW finally decided to let the crowd in And THERE WERE MORE THAN ENOUGH SEATS! Gosh. Any idiots would have seen that just by doing a visual check and relay the message back to the gatekeeper in front. What kind of instructions do you need for that??

I wonder who is managing this event; I heard it was ESPN. Apparently, most of the Crew were kids from Republic Poly. One of the gatekeeer was a kid. The other one was clearly from ESPN. I can understand if the kids (obviously part timers) were inadequate to manage crowds, but then the key people should have taken charge. The whole process was clearly lacking in organisation and common sense.

• If you are not checking tickets there is no way to enforce exit and re-entry.
• If you dont have a re-entry system in place then people leave at their own risk of losing their seats. Why should it be your job to guard their seats for them?
• There are people who had made effort to book the tickets prior to the whole tournament or came down early to try for the tickets! Only to be fooled by your incredulous lack of planning and poor events management, being denied a chance to enter and seeing other people walking in and out freely without tickets.
• Basically since it has already become a free-for-all situation, be fair! Dont only let the ang mohs have their way!

It was a faboulous international event to be held in Singapore, especially in view of the upcoming series of youth sportings event that will put Singapore on the international sporting map. But with this level of sophistication of event management, it creates a really bad impression on the whole event and leave a bad aftertaste. And this is only one tournament. What about bigger events such as YOG?

Next week will be a trying week if THE CREW don't brush up their events management system in time.