Disgruntled visitors have their say

Far from bowled over with the Rose Bowl

Wisden Cricinfo staff

September 24, 2004

Our Punter's Point about the problems experienced by spectators at the Rose Bowl during the Champions Trophy produced a level of feedback not seen since the Mike Denness Affair in 2001. Most were highly critical of events last weekend, and many vowed never to return. Here's a selection of your comments:

An empty Rose Bowl: a sign of things to come if spectators vote with their feet? © Getty Images

"The lack of serious thinking about the impact of so many people attending, and the feeling that we spectators were just an inconvenience, means I'll think long and hard before going back." Eve Smith

"My first visit to the Rose Bowl would have been my last but I had already paid for semi-final day. I certainly did not go back on the Saturday as I would have done at any other ground. The park-and-ride was a complete disaster. As for queuing in the rain for three hours for a bus - never again." Susan Mills

"As we walked out of the ground we were confronted with one of the longest queues we've ever seen to get back to the car park. It took at least another two hours, maybe more, to get to my car: the queue had no order and we had to stand in the mud while it continued to rain." Mark Fernando

"The increased seating meant parts of the ground could not be reached by walking behind and so some people were interrupted for hours by people walking in front of them to get to their seats." Nigel Lander

"The standard and variety of food available was lamentable. Tickets priced at £40 per seat demand more than 30-minute queues for a pint of beer. A staff of four attempted manfully to serve a bar that had seven parallel queues of approximately 12 people. Lager ran out in the bar behind my seats at 12.25pm - an hour and ten minutes after play started." Adam Mason

"Closing the east entrance ten minutes before play started and insisting people walk around the ground to the west entrance just made things worse. Our neighbours arrived 45 minutes after the start of play but were in the queue at 9.45am (90 minutes earlier)." Nigel Hills

"Arriving at the ground with the game under way, we were met by obnoxious and over-zealous staff who need some serious customer-skills classes. They couldn't handle the numbers coming in and were going out of their way to wind up and further delay the entrants. I didn't have a bag but watched the irritation of others unfold before me." Nicholas Stevenson

"17,000 spectators had to go though a single gate. The main hold-up was that stewards were checking for non-sponsor brands in the bags." Chanaka Wirasinha

"I drove down on Saturday, only to find out the park-and-ride was not in operation. This wasn't mentioned on any tickets or information accompanying the tickets. More focus was on the ridiculous branding information which is killing the thought of a day out to watch cricket." Rishya Nadeswaran

"Chips (half a portion) at £2.00 ... bacon-and-egg roll at £4.00 ... coffee at £2.00. I know what I will do the next time around - I won't be at the Rose Bowl." Philip Gnana-Muttu

If you have any further comments please e-mail us.

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Rose Bowl - 'We have learnt from the experience'

A Shambles at Southampton

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ICC Champions Trophy

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England

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The Rose Bowl

External Links

Rose Bowl official site