Lol...dont ne saddened..it is not too sad. I agree eastern culture may formstronger and more lasting bonds than many western families, however these bonds are not neccessarily geographical bonds.
I have a conspiracy theory about the Australian Open. I've watched quite a few of the matches this week, and as I suspected it's like 'spot the Caucasian'. This is to be expected, because the sport is very much an expat sport these days, but I wonder how many of my fellow pasty-white people couldn't get time off to go watch because it's Easter. Don't get me wrong - I'm not even a Christian - but Easter is very much one of those holidays that are spent with family, on a camping holiday or whatever. It's just the done thing. Now when you look at the official coverage, the whole event was a tourism publicity event!! Aside from Yonex, the other major sponsors were the state and tourism, with the only 'adverts' were for Sydney! I guess all this is fair enough to a degree, but I really do feel like I've 'taken one for the team' here. Ah well. I guess any promotion is good promotion?
Just adding my observations here from watching the final matches played, I could see certain spectators sitting at round tables having drinks and dinner served while players were battling it out a few feet away. This is something I have seen in any other televised tournament so far or am I wrong? The special guests seemed to be sitting around half the tables so as not to have their backs to the action but then at times appeared quite indifferent to the play.
That was what I've observed too! And I think it was not a good idea in such a relatively small hall where the party makers can be such a distraction. I've never seen this before during an international badminton tournament. But as someone has mentioned it was Easter, a public holiday meant to be celebrated in a unique way in Sydney? However, during the Singapore Open, we do have a special room that overlooks the courts below, meant for officials and invited guests to have drinks and some bites and watch the matches at the same time.
Thanks, Loh, for your agreeable response. In concluding, we know VIPs and sponsors need special treatment and so that was one way to do it. Maybe in hindsight, to watch world class badminton at ground level and from the longer side of the court is not the best of views. Perhaps they would have enjoyed the finals better from a higher vantage point and from one of the shorter side of the court as preferred by most TV crews. For the international badminton fans to be watching a badminton match with spectators having drinks and dinner in the immediate background just looks too out of place. A similar comment also applies to the Axiata Cup telecast with the constant running ads on 3 sides of the court while matches are played simply reduced our viewing pleasure to zero.
In the first place, I don't think that venue is the most appropriate for an international badminton tournament. It is small and narrow and hardly any more room to accommodate more fans and spectators. From my TV, I could see distracting bright spots emanating from outside and no thick curtains were installed to shield the light. The hall is noisy, made worse by screaming infants, and the floorboards were making noises which were amplified loudly to TV viewers.
