Indonesia open organizers are not professional

Discussion in 'Thailand / Singapore / Indonesia Open 2011' started by 2cents, Jun 22, 2011.

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  1. badMania

    badMania Regular Member

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    Today's article from the Jakarta Post:

    Organizers aim for entertainment overload

    Niken Prathivi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 06/26/2011 8:00 AM


    Entering the “Planet Badminton” that is the 2011 Djarum Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton championships at Istora indoor stadium in Senayan sports complex, Central Jakarta, visitors experience more than just watching shuttlers fighting for the 2011 titles and the US$600,000 overall prize money.

    This year, the Open organizers did their best to ensure that Jakarta’s Super Series event is to badminton what the World Cup is to soccer, and the grand slams are to tennis.

    Outside of the Istora stadium, there were at least 20 tents selling products, from Bakmi GM noodles to Sour Sally cold yogurt and motorcycle helmets.

    There were also tents offering interactive games with large touch-screen TVs and other entertainment activities, including face painting, all for free.

    Meanwhile, some young visitors were seen entering a booth in which there were two touch-screen monitors on which fans could post messages of support for the tournament on Facebook and Twitter.

    The merchandise stalls were the busiest spots in the complex, with key chains, T-shirts, sweatshirts and decorated hats on sale, with prices ranging from Rp 10,000 (US$1.1) to Rp 150,000.

    “Sales are good. Today alone we have sold Rp 10 million worth of merchandise since we opened the booth at 12 p.m.,” Jihan, a stall attendant, told The Jakarta Post on Friday afternoon.

    Various designs of badminton-related T-shirts were the biggest selling items at the stall, added Jihan.

    Commenting on this year’s Open, Indonesia’s men’s singles player Taufik Hidayat, who lost to Peter Hoeg Gade in Thursday’s quarterfinal round, lauded the overall organization of the event.

    The organizers make the event better every year, I must acknowledge that. However, I really must comment on the [Istora] building. I mean, China and Singapore are two countries that have great buildings,” Taufik told a press conference after the match.

    Taufik said he hoped that one day Indonesia could upgrade the prize-money to match the Korea Superseries Premier’s $1.2 million kitty.

    Mixed doubles Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth player, who is paired with Fran Kurniawan, had the same advice about the Istora sports complex — which was build in 1962.

    The crowd is ‘crazy’ as usual, and how the organizers brighten up the event is great. But next time, we really need a newer building,” said Pia, adding that she adored the stadium where the Singapore Open was held this year.

    “Other than that, we always have good [media] exposure, especially on live shows on national TV, when we host tournaments. But I think we need more live show coverage when we play oversees,” Pia suggested.

    The Open’s entertainment project officer Roni Patoroni said the scope of this year’s event was even bigger than last year’s.

    Last year we had ‘City of Badminton’ as the theme, and now we have ‘Planet Badminton’,” Roni said Thursday.

    We definitely want to make the Open entertaining, without eclipsing badminton as the main event.”

    The theme of “Planet Badminton”, he said, was chosen by the organizers as a way to make the sport more popular worldwide, Roni said. “This also means that we have to create a bigger theme next year.”

    Besides entertaining visitors with merchandise, and the Open’s mascot, Dio the clown, the organizers also provided a marching band and live music performances, including a performance featuring Indonesian Idol Judika over the weekend.

    We have planned to pack the event with entertainment. We will not call the players’ names in the regular way. Instead, we will do it boxing-style... plus, mention their previous achievements,” Roni said.

    Elsewhere, the Solibad (Solidarity in Badminton) booth, held an auction of players’ clothes to raise money for charity.

    “So far, Taufik’s jersey has been the most valuable item. The bids increased to Rp 1 million from Rp 350,000,” Solibad booth attendant Ega told the Post.

    Roni said the organizers’ approach to the event had been approved and supported by the World Badminton Federation.
     
  2. badMania

    badMania Regular Member

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    I think Krisna has commented on the building issue (as criticized even by INA players) - the Istora Senayan will be UPGRADED by next year.
     
  3. badMania

    badMania Regular Member

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    Visitors give in to scalpers

    The Jakarta Post | Sun, 06/26/2011 8:00 AM

    Demand for tickets to the Djarum Indonesia Open Super Series Premier badminton tournament has peaked as the event goes into its final day, creating a booming market for ticket scalpers at the Istora indoor stadium in Senayan, Central Jakarta.


    Daren from Bekasi, West Java, said he wanted to buy four tickets to the event for his family this weekend.

    I was here at noon and the tickets were all sold out. I had to buy tickets for my two kids, wife and myself from a scalper,” Daren told The Jakarta Post on Saturday after watching a men’s doubles semifinal match where Indonesians Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan lost to China’s Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng.

    Daren bought the tickets for Rp 65,000 (US$7.55) each, while the official price was Rp 45,000 for Saturday’s matches.

    “I had to bargain to get that price. I heard that some other people spent up to Rp 150,000 for similar tickets.”

    Hendri also faced the same problem and had to dig deeper to buy a first class ticket.

    “[The scalpers] offered me the ticket for Rp 150,000,” Hendri said. The ticket officially costs
    Rp 100,000.

    “This is my second visit [to this year’s Open]. The first time I got a ticket from a friend who bought it online,” he said, adding that buying from scalpers was a last resort as he failed to purchase a ticket via ATM, as suggested by the event’s official online ticketing agency, www.rajakarcis.com.

    Box office attendants Ria and Asa said scalpers bought most of the tickets.

    Tournament organizers are running four ticket box offices around Istora. Ria said the counter she manned stocked 70 VIP tickets and 200 regular tickets, and only accepted debit card transactions. Ria said the tickets sold out at 12:30 p.m., an hour before the day’s first match.

    “Scalpers buy tickets using debit and even credit cards, not just cash,” Ria said, adding that it was impossible to turn away customers, even when they were clearly scalpers.

    “They wait in line from 9 a.m., while the counter opens at 11 a.m.”

    Organizers are attempting to minimize scalping by limiting purchases to three tickets for first and second class tickets, and two tickets for the VIP section.

    “The scalpers are here anyway, and in big numbers,” Asa said.

    Senayan sports complex security guards said they could not act against scalpers because they had no direct orders from event organizers.

    We know that the number of the scalpers has increased, especially during the weekend, but we can’t do much except monitor their activity,” security guard Agus said.

    Another guard, Martin, said that once organizers instructed them to take action, they would immediately “take care” of the scalpers.

    Box office attendants recommended that those planning to attend the finals arrive a few hours before the ticket counters opened.

    The Post’s inspection of another ticket sales channel, www.djarumindonesia.com, found that tickets were no longer available for purchase as of Friday evening.

    Sunday’s finals start at 1:30 p.m., with Cai and Fu playing compatriots Chai Biao and Guo Zhendong in the men’s doubles; India’s Saina Nehwal playing China’s Wang Yihan in the women’singles; Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei meets Denmark’s Peter Gade in the men’s singles; China’s Wang Xiaoli and Fu Yang facing Indonesia’s Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati in the women’s doubles; and China’s Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei meeting Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir in the mixed doubles.

    Note from this article: the issues related to ticketing could be improved perhaps for next year?
     
  4. huangkwokhau

    huangkwokhau Regular Member

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    Let's see which tournaments can exceed what ina open does so far......
     
  5. kelana

    kelana Regular Member

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    I believe this thread will be much more constructive if it's given a much less tendentious title, e.g. "The schedule arrangements of Indonesia Open should be improved" etc.

    Indonesia Open for sure is undeniable a big success!! I think it's time now for the mod to seal off this thread..it just has too much... :D
     
    #165 kelana, Jun 25, 2011
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2011
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