Li Ning Team responsible for putting this tour together is really not thinking clearly. The FIRST event ever held was the Li Ning sponsored tournament at LABC. The second tournament ever held at LABC was the Yonex tournament. LABC is a neutral club. The club was built from the ground up to host International Events like this tour. What is Li Ning thinking lol? Seriously!!!!!
..as of 2 nights ago, when i was there, ABC still has 100 tix available; i'm not sure abt now..the person told me, they only have 300 tix available (for the Aug. 31st event @ ABC), different than the 400 tix available as mentioned earlier..first come, first serve, so give them a call soon if you want a ticket. It's one of those rare chances to meet LD, BCL, LYB and TBY up close and personal..
..as of last night, as i checked w/ABC's front attendants, the tickets for sale @ ABC have been sold out/reserved. And i would assume the ones sold @ SGVBC are also sold out..Best case scenario if you can't get them is to be put on a waiting list & come on the day of the event and hope some people can't make it..
couple of days ago i called up EBA to pay for some tickets that i reserved. while i was on hold, the EBA staff was talking to another customer who didn't managed to get any tickets. he insisted that he will camp out outside EBA in order to be first in line for anyone who return them.
Look it will be a great success this time. Maybe Mike Yang may consider a local college gym next time like San Jose State or U of Santa Clara that can hold a few thousand people.
..i was told by one of the ABC's front desk attendants, one of the reasons why they only have a limited amt of tickets is because the amt of time to set up those 300-400 chairs (yes, they're a lot). I would imagine the club would still be open for public play until the scheduled 5 pm start. Then they would at least need close to 1 hr to set up that many chairs.....hmm, maybe that's the reason for the delay to 6:15pm(?) for the Sep. 2nd show in EBA, so they will have time to set-up the chairs? (as mentioned by kwun in another board)..
the delay to 6.15pm is not setup related. there will be a press conference opens to only media that starts around 5-5.30pm. after that, the main event for ticket holders start 6.15pm. however, the schedule is always in flux. i will post the final schedule once i manage to obtain it.
..but i assume the event will still last for 4 hrs as advertised, correct?..not shortened to only 2+ hrs??..or will it still end at 9 pm, as advertised?..
..i stopped by ABC & SGVBC today and here are a few more updates: - Since the tickets have been sold out @ ABC, i asked the manager if they will be releasing any more tickets. Lo and behold, he told me i could actually purchase them today as they are releasing some more tickets (an extra 50 more tickets). After further discussion, he told me tickets will most likely be available all the way until Aug. 31st. As for the start time, apparently it is also the same as the NorCal show (6:15 pm). - I then stopped by SGVBC and asked one of the front desk attendants if there are any tickets left. The attendant told me there are still about 70 tickets left (they were originally given around 100 tickets). However, for right now, only SGVBC members could purchase them. Non-members/public would be able to purchase them starting on the 26th of August (next Thursday). *btw, not sure if kwun/mods want to merge this thread w/the other thread on the Li-Ning Champion Tour??..
A brief sneak peek of the August 31st show.. ..went to the ABC club last night and took these photos as they were still preparing for the Li-Ning Champion Tour event.. Btw, i asked one of the club's personnel and the person told me, there are more than 500 tickets sold already (incl. VIP seats). From ABC alone, there are about 200 tickets sold already.. Anyway, here are the pics..the only ones, as i will be giving this event a miss...Though, we'll look fw to master kwun's coverage in a couple more days.. Yes, they will have speakers for sound system. They've also taken down the nettings from 2 of the courts.
..yeah, looks like they'll probably surround the playing/exhbition court with those boards..there will be a media session also, the same as the one in NorCal, so the event might be recorded and broadcasted..
What's next after these 2 exhibition/marketing events.. my 2 cents: ..so, i want to see what is next and what will Li-Ning actually do with marketing their brand esp. in the U.S.?.. How are they going to be competitive with an already established brand like Yonex? If Li-Ning really want to break into the U.S. market and make its brand popular, they need to go and really market themselves into schools and have special promotional events often. I think only doing this kind of event once every so often is not enough. Having CHN players don Li-Ning brand across their outfit or even wielding Li-Ning rackets is not enough. How about actually making their rackets more affordable for the main masses? How about sending CHN national players to next yr's U.S. Open? How about start sponsoring local schools and local badminton events starting in high school to university?
I strongly agreed. If they send the 4 Wang's to LA next year, that will for sure attract a lot of audiences including me.
i will be attending the press conference, in case if there is an opportunity to do a Q&A session, do you have any questions you would like me to ask LD / BCL and Li-Ning? reasonable ones of course. i am not going to ask LYB if CJ manipulated the shuttles.
How did Lin dan wrap his towel grip!.. Why he prefer to wrap till like that and hold the wood.. Ask LYB what is his team's goal in the upcoming asian games