Another day at the Cricket, another Manuka Oval failure

aceofspades said :

This has been very interesting for me. I always wondered why people would actually pay money to sit in the sun for sometimes days watching the most mind numbingly boring game ever invented. After reading these posts from prior, during and after this game I think I get it. It appears it is all about the beer. Conversations about the beer seem to outnumber anything to do with the game. Even the outcome or highlights of the game are obscured by comments like “How much beer can we take?”, “How big can our beer containers be?”, “What! not allowed to take beer!, how much will the beer be?”, “We used to bring beer!”, “Was there enough beer? How much beer did we drink at past games?”, “At one stage, a bar ran out of beer”, “There was plenty of beer over the other side, I saw nobody without beer”, “Can we have full strength beer again”. So really a game of Cricket is just another name for “Beer festival in the stinking hot sun”. Interstingly enough I can’t even find what brand or brands of beer were offered, so apart from the actual strength of the beer, it seems that type of beer is not important, just so long as its beer. It also answers my question as to why parents never seem to attend their childrens cricket games, they are obviously not allowed beer at these games. Thank you RA for answering my questions.

All your talk of beer is making me thirsty…or is the pretzels?

This has been very interesting for me. I always wondered why people would actually pay money to sit in the sun for sometimes days watching the most mind numbingly boring game ever invented. After reading these posts from prior, during and after this game I think I get it. It appears it is all about the beer. Conversations about the beer seem to outnumber anything to do with the game. Even the outcome or highlights of the game are obscured by comments like “How much beer can we take?”, “How big can our beer containers be?”, “What! not allowed to take beer!, how much will the beer be?”, “We used to bring beer!”, “Was there enough beer? How much beer did we drink at past games?”, “At one stage, a bar ran out of beer”, “There was plenty of beer over the other side, I saw nobody without beer”, “Can we have full strength beer again”. So really a game of Cricket is just another name for “Beer festival in the stinking hot sun”. Interstingly enough I can’t even find what brand or brands of beer were offered, so apart from the actual strength of the beer, it seems that type of beer is not important, just so long as its beer. It also answers my question as to why parents never seem to attend their childrens cricket games, they are obviously not allowed beer at these games. Thank you RA for answering my questions.

ronster said :

I also enjoyed the day but have a couple of gripes/suggestions/bouquets;

1. Some shade in the General Admission area might have been great…peeps were falling like flies;
2. A bit more variety with the food vendors (given 12,000 attendees);
3. Some signage re the toilets would have been nice;
4. Great to see the free water stations…more would have been nice (& saved on queuing);
5. St John’s crew did a fantastic job given the weather; so did Police and Security!;
6. The electronic scoreboard replays hardly occurred…what happened??;
7. The oval looked a treat! Great job by the curators;
8. Nice to have the pollies there and NOT talking at presentations etc:
9. Great to see the littlies during the changeover….cute;
10. Think the PM’s team need more grunt (read: Australian team) to make it really competitive!

TOP 3

1. Some shade in the General Admission area might have been great
10. Think the PM’s team need more grunt (read: Australian team) to make it really competitive!
6. The electronic scoreboard replays hardly occurred…what happened??;

Dear ACT Gumbymint,

Now that you have upgraded the lights (Great Job) and playing surface (yes the ground looked excellent), It’s time to put some $$$ into spectators, please upgrade the stands and facilities.

The sun belting in the back of the grandstand, is a simple fix with it even just being a little more enclosed.

maxblues said :

EDDCommunity said :

Thanks Rioters for your feedback today on yesterday’s PM’s XI. We welcome all feedback, and will take on board the comments posted here today for future major events. Please email us at EDD_Community@act.gov.au with any further feedback you’d like to pass on.

Manuka Oval welcomed a record cricket crowd yesterday, with 12,316 attendees. The crowd enjoyed plenty of beer, and the caterers have confirmed there was no point that they ran out of beer.

We acknowledge there was a delay at the east gate entrance with the gate running out of pass outs. However venue management made a quick decision to clear the lines, allowing people to leave without a pass out – the line was cleared within a couple of minutes.

The upgrades to Manuka Oval are still progressing, and the final stage of these works will be completed ahead of the 2014 AFL premiership season.

Please keep the improvements coming so that we can attract some world class sport to Manuka. There was an excellent suggestion by another Rioter (sorry can’t remember who) to court the Pakistan cricket team to host some ‘home’ games. Their supporters are an enthusiastic bunch and would attract visitors to the ACT from around Australia. Good work on the improvements so far, but please keep them coming especially in the capacity and shelter areas.

Yes that was my suggestion, the grounds in the UAE are empty for their current series. I know its close to Pakistan, but surely say a series vs NZ or Sri Lanka perhaps they could have 1 of the two test matches they usually play in Canberra (maybe team up with another smaller ground or I hear Stadium Australia wants more cricket….. We wouldn’t fill Manuka, but you’d get good crowds vs no crowds. Be good for diplomatic relations too!

Shade was available – you just had to pay $75 a ticket rather than $30 General Admission (or whatever it was)

Keep the eastern side open and uncovered, as its a great spot to watch AFL from – standing in the winters warmth, can of Carlton in the hand, covering your eyes from the setting sun.

EDDCommunity said :

Thanks Rioters for your feedback today on yesterday’s PM’s XI. We welcome all feedback, and will take on board the comments posted here today for future major events. Please email us at EDD_Community@act.gov.au with any further feedback you’d like to pass on.

Manuka Oval welcomed a record cricket crowd yesterday, with 12,316 attendees. The crowd enjoyed plenty of beer, and the caterers have confirmed there was no point that they ran out of beer.

We acknowledge there was a delay at the east gate entrance with the gate running out of pass outs. However venue management made a quick decision to clear the lines, allowing people to leave without a pass out – the line was cleared within a couple of minutes.

The upgrades to Manuka Oval are still progressing, and the final stage of these works will be completed ahead of the 2014 AFL premiership season.

Please keep the improvements coming so that we can attract some world class sport to Manuka. There was an excellent suggestion by another Rioter (sorry can’t remember who) to court the Pakistan cricket team to host some ‘home’ games. Their supporters are an enthusiastic bunch and would attract visitors to the ACT from around Australia. Good work on the improvements so far, but please keep them coming especially in the capacity and shelter areas.

Roundhead89 said :

Mothy said :

Doubted it was in Hansard… stand corrected.

“Let me turn to the catering issues. Improvements were made after complaints about queues at the PM’s XI. Malfunctions on some of the beer equipment at the PM’s XI were fixed for the one-day international. However, the consumption of food and drink exceeded those for previous PM’s XI matches, and this did put more pressure on catering. The previous beer record at the cricket match at Manuka was 110 kegs. This year the PM’s XI reached 140. The one-dayer hit that record for a six, with 210 kegs of beer being sold.” –Simon Corbell, 13/02/13 apparently.

Wow! Something to be proud of. Not. In the 1970s when the Northern Territory started receiving publicity about them holding the world record for beer consumption and foreign media started reporting on the devastating affect of alcohol on remote Aboriginal communities, the NT government responded with the Boozers Are Losers campaign. Perhaps we need the same thing here.

Settle down, we are but minnows in this area. I don’t know what their record is but PRIOR to the latest redevelopment of the Adelaide Oval, the COOLROOM capacity was 560 kegs.

EDDCommunity said :

Thanks Rioters for your feedback today on yesterday’s PM’s XI. We welcome all feedback, and will take on board the comments posted here today for future major events. Please email us at EDD_Community@act.gov.au with any further feedback you’d like to pass on.

Manuka Oval welcomed a record cricket crowd yesterday, with 12,316 attendees. The crowd enjoyed plenty of beer, and the caterers have confirmed there was no point that they ran out of beer.

Can I just say, it does fill me with some confidence when someone from the Gubmint responds to a topic like this in an official capacity, that the first thing they confirm is that in fact there was PLENTY of beer, and NOBODY ran out of beer, there were many people observed drinking a LOT of beer, and any suggestion of a beer shortage is just CRAZY TALK!!

To add to all the goodness, Action bus service I used from Gungahlin to a Civic to Manuka return was impeccable. I had a great day.

I was sitting in the blazing sun. In my perfect world the whole oval would have some form of cover, but I hate to whinge. The on-site shower was a godsend when I thought I was about to pass out from the heat (I’m not used to it).

I had no issues procuring beer, but I only had two at the beginning of the game and then two once the sun went down. If I had have had any more during the daytime then dehydration would have struck me down. I even used hydralite to stay alive in that heat.

I had a decent lunch of vegetarian quesadillas at the Kingston hotel, don’t think I saw JB though.

I didn’t have an issue with pass-outs, me and my friend got out and got back in without a pass-out during the innings break.

Finally, some awesome larrikins very close to where we were, were yelling shit at the English players (nothing terrible) and were blowing up beach balls for the crowd. Security didn’t like the balls but some of the cops and several of the players were partial to it.