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It’s hard to keep up with your favourite team when you travel let alone sports you’ve got no clue about.
So what to do if you’re going to a random football game in Pune like I did?
Spend 10 minutes learning about the teams playing before you get to the stadium. This was what I before watching FC Pune City vs ATK in round-5 of the 2017/18 Indian Super League.
I didn’t even know where ATK were from on the morning of the match.
Always do some research on the teams before you arrive at a game abroad.
- What are their team colours?
- Who are the key players?
- How are the teams going this year?
- What food do they serve at the stadium? (obviously)
- Are there any interesting stories leading up to the game? (optional)
This is the same as learning the basic languages before you arrive in a new country. Even when you say hello in the local lingo and butcher the sounds completely, you’re appreciated.
Same deal with sport. You might get some details wrong but at least you made an effort.
I start the process by scrolling through the Wikipedia page for both teams. On this occasion, I came across something that caught my eye:
The ‘Fans come first’ policy has led the club to create many ‘firsts’ in Indian football.- source
The keywords being fans come first.
To state the obvious, that means there will should be a good atmosphere and experience at the stadium.
In a case of weird timing I recently finished Find Your Yellow Tux: How to Be Successful by Standing Out by Jesse Cole.
Jesse, along with his partner, Emily, are the owners of the Savannah Bananas, a triple-A baseball team with the motto ‘Fans First. Entertain Always’.
The Savannah Bananas play in the Coastal Plain League amateur baseball competition. In their first season, they sold out 17 of 22 regular season matches. Beyond that, they got national press several times (example).
In my mind: ‘Fans First. Entertain Always’ = ‘Fans come first’
For me, this was an interesting thing to keep in mind for the evening.
Before I mentioned atmosphere and experience, two different things in my mind.
A great experience starts from the moment you begin travelling to the stadium. The experience is about getting to your seat, stadium access, staff, food and drinks, the crowd, entertainment, the players etc.
The Dictionary.com definition of atmosphere: the pervading tone or mood of a place, situation, or creative work.
You can have a great atmosphere with a bad experience, yet can’t have a bad atmosphere with a great experience.
I’ll start with the different aspects of the experience and then finish with the atmosphere.
Buying Tickets For The Match
Buying tickets online one BookMyShow is easy. The pricing structure is simple to follow, and you know in the area you’ll be sitting in.
For pickup, the details were clear but prevented me from going through with them is where the website says the Box Office closes at 7pm. With an 8pm kick off, this makes zero sense. I like trying to get to the stadium early, but an hour early is a bit much for most people. Of course, when I did arrive at the stadium on kick off, the box office was open.
Buying tickets in person? I arrived right on kick off so was straight to the front of the line. The staff were great, and I had my ticket in hand in less than 30 seconds.
The biggest beef I have is the location of the ticket office. The office on the northern end of the stadium is further away from the stadium than the car park. This makes no sense. I talked to three Americans who couldn’t find the ticket office, only to learn they were a long way away (maybe they were looking for a baseball match).
This is a nit-picky last comment, but those who like attending events like collecting their ticket stubs. These ones were the same feel of the insides of a weekly gossip magazine. They should use the traditional firmer paper tickets! Nit-picky.
Getting To The Stadium
Looking way to fancy here, but I didn’t feel so fancy slugging it to the stadium via public transport
Alright, this is my biggest pet peeve about the experience. The stadium is 15km away from the city center.
This doesn’t have to be an issue, but there are no great public transport options to and from the stadium. That’s a Pune citywide issue, but for someone coming to a game one off, it’s a big deterrent to returning.
There is no information on the clubs website about the public transit options to get to the stadium. The best way to get there is with Uber or Ola. It’s crazy to pay more for your transport to and from the venue (with Ola and or Uber) than you do for a ticket to the game.
Finding My Seat
Awesome. The signs were big enough to point me in the right direction and with lots of staff happy to ensure I was on track, I was away laughing.
The Seating
No complaints here, the plastic seating was your standard stadium affair and in good condition. They hadn’t dusted the chairs given I sat in the back row, but that’s no major. India.
Food & Drink Options
Simple McDonalds menu does the trick
Given I was running late, I didn’t stop to look at the food and drinks around the stadium prematch. At the Mumbai FC vs. Kerala Blasters in Mumbai, there was lots of food and drink vendors like you associate with baseball. They were yelling out drivel to try and encourage sales though.
I figured that’d be the case for this stadium, but it wasn’t. I was sitting in the back row and the vendor never came up the stairs close to our row (only saw two vendors all match) so I went hungry.
After the match, some stalls were open including a McDonalds! They had a massive crowd around them, but served everyone oquickly thanks to their limited menu.
I can’t say much (yet I have?), but more vendors during the match would be awesome.
Entertainment
Not intended entertainment, but plenty of fans wanted a photo with the stallion
For the first 30 minutes, I thought the ongoing drumming was coming from something pre-recorded. But there were four humans drumming away for most of the match. 90% of the time, they didn’t add anything to the atmosphere as they drummed away. It’s no easy feat to drum for 90 minutes, but they might want to change things up. Perhaps when the ball is at either third of the stadium with a beat the fans can associate with. The only time you notice the drums is when the crowd is silent.
At half-time they seemed to have the same promo as Mumbai. A few cheerleaders and a few talented girls showing off their football tricks. They were good, but they need to incorporate the crowd more…they take up such a tiny space they could have so much more going on.
Balewadi Stadium
Tin shed much
Biggest pet peeve: This isn’t a purpose-built football stadium. There’s a running track around the field meaning the fans can’t get close to the action.
From the outside, you get to your seat very quick as it’s a single tier right around the 10,900 capacity stadium..
The roof looked like that from a tin hut found in the backcountry of New Zealand. Durable enough to do the job, but cheap with average acoustics. The roof was low and covered the whole stadium seating. Meh.
There was only one big screen at our end of the stadium which wasn’t easy to see with big pillars in the way. They should add another screen to the other end (they had a scoreboard and the time at the other end)
Post Match
I like to hang around for a few minutes after the match while everyone heads out in a big wave at full-time. The Pune players walked to a couple of the corners where the loudest fans were to acknowledge them, always a nice touch.
The Atmosphere
Solid! The crowd was near capacity and there were plenty of flags waving and chatter among friends. Yet I still felt distant because of the stadium. There were lots of obstructions around the stadium meaning I couldn’t see the big screen with coercing my body or the ultra fans due to some crap in the way.
The crowd around me was great, they were a younger crowd and weren’t afraid to jump up and down, yelling out in support. The atmosphere was solid, but crikey it could be amazing if the fans were close to one another and the football. A good result always keeps the crowd happy.
Atmosphere: 7/10
Experience: 6/10
So overall, it was a good atmosphere without being spectacular. And the experience was okay, but if I was living in Pune I wouldn’t be desperate to go back. They need to sort out the transport issue ASAP as it bookends the experience.
The Match
Alright, I better talk about the match right? Pune City FC won 3-0. It was a good match, with ATK, the defending champions, under pressure going into the match with bad form. In short, Pune City capitalised on their chances with ATK having major lapses inside the danger zone. ATK had chances with Pune scrambling well on several occasions.
The best part of the match for me was the little time wasted over fake injuries. The game flowed, credit to both teams.
For a full match report from an actual football reporter read the Goal.com report.
