Capacity Question: Manhattan Beach Open - # of fans?

[volleyballjim]

After watching the stands in Hermosa pretty much the same size as San Francisco (is that correct; seems so), what can we expect for Manhattan? I would have thought in Hermosa (I wasn't there) that they could have filled that stadium another time. Interested in any data on this one as the "granddaddy of them all" looks like it would need more capacity...

[wlwii]

Bigger bleachers cost more to seat more non paying fans. Stay small/fill em up until a fee to enter comes back. Makes no sense otherwise. Notice how empty AVP and FIVB are most days? Embarrassing when seats are free.

[volleyballjim]

Actually, FIVB and AVP empty seats have always been the case in the days leading up to the Finals. Just hoping I get a seat! LOL

[405LAX]

I'd much rather watch a match on outside courts where energy is greater and you can get much closer to action. Outside courts at Hermosa were jammed, especially Friday afternoon, huge crowds.

[volleyballjim]

Yeah 405, I rarely go into Center court, but Sundays have turned into "stadium-day", and not much access on sides to check in on the play, so its aluminum seats or nada...Just hope there are enough for what I see as a MUCH BIGGER AVP day in August!

[volleyballjim]

Now I read "..fans were being turned away at their quarterfinal matchup (Crabb/Rosie-Crabb/Gibb)...Beach volleyball fans were being turned away at a quaterfinal matchup on a Saturday afternoon, because the stadium was too full".... :-(

[405LAX]

Jul 24, 2017 17:02:44 GMT -5 volleyballjim said:

Now I read "..fans were being turned away at their quarterfinal matchup (Crabb/Rosie-Crabb/Gibb)...Beach volleyball fans were being turned away at a quaterfinal matchup on a Saturday afternoon, because the stadium was too full".... :-(

Yep, security standing on stairs saying turn around, it's all good tho, plenty of awesome mens matches outside where it's a far more entertaining environment.

[wlwii]

Smaller draws have cut way back on outside courts. Stadium court gets more content as a result. Economists would point out: free goods tend to be poorly distributed and cause waste of those goods. Even a small "fee/price " begins to sort the waste and misappropriation out.

[405LAX]

Court layout was not good tho, lots of good matches on #4 & 5 but you could only watch from one side, barely the other if you stood on the public urinals.

[rainmaker]

Hope you didn't stand on them 405lax, lol..

[405LAX]

No chance tho they look like a studio apartment submerged in sand.

[boxarox]

Jul 24, 2017 18:50:48 GMT -5 405LAX said:

Court layout was not good tho, lots of good matches on #4 & 5 but you could only watch from one side, barely the other if you stood on the public urinals.

Amen! So little room around the courts that I found myself hobbling back an forth over the wall and using the sidewalk to move from court to court. Made me wonder if we were renting beach by the square foot!

[beavis]

This might be my only disappointment with the new AVP stadium configuration. I totally get it - better to have the stands look fuller, especially at TV time, but the much smaller stadium set-up makes it impossible to find a seat on Sundays. This will remain true at Manhattan, I'm sure. The loss of bleacher seating on one full side of the court, combined with what seems like much more limited seating on the three sides that remain, has made it difficult to get a seat on Saturdays as well. I agree with those of you who like to watch the outside courts as much as possible, because the wide variety of matches you can see combined with the close proximity to the courts makes for an awesome experience. Hopefully the outer courts will be more spread out in Manhattan - with the AVP First tourney and everything else that was happening at Hermosa, my guess is that they had limited beach space in which to cram in the 30-40 outside courts that they had set up to handle the tons of matches?

[johnbar]

Friday in San Francisco, most of the premium seating was empty. I think they were charging way too much for it. I guess Sunday it filled up.

[stevek]

Hermosa was my first tourney in about 2 or 3 years. Overall, I was impressed. Most of the set up was solid and better than I remembered. Except the side courts. It was like they put on a tournament and didn't expect any attendance. As has been pointed out, many courts only had 1-2 sides where spectators could watch. Throw in the umbrellas that people set up (which should not be allowed) and I had to skip a couple of matches I would have liked to see just because there was no way to watch them. In my memory, AVP usually takes down existing nets on the beach and puts up their own. That wasn't the case here - not sure if that was a $$ or efficiency thing but by using the existing courts, they guaranteed that there would be few places for people to see matches. I hope the AVP recognizes this and changes it up for Manhattan.

The stadium was full for Crabb/Crabb on Saturday and pretty full for the match after that. I did get the Club AVP tickets for Sunday. That was run better than in the past - for instance, they actually had food for everyone. To me it was worth $75 or $80 but it won't be worth $140 in Manhattan. Sunday in Manhattan I'll just plant myself in a seat for a semi and not move til its all over.

There were four of us who came out from Arizona for this, and while we were all annoyed with the outside courts situation, we still decided on Sunday we would come back for Manhattan, which I guess is some sort of endorsement.