A Day At Chinnaswamy Stadium !
The Dilemma
It was a tough and confusing decision when we were trying to choose the Stand from which we should watch the RCB vs DD IPL-2017 match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on 8th April, 2017.
We had decided on a budget of around Rs 2500 per ticket and just like everyone, wanted to have a good view of the match and comfortable seating. We decided to go for either B Upper Stand or C Upper Stand so that we can have the complete view of the cricket field and it suited our pockets too(Rs 1700 per ticket). Also, the view from the stands which are in-line with the pitch or near long-on and long-off are great and you have good chances of some lofty sixes coming your way.
Booking Tickets
After procrastinating for ages, we sat down to book the tickets and thought it would be a cake-walk !
But to our disappointment, the most obvious portal bookmyshow was not selling these tickets. Then, we tried to book the tickets from the official RCB site which redirected us to the liveinstyle portal, which seemed to be the only place where you could book RCB tickets.
However, the liveinstyle do not live-in-style at all !!
They had a weird policy that you have to book a ticket 10 days in advance. Weird right !! The logic was that they need 10 days to courier the tickets and there is no option to pick up the tickets from their offices. However, they did fix this in the next week or so. That was stylish !! Good job there …
Now, we were left with only one way to book the tickets and that was to go to the stadium only. So, we went to the stadium and realized that some of the stands can only be booked online and thus we cannot book the chosen ones ! But, we really wanted to see the match.
Plan B now…
We deliberated with the on ground staff at the stadium to check our next best options. “Fan Terrace” would be great but it was Rs 4000 per ticket, so that was ruled out. The other options for which tickets were available were — “D Corporate, B Lower, A Stand”.
We ruled out “A Stand and D Corporate” as we wanted to have a in-line view of the pitch. I had seen a match couple of years back from the “A Stand” and I did not find myself in-the-game, as you are far away and up from the action. Unless, you are a fan or a gait expert, you may not even recognize the players from that distance.
The only in- budget option that we had was “B Lower” (Rs 2300 per ticket). Our main concerns were regarding the safety grills/meshes coming in our way plus a rather rowdy crowd.
But, finally with much apprehensions, we booked the “B Lower” stand for the six of us. Fingers Crossed !
Few days later …..
Match Day …
The day had finally come when we were all set to watch the match. Half of the RCB team was injured (No Virat, No Rahul, No ABD) and the Delhi team as always looked poorer than a poor Ranji team. We took the cabs only (instead of metro) as we had left home early to watch the opening ceremony and avoid traffic. The entrance was from Gate number 2, Cubbon Road.
No Bags Allowed Inside Stadium
For safety reasons, bags were not allowed inside the stadium and even the ladies were not allowed to take their mini-bags inside (only the clutch was allowed… not sure how you define a clutch !) But, there was a counter near Gate 6, where we deposited all our bags for a nominal fees of Rs 100 per bag, so not much of an issue.
View from our seat
Everyone was supposed to be seated as per the seat numbers on their ticket. We have seats L-11-L16 and had an awesome view. All our apprehensions ended about the view ended right there and “B Lower” was praised enough throughout the match for its view. We sat right behind the Cheer Girls .. had two nice screens on our left and infront to see the replays. It was an amazing view.
On our left upper side, there is the “Fan Terrace” stand. Couple of sixes came into that stand and the view MUST be even straighter to the pitch and better too.
Opening Ceremony
The biggest highlight till now, was the opening ceremony by Benny Dayal and Kriti Sanon and of-course the Cheer Girls :D. We planned to reach early so as to witness this, but unfortunately we had watch this on the screen as our stand faced the back of the stage.
Now, we realized atleast one of the reason why “Pavillion” is so expensive. If you have money or the passes do watch the match from Pavillion end as you would have all proceedings right in front of you and even the players dugouts are right there…
Food Options:
Some nice food options were available in the stadium and were served on your seat— pizza, rolls, momos, cold drinks, ice creams, samosa (don’t eat them if you love your life, though I did see few foreigners having it.. God Bless them), vada pav (again a miss) etc etc. So, food was not a problem.
The Match
Contrary to the expectations, the match turned out to be pretty good. RCB won !! Two depleted/bad teams tried to play their worst to make the match interesting.
Overall, it was a great experience with superbly managed stadium, good food, nice weather and a good game ! The day came to an end with Butter Chicken and Kadai Paneer at the great Empire Hotel.
