Magic netball poorly organised

It was exceptionally disappointing to experience the poor organizational systems before the Magic vs Swifts netball match on Sunday 31 March.

I'm a kiwi currently living in Hong Kong where the population is double NZ, and crowds that attend such events are 20,000+.

The fact is, HK occasions run extremely smoothly with far less disorganization than the Magic match.

It was embarrassing coming back to the Bay for Easter and experiencing such a woeful set up, I had purchased tickets online for my Mum and visiting girlfriend.

After arriving at the ASB arena "A World Class Venue" at 6:25pm, with plenty of time to spare, we proceeded to collect our $40 Gold tickets. Initially we queued up in the main entrance line to collect our tickets, only to be told that we needed to queue up round the corner to collect the tickets, along with many other confused spectators. A sign directing us would have made things easier and freed up some staff members.

However once we arrived around the corner to collect pre paid tickets, we found only 2 counters open and neither counter was allocated to prepaid ticket holders, but were a mixture of prepaid and ticket sales.

To fuel our frustration, the queues were snaking back to the grass and we were then worried about missing the start of the game, but we thought we had 50 minutes and it would be fine.

One more counter was then opened, but this did little to ease our worry about missing the start of the game. Eventually the staff realized that the spectators were going to miss the beginning that they started to take our tickets off us and write our seat numbers on our hand or spare paper.

They told us we'd get in, we were doubtful seeing as our ticket had been taken and we had no receipt of paying.

The scene at this point was chaotic. We then proceeded quickly to the arena with many other panicked and frustrated spectators, only then to be told that we couldn't enter because we didn't have our receipt which showed us which bay to enter from, therefore our seat numbers could not be specified as apparently there are more than 2 seats labeled S46-48!

We were so frustrated by this point as we were declined entry to find our seats and the game had already started!

We went to find another staff member who might be able to help us, and we did.

This volunteer was more helpful and was able to direct us to the correct bay, but still couldn't find our correct seats, so suggested we sat in 3 empty seats nearby (not the $40 seats I had bought).

Eventually, of course we got moved when the seat ticket holders arrived, we were then seat less again. Eventually, without help from staff members, we sat in some seats S46-48 and didn't get moved, so must have been the correct ones.

We had missed 10 minutes of the game.

There are many ways in which this experience could have been organized in a more smooth manner, simply having signs around to direct people arriving, and having 2 - 4 booths open for online tickets holders only.

Having online tickets printed or simple barcodes on printed tickets for staff to scan on entry.

I'm sure we aren't the only spectators who were disappointed with the poor organization. With minor changes, the use of this top class facility for the sake of sports fans will become more enjoyable. I'm doubtful I will want to experience such a disaster again.

We appreciate and understand the volunteers who give up their own time to work at the event. Thankfully the netball was fantastic.