Up watching the early UFC no holes barred fights before all the rules. Royce Gracie is a Champion of the highest order. Its a sadness how in our over-governed world someone like Gracie was not allowed to shine through what were the tumultuous early years of the UFC. We must remember that its this kind of negative thinking and agenda that we as rugby league fans must continue to face. Yes, the UFC was violent, but so is life. Gracie, a champion of Jiu-Jitsu, went into the UFC knowing he may have to use extreme violence, however, he said he would not use it unnecessarily. He showed control and skill and technique. Such as we should in life. Action with thought beforehand is always best. Yes he could punch and kick with deadly force as well. He had that ability. BUt his grapple was his most lethal technique. This man was almost undefeatable (sakabura who also does Jiu Jitsu did so but by a wisker), a vice....his father who taught him had never been defeated, and neither had Royce who really is a living Brazillian Bruce Lee. He was never allowed to shine because of the bad publicity this competition received. But forget the media for the moment, and so called do-gooders who denigrated this tournament and upheld what I call peoples wrong perceptions about such a thing. We must remember the world is a violent place. It always has been and always will be. Just because you can beat someone up, doesnt mean you should go and beat someone up. Those who know how to fight rarely fight. Just like those with respect for weapons rarely kill people with them. People must have respect for each other.
Its sad that the perception of the world is twisted by what we may believe to be the "right" thing. We deny our human nature, we deny manliness and instead use machoness, and we deny reality. Those men in the UFC were competitors and thats Human nature as well. All were fantastic people with high self-image and values and massive respect for one another. They were not violent killers, show-boaters, or fakes. They were practitioners of martial arts - the real deal.
In league we need to respect our teams and our values and uphold this. One way we can do this is to support them at the game. And deny the media destroying high and valued perceptions of our game.
I believe that the Broncos might get 40K. I could be wrong.
I don't believe that the tigers will get 30k. I could be wrong again.
If I had to pick a figure for the Broncos, I would base it on the following. Given that I was able to get 5 seats in the maroon section on the western side, which is in line with the goal-line, I would say that most of maroon is gone. Certainly was during the week when it was listed as just single seats available, however more have become available tonight. Perhaps its a computer re-calculation thing, or a marketing technique. So thats BEST 5 MAROON seats available are goal line north end western side. BEST WHITE with 5 seats in a row was North end section 331 behind the goal posts to one side.
Then I tried to get 10 seats in the WHITE section and was denied. This got me wondering. Maroon sections are on the sides on each end of the gold section on each tier. White sections go all the way around the stadium and only a couple of bays of red and blue separate the white. Blue is away supporters I think and red is the dry section.
SO WHITE section tickets denied me a block of 10 seats in a row. The best tickets I could get for white were a block of 5 at the southern end. I tried again 10 minutes later and found I could do no better.
Then I tried again a bit later and found that I could get 10 tickets in the white section 20 rows back. But I could not get any more. The site said that none were available.
I am not sure what is happening, but I think that since this match is not on FTA and its the first of the season people will go to it. And I also think that the ticketek system is not one where you can just go in and continually ask for tickets one after the other. I think this is to stop spamming, such as what I was doing. People who are genuine would know how many are going and exactly what they needed. And would avoid being trapped such as I.
They had sold 25,000 mid week. Best 5 maroon were in line with goal. Best 10 white were southern stand. The northern stand is the more popular since its nearer to the station.
I think they will get 45K based on what I saw. BUT one must consider that no "single seats" or "allocation exhausted" signs have gone up for any categories. So sales could be as low as 30-35K. Or sales could be just off those levels. Or they may not be opening up the upper tiers. Then again, the upper tiers are always full when seats are available on the lower levels such as what I saw on ticketek.
Guess we will know later. Final prediction is 35-45K.