Well - we got there !!!!... eventually. I only managed to get tickets for the Sunday this year and that was on the re-release a week or so ago. In the past I've always managed to get tickets for Manchester for 2 if not 3 days and made a long weekend of it.
I came to see this:
Unfortunately, at the critical times - I tended to see this:
It was a great day's racing, but I wasn't impressed with the venue. I was rather surprised when we got there that, in our section of the crowd at least, we were the only people who hadn't brought flags and banners. However, we were the only people in the same group who seemed to know which finish line was being used for which event... Everyone has got to start somewhere, and I'm all for expanding the popularity of track cycling as a sport, but I must say that I preferred the camaraderie of a knowledgeable Manchester audience to the partisan ignorance that was being displayed all around me. I rather wish that the organisers had limited the use of "restricted items", particularly large flags.
It also annoyed me that, although tickets seemed to be as hard to get this year as hell's teeth, large sections of the best seats (by the finish lines) seemed to be unoccupied for much of the event. If you don't believe me - count the empty seats in the picture below - it was taken just before the mid afternoon break. They can't have all been at the bar... If this is the result of corporate sponsorship - I'm not impressed.
Overall, the organisation wasn't too bad - the airlock doors were amusing - everyone discovers something wrong at an inaugural event. However, the catering was abysmal. First thing Sunday morning and you couldn't buy white coffee - only black. Someone had forgotten to order the milk. By lunch time things had only improved slightly - white coffee was ok, but not a latte (not enough milk for those). Oh, and just don't get me going (as a Yorkshireman) about the prices. Rip off Britain has arrived.
All in all, I rather hope that, once the Olympic hoo ha is over and done with, track cycling might just slip back into relative obscurity, so that we can see future events back at Manchester where you can both get tickets and get an unobstructed view of the proceedings.