2nd March, 2013
Stadium
72nd Anniversary Stadium, Minburi
Transport
Bus from SriRacha
Cost
B240
Travelling Time (total journey)
5 hours 45 minutes (a couple of wrong turns, stopped by the police - twice!! - and a minor hold up at roadworks)
Total Distance Travelled
220kms (give or take)
Match Ticket
B120
Programme
An A4ish sized effort running to 32 pages. Lots of colour pictures and only four pages of adverts. Very little on Chonburi - a two page spread comparing Tero's Sho Shimoji (great name) and Cleiton Silva to Kazuto Kushida and Thiago Cunha respectively - but lots for the home fans to drool over though. Which is fair enough.
Club Shop
A few tables under an awning on the main approach to the stadium were selling all the latest in Tero merchandise. It's early days for the club at their new ground so maybe more salubrious premises are in the pipeline.
Away End
A third of the uncovered terrace on the far side of the stadium. No seats, just terracing and quite a climb up a fair few steps to get to our places. However, we had a decent enough view of the pitch, the aeroplanes coming in to land at Suvhanbumhi and a most glorious sunset.
Staff
The ticket sellers seemed friendly enough but the ticket collectors/security seemed to have a very high opinion of themselves. I saw one refuse admission to a little boy because he had a bag of crisps with him, although grown men with ten foot long steel poles were waved through with gay abandon. The guards were also taking bottled drinks from people and beer was an absolute no-no. However, by the start of the second half they had given up and the away terrace was awash with booze. I wonder if the young lad got his crisps in?
Food
I'd eaten plenty on the way up so I didn't buy anything at the stadium. The usual fayre was available though.
Beer
At the official Leo Beer stall, two tokens cost B80. These tokens could then be exchanged for two small plastic glasses of the company product. Chonburi's travelling shop was also doing a roaring trade behind the away end. After the match, I bought two cans of Chang from a local shop for B60.
Highlight of the Day
Tero's General Manager Robert Procureur's face after our late equaliser. He'd been haranguing the fourth official and match commissioner all afternoon and, at one point seemed to go into a dance reminiscent of Joy Division's Ian Curtis in his pomp. Bizarre behaviour but it made for an entertaining sideshow.
Overall Experience
BEC Tero have made a decent effort to make the place seem like home and deserve a lot of credit. There was a pleasant enough atmosphere both inside and outside the stadium. However, I have one major gripe. The management of the car park and the flow of traffic on the approach to the stadium was abysmal. Alarm bells started to ring when we arrived and couldn't get the bus past cars which had been "parked" in the road in full view of the hopeless car park attendants. It was chaos. But this was nothing compared to the scenes after the match. The whole place was gridlocked and nobody could move. It took us well over an hour to travel the hundred yards or so to the road that connected to the main road. A complete and utter shambles. You have been warned!
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