Back in April, we attended an early Cinco de Mayo party at our neighbors', Drew and Lori, house. It was a fantastic event with great food, cervices, margaritas, a pool, and intoxicated guys wearing giant sombreros and fake mustaches . It actually felt like an evening a Joe T. Garcias! Amanda and I spent most of our time talking with our other neighbors, Phil and Claire, who are English/Scottish. As it turns out, Phil is the CEO of one of the local football clubs and apparently is a rock star in the sports marketing world. We talked about ways that they could get attendance up at the football matches as the team was actually paying people to come to the games to fill the seats, even though the team was pretty good. His boss, Sheikh Mansour (owner of Manchester City football club and younger brother of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi), had challenged him with increasing attendance. We told him we had six people that could fill seats anytime. He vowed to take us up on our offer.
Every time that we see Phil and Claire out walking their dog, we always ask when football season starts. Well, it started earlier this month, and Phil invited Amanda and I to the game between his club, Al Jazira, and the other Abu Dhabi football club, Al Wahda. The game was scheduled for tonight (Thursday) and he sent us invitations to sit in the President's Club (e.g., VIP but not VVIP). The details of the adventure are in the following paragraph.
All week I have been researching Sheikh Mansour just so I have some background in case we bump into him in the VIP reception area. It turns out the guy is one, if not the, richest guys in the UAE and owns thoroughbreds in addition to two football clubs. I had rehearsed exactly what I would say to HH (i.e., His Highness) in the event we ran into him.
Our adventure started with pulling into a random parking lot adjacent to the stadium and stopping a Police Officer to ask where the VIP parking area was at. He kindly pointed us in the right direction. We followed his directions and pulled into the right spot after driving through a large crowd of Emeratis. We were directed to the back of the lot, as the game had already begun and the low was pretty full, and nearly ran over a few mounted Police officers. I am sure they were thinking - "Stupid Americanos". We walked up to the stadium, flashed our invites to the security like we knew what we were doing and walked into the VIP reception area. On one side were the elevators to the President's Suite and on the other was the entrance to the Royal Enclosure. My hopes of bumping into the Sheikh were immediately dashed!
We rode the elevators to the 2nd floor, entered the President's Suite, and again flashed our invitations. It was pretty much just Emerati men in the entire area. Apparently the Sheikh had invited a lot of his family/friends to the game and there was a bit of a seating problem. We were asked to wait and then were eventually led down a corridor to the Executive Cabins. After checking a few, the host led us to one with four or five Emeratis (again all guys) and a few extra seats. The guys were very accommodating and friendly. I was going to ask if they would take a picture with Amanda but thought that might be inappropriate - probably for them and her. We had a great view of the field (see pictures) and it was very comfortable. The cabin beside us was filled with young Emerati boys who were having a good time.
We really enjoyed watching the match and our cabinmates filled us in on some of the details. They also showed us how to drink the Arabic Coffee (similar to Espresso) that was brought in a couple of times during the match. I apparently over-indulged (two cups both times) which is the reason I am up at 12:05am writing this blog. There is a whole ritual to drinking that stuff that involves hand gestures kind of like in poker. You shake you cup to hold and hold out your cup if you want to hit. It was great!
Unfortunately the match ended in a 0-0 draw but we had a good time anyway. We ran into Phil in the VIP Reception Area and thanked him for the invite and told him we had a great time. Leaving the stadium was just like leaving any other sporting event, bumper to bumper traffic.
On the way home, Amanda and I came up with two ideas for Phil to use in boosting attendance. First, he needs to have Sheikh call Jerry Jones and get the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders to perform at half time. Second, he needs to hire Pat Green to perform a concert at the end of the game. We saw Pat "F#$%ing" Green after a Stars game one time and he was a huge hit. I can't imagine anything better than that combination.
Well, the Arabic Coffee is wearing off and tomorrow is Friday - the first day of the weekend - so I better sign off so I can keep up with the kids.
Until your next adventure - keep living vicariously through us as it is something new everyday here in the U.A.E.!!
LOVE the ideas for boosting attendance!! What an experience!
ReplyDeletelove ya'll