The Hindu : Sport : Tough times ahead for media at CWG

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Tough times ahead for media at CWG

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: The wait is over and the media is ready to flood the venues that are set to host the 17 disciplines in the Commonwealth Games. Will the media have enough space to work after having been denied access so far? That will be the major question in everyone's mind.

It is no secret that the media has been the last priority for the Organising Committee (OC). If all the venues are top class, there should be enough provision to cater to the demands of media professionals, considering the eagerness with which a high number of accreditation has been extended.

There is a fear that it could not only be aquatics that would be ‘ticketed' to restrict media entry, but also many more disciplines. In the Olympics, aquatics had ticketed entry for media owing to the limitation of space, while other disciplines, including tennis were kept open for all media both in Athens and Beijing.

The numbers

To start with, the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee swimming complex will offer 54 tabled seats and 75 non-tabled seats in the media tribunes.

The press work room will have space for 60, including 15 desktops already installed. Just to get a clear picture, it may be mentioned that about 2000 accreditations have been given to the media.

There will be space for 94 photographers on the stands, apart from 60 photographers at the first floor level in three different corners of the aquatic complex. The Nehru Stadium, hosting athletics, will offer 390 tabled positions and 800 non-tabled seats for the media. However, the press work room will have only 130 seats. There is a separate working room here for the photographers and yet the Sub-Press centre may end up lacking space.

In tennis, the centre court will have 130 seats for the media, of which 45 will have tables. In the second show court, there will be room for 55 journalists, with 18 tabled tribunes. Centre court will admit 32 photographers on the field of play.

450 seats at each range

Shooting, in which India is expected to win a number of gold medals, is scheduled to be much in demand as the events finish by evening.

At each range, 10-metre, 25-metre and 50-metre, there are media work rooms, with a total seating of about 100. There will be about 450 seats in all for the media in those three ranges put together, with tabled tribunes adding up to about 100.

However, in the final range, there will be 81 non-tabled tribunes and 13 tabled. The final range in trap, double trap and skeet will have only 10 tabled and 39 non-tabled tribunes. Considering that shotgun events are the most popular, the media could be at the receiving end.

The media following Saina Nehwal will have 60 tabled and 90 non-tabled tribunes at the badminton arena of the Siri Fort Sports Complex.

At the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, there will be 66 tabled seats for the hockey media, apart from 200 other seats. If you are following the fortunes of Vijender Singh and company in boxing, you have to grab one of the 84 media seats, of which 24 are expected to be tabled.

World champion Sushil Kumar has made wrestling so popular that the organisers may have to ticket the event, as 92 seats may prove inadequate. The catch again would be lack of space for media to operate with its laptops. Most of the press conference rooms have capacity for 60 seats only, and the electronic media may find it difficult to get their cameras positioned inside many of those cramped halls, as in the tennis complex.

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