My notes on Zurich and Switzerland

Last Tuesday I attended an event which took place at Hallenstadion, Zurich’s largest sports arena. There, CH-FR football game is broadcasted live. Sponsored by COOP, you had an exiting environment to watch the game, food and drink for only 5chf.
I don’t like and understand football so I was there to watch the crowd -and learn more about COOPs marketing stunt.- (Philips did an even better one in Frankfurt in Main Fan Fest. See picture)

Notes:

• With the betterment of the projection and sound technologies, watching live events in other venues will be even more popular. For me, it is even better than the real thing since I can’t see well. But a friend of mine reminded me that this spectacle watching culture is as old as Romans and any change requires a radical paradigm shift which is unlikely and watching a game on the screen is more like watching an online-game for which we don’t need a real match. We even talked about national teams of game players competing in the cyber world of FIFA2020 online-game. (He is a sound engineer and he also taught me how the experience can be boasted with sound tricks in places like Hallenstadon.)
• They are very calm. Unless there is a close shave, nobody yells, sing or swear. I think this is something to appreciate or even admire as our guys get truly crazy, but the other day I went to Mexico-Iran game and being among Mexicans was a much more pleasant experience.
• Maybe it is only me, but the alcohol consumption among young kids seemed to me frightening. I have seen many kids (looking under 15) already drunk before the game. I wonder how serious this problem is? It was also noticeable that they were smoking in no-smoking zones. It should be the rebellious nature of youth, if not the trend is terrifying.
• Football is boring, no matter what.