Reporting from Bremen:
The tournament is well organized, very well funded, and unfortunately lacking almost everything table tennis fans actually need.
The qualification stage (Tuesday-Wednesday) took place in a secondary hall, which was quite dreadful. There were about 200 seats available in total to accommodate the spectators as well as any players, coaches, umpires and tournament staff members who wanted to watch. By the time the evening singles matches came around, there were barely any free seats to be had.
In most tournaments, seats are located on both sides of the hall, so if you wanted to watch a match that takes place on a table on the far side of the hall, you could just walk over there and watch closely. In the qualies hall, the seats were all located on one side. The 14 tables were arranged in 2 rows of 7, and the far row was...well, far, and the vision of it was blocked by players at the closer 7 tables, as well as coaches, photographers, and cameras located in the middle alley. There was no screen in the hall, so people had to go online to check the "live" scores of a match taking place 20 meters in front of them. On top of everything else, there were two giant columns in front of the seating area that blocked certain tables depending on where you were sitting.
The main hall (Thursday-Sunday) is gigantic, and completely unsuitable for table tennis. There are about 200 seats (those portable platforms) situated at ground level which would allow for more-or-less proper viewing, but tickets for those were never on sale. This seats are occupied by players, coaches, and probably various other VIPs, and are generally much emptier than the spectator area.
The fans sit high up in the main stands, where there are thousand of seats, the closest of which are pretty damn far. In fact, the closest seat I can take this week (having bought the best tickets that were offered) are further than the furthest possible seats I could take last week at the Swedish Open (great venue, btw).
A very disappointing viewing experience as a whole. It's all very far, and from a nearly 45 degree angle which takes away a lot of the benefits of watching TT live. It's still better than watching on a stream, but for me it feels like an opportunity missed.
The biggest advantage of this venue is its great location - just a 2 minute walk from the train station and the city center.
Personally I won't be coming back to this arena for TT tournaments.
