[HPforGrownups] STWNSHH (was Size)

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 139797

ibchawz wrote:
> I enjoyed reading your theory on this subject.  It reminded me of the
> email that gets forwarded around every Christmas that technically
> describes why Santa Claus can't exist.

He really doesn't exist too mind!

> I don't have my GOF book with me, so I am quoting the following stuff
> from memory.  Before the match began, the scoreboard was flashing
> advertisements for various products (I think Magical Mess Remover was
> one of them), so there is some sort of corporate sponsorship.

There's advertising, but that's not the same thing. If there was corporate
sponsorship, you'd expect to see teams renamed to include the sponsors'
names (Holyhead would become (perhaps) Mrs Skower's Harpies!), executive
boxes, that sort of thing. The descriptions we get sound like there aren't
any significant outside injections of cash on that sort of scale.

> Another thing I recall (let me know if my memory is faulty) is that
> the stadium for the Quidditch World Cup was built to seat 100,000
> people.  Considering that overseas countries were represented by
> rather small groups of fans due to the logistics of travel, I think
> it is safe to assume that the majority of the attendees were from
> Europe (for the sake of discussion, I assume 70%).  If the UK has
> only a WW population of 3000, that leaves 67,000 to come from other
> European countries.  If this is the case, the UK actually has a
> relatively small population of wizards/witches in comparison to other
> European countries.

Would be 97,000 rather than 67,000 but I note your point.

Think about the logistics of accommodating around 30 times your national
population, even for a short time, the amount of resources, food, etc that
would be needed. It just wouldn't be feasible.

The Rugby World Cup final was in Wales in 1999. But we didn't get 90 million
fans coming to it!

> Since JKR has stated that math and numbers (including school and WW
> populations) are not her strong point, I don't think she really gave
> this aspect of the WW a lot of forethought.  On the other had, she
> stated that she had background details for each of the students in
> Harry's year at Hogwarts.  I guess she just put more energy into
> character development than she did into other details.

And that's the real point. Those of us who enjoy speculating about the
sociology, economics, and other behind the scenes angles of the WW can see
just what a rich field of possibility there is. I'm quite happy to let JKR
get on with the story telling and leave the rest to fandom. As someone said
earlier, she's not Tolkien (though I'd love to see her backstory notes!)

hwyl

Ffred

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