Arena PVP Won't Be a Spectator Sport

Over on the forums, Tseric has confirmed that while arena spectators would be a really great idea, Blue won't have it done in time for the expansion's release (whenever that will be). It's going to have to go on the list of "implemented at a future date."

Which is too bad, because ever since the 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches were announced, I've been excited to see the results live and in person. Sure, technically it's probably not super easy (especially in popular matches, considering the lag in Ironforge when people squeeze into a small space), but when Tom Chiton hinted at the idea of a Super Brawl, I at least figured it was a possibility. Watching big matches live would be much more awesome then having to watch them on FRAPS later.

So how are we going to know what happens in these matches? Not that I can't trust the players (although some of them, I probably can't), but Blizzard must be able to somehow show us in game what matches are happening and their outcome. Maybe they can put an Arena Bar in the main cities, with NPCs reporting matches and scores as they finish. Or there can be an Arena Board to show the results of all matches in the past day or so. I guess they could just report the matches and their outcome on a seperate website, but ingame would be much more fun.

And being able to check the results of matches ingame means the very next step is gambling on matches, right? I'd be much more interested in which teams are good or bad when I have the option to put my gold where my mouth is (and make others do the same)!