I felt like before this, Korra was suspicious of Asami but so far, Korra's thoughts hadn't been confirmed yet. We may wanna try and give them some chance to sort of get closer as gal pals before we reveal Mr.Sato's involvement. I think season one was horribly paced anyway...Though with Korra and Bolin need to be mended. And yeah, Mako and Korra were kinda never friends. He was often pretty cold to her, while she tried to act like it didn't bug the crap out of her. Does Korra have any friends at this point? XD

You do have a point, by getting rid of a distraction piece of entertainment, people can see the truth for what it is and how benders are running the city, pretty much.

We could have the attack happen the next night in the RP? Probably doing both events right off the bat would be a bit much. I think Mako and Asami would be out and about, I don't think at the arena. Maybe it would be safe to say Bolin and Korra are out too since the Fire Ferrets clearly aren't in the match this go around.