Commonwealth Games 2010 Tickets nowhere to be found

Three days into Games, fans & sports federations find buying tickets is an ordeal

Empty stands are the worst advertisement for any sport and the 2010 Commonwealth Games continue to surprise all because at most big events, the claim is “ tickets have been sold out”. However, even on Wednesday, at least two federations were grappling for tickets.

Hockey India confirmed that tickets are “ not being released by the Games Organising Committee ( OC)”. Apparently, when some tickets were made available to Hockey India, they were of the morning session.

“ We are even willing to pay for the tickets but they are not there,” a Hockey India official said.

If this is the plight of sports federations, one can well imagine what is in store for the true sports fan.

Even the sports ministry bigwigs are fuming as tickets have not been released for them. It is learnt that from sports minister M. S. Gill’s office to top bureaucrats, there are no tickets to oblige people with.

The All India Tennis Association also says it is finding it tough to procure tickets.

On Wednesday, Sachin Dhingra (35) had to endure a long wait in the queue at the box office of Talkatora Stadium.

But this wasn’t because of any mad rush for tickets.

“ I have just four people ahead of me. But I haven’t moved ahead in the last half an hour because their server is down most of the time,” Dhingra, who lives in Pitampura, said.

“ Even when the server is functioning, it takes them (volunteers) long to hand over the tickets.

Though there are designated counters for advance and current booking, there is no attempt to enforce this system. This adds to the chaos,” Kamal Saxena, who had brought his daughters along to the IG stadium to watch gymnastics, said.

The problems do not end at the ticket counter. After the purchase of tickets, a long walk to the respective entry gate awaits the spectators.

Conflicting information and directions from volunteers and policemen only add to the trouble.

In fact, on Wednesday, Commonwealth Games Federation boss Mike Fennell raised the tickets issue at a press conference where OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi was also seated.

“ We sold more than 50,000 tickets on Tuesday. The boxing and wrestling venues were full. Now that we have won so many gold medals, the public is taking interest. We are looking into making tickets more openly available,” Kalmadi said.

But Fennell interrupted him and said that given the poor crowd turnout, difficulties in buying tickets is a serious issue which has to be tackled immediately.

“ There seem to be problems on the ticketing issue. If people are not getting tickets, then we will have to discuss it seriously. We will talk it over with the OC,” Fennell said.

An OC official confirmed the ticketing process was laborious but denied the committee was hoarding tickets.

“ In some events such as lawn bowls and netball, the demand for tickets is less,” he said.

The real situation remains unclear.