Organising Committee claims Games to witness huge attendance

CWG set to be a big ticket event?

Organising Committee claims Games to witness huge attendance

Despite the negative publicity and global censure, the Suresh Kalmadi-led Organising Committee (OC) is confident of a successful Commonwealth Games 2010. Even as CWG infrastructure across the city appears to be crumbling, the OC claims ticket sales to the event remain steady.

Big launch: Commonwealth Games Secretary General Lalit Bhanot
launching the tickets file pic

The first stage of the three-phase ticket sales process was carried out exclusively through the Commonwealth Games website which was comparatively slow but it picked up after tickets were allowed to be sold through various retail outlets The third phase which is yet to begin will give people access to venue outlets as well.

Hockey favourite
With just two weeks left for the Commonwealth Games, the sale of tickets is picking up with hockey being the top grosser. More than 60,000 tickets have been sold till date for the tournament that will be played at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium from Oct 4 to 14.

The top seller is the India-Pakistan hockey match to be held on the 10th of October. "Hockey is a popular sport in India and that is why it is seeing such high ticket sales. Moreover an India-Pakistan match is always nail-biting so it is attracting lot of enthusiast," said an OC official associated with ticketing.

For the second time in the year, after the World Cup in February-March, hockey lovers will witness teams like world champions Australia, European champions England and arch-rivals India and Pakistan in action.

Sales figures
Apart from Hockey, the highest demands are for opening and closing ceremony tickets which are also the most expensive. Prices for opening ceremony tickets can cost anything between Rs 1,000, Rs 5,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs, 50,000. Most of the retail outlets have already announced that they have run out of the Rs 1,000 tickets. The sales have so far generated more than Rs 120 million and the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is now targeting Rs 1 billion.

A senior OC official said: "The response has been very good. We have sold over two lakh tickets till date. We expect to sell more as the Games get nearer. The good news for the OC is that apart from the Rs 1,000 tickets, the others priced at Rs 5,000 are also getting sold off rapidly."

Cheap and best
The OC had generated the maximum amount of sales from the cheapest tickets, till now. "The other tickets too are finding takers. We have also got orders for bulk booking. The maximum orders placed have been by Coca Cola, which is also an official sponsor of the Delhi Games. Tickets worth Rs 89 lakh have been ordered by Coca Cola," the officer added.

The other sports events that are also attracting enthusiasts are athletics and gymnastics, added officials. Even tickets for a less popular sport like archery are witnessing impressive sales. There are however not many takers for sports like Lawn Bowls and Rugby which are not popular in India.

Meeting targets
While sales may have gone up, it's still a long wait for the OC to meet its target - of selling 17 lakh tickets. Officials though claim that sales will go up once the event takes off, as many spectators are expected to buy tickets from venues on the big day.

"Lawn Bowls is a popular sport in countries like England and Australia, but not in India. We are hoping the sales will improve with the arrival of foreign tourists," said Monica Jolly.
OC plans to sell 17 lakh tickets, but it didn't reveal the seats available for each discipline.
"In the last two days, I have sold tickets worth one lakh twenty thousand rupees. Gymnastics is doing well. It is selling very well, even though it is not as popular as other sports," said a retailer who is selling CWG tickets.

Shoot at sight
However, shooting does not seem to be as popular a sport as hockey with the spectators, despite the fact that it garnered 27 medals in the last edition of the Games in Melbourne. Retailers say big names are not able to attract people as much as they were expected to.

No delivery
But many who have booked tickets through the CWG website are still waiting for deliveries.
So far, no cases of fake CWG tickets have been reported, a senior Delhi police official told MiD DAY.

'NO FREE PASSES'
Lalit Bhanot, Organising Secretary of CWG said there will be no complimentary passes for CWG. "There won't be any passes. The tickets will be reserved for athletes, the CWG officials, Games Federation, etc. The decision is yet to be taken on whether or not there would be complimentary tickets."
A Right to Information (RTI) query also revealed that a decision is pending on the distribution of complimentary tickets by the Organising Committee (OC). Subhash Chandra Agrawal, who filed the RTI, was seeking detailed information on the quota of free complimentary passes for various organisations, authorities, names and address.

MONEY MATTERS
The sporting event tickets are priced in the range of Rs 50 to Rs 1,000. The tickets for the grand opening ceremony range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 50,000 while those for the closing ceremony are from Rs 750 to Rs 1000.
Four events -- the marathon, the walk, cycling, and road race time-trial - will be free for the fans. The sale of online tickets started in June and the tickets from counters were made available last month after several missed deadlines. The tickets are being sold through 30 Central Bank of India, 11 FastTrack outlet and Hero Honda outlets across the city.