Kolkata: The FIFA U17 World Cup has been in full swing with all the six venues already hosting early round matches. In spite of matches being declared sold out by the FIFA, none of the venues has seen a capacity crowd in the truest sense. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) has been receiving a lot of queries regarding ticket sales and allocation during the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017.
The LOC in a press statement clarified that a ticket is sold for a particular match day and not for either of the games. A good example for this would be the Match Days 1 and 2 at the New Delhi venue – even though tickets were sold out for the opening fixtures (1700hrs kick off) on both days, the stands were sparsely filled. The second game (2000hrs kick off) which featured the hosts however had more people attend it making the stands seem more filled.
Another reason why certain sections of the stands are unutilised, especially in certain venues is because of the seats that we aren’t using to ensure spectator safety –
Any person sitting in the stadium should be able to reach a safe space in 8 minutes which means some tiers weren’t accessible. After bucket seats were installed at all venues it was understood that the maximum available seats were reduced.
In none of the six venues all the tickets were put up for sale as there were contractual obligations with the Hosting Association, all the participating teams, all the 13 commercial partners of the Tournament, the host broadcaster, the signatories of host city, stadium and training site agreements and other stakeholders with which there are contracts with regards to the Tournament, to provide tickets.
All the tickets that have been put up for sale, are the maximum number of tickets that can be sold at each venue discounting these obligations.