Kolkata: In a step towards popularising the club, Kolkata giants East Bengal have thought about taking various steps starting with providing complimentary tickets for its women members, school children’s and physically challenged supporters to watch the club’s matches in I League.
The club officials have taken a leaf out of the successful hosting of the FIFA U17 World Cup matches here at the Salt Lake Stadium. The football crazy fans of the city witnessed a very successful hosting of the U17 World Cup matches.
“We will try to match as much as we can as far as hosting our I League matches is concerned. We will try to take a leaf out of the successful hosting of the matches during the U17 World Cup,” said club supremo Debabrata Sarkar.
He added, “We need more and more participation of women fans to popularise football in these parts. We will provide free tickets to our women fans. We will also approach the schools and provide complimentary tickets to the school kids willing to attend our matches. We will also provide tickets to physically challenged fans.”
The club is also trying to organise public transportation for its fans mostly for the physically challenged ones.
“We are also trying to organise transportation, like we saw during the U17 World Cup.
Special snacks packets or dinner will be provided to VIP ticket holders. The club management is also trying to keep the ticket prices as much within the reach of common people.
With the Indian Super League matches also to be hosted at the same time with I League, the issue of branding will be very important.
Regarding the branding of the Salt Lake Stadium (East Bengal has already being given a confirmation to host their I League matches at the stadium), Debabrata Sarkar said, “I had a request to the sports minister. Whenever he calls for a meeting, we all three of us – East Bengal , Mohun Bagan and ATK should sit across the same table.”
East Bengal has requested the Federation to keep their matches at 6:30pm on weekdays.
“We have already expressed our views to the Federation. We do not have any problem in playing a match during the weekdays i.e., from Monday to Thursday. But the matches should start after 6:30pm,” said Debabrata Sarkar.
Lastly on being asked about the State Sports Department’s plans to pay a security deposit to avail the Salt Lake Stadium, Debabrata Sarkar said, “We are yet to be approached by the Sports Minister in this regard. We will discuss on the issue when he calls us for a meeting.”