Commonwealth Games Delhi 2010: Poor Ticket Sales
After a series of issues and problems that the Organizing Committee had to face during the last two months, a houseful at the vibrant opening ceremony was the perfect balm for the wounds of the organizers. However, the situation after the opening ceremony
is not very promising for the Games and the organizers both. The tickets sell out and the turnout of fans and spectators at the venues is not more than 10-20 percent in almost all the disciplines of the Commonwealth Games. On the second day of the Games,
the shooting and netball venues were almost completely devoid of any fans cheering their favourite athletes. The situation was no better at the hockey and squash venues.
Most of the people in India in general and New Delhi in particular prefer to watch the competitions being broadcasted live on the television over bothering with the whole security fiasco at the stadium and roads around the venues. Those who have to come
and see the competitions have to first go through a security check. Apart from this, many upper and middle class people in India did not buy the tickets because they were not aware of the prices of the tickets, some of which were as low as 100 rupees. In addition,
the Games gained so much negative fame and were marred with allegations and accusations, that the people did not consider the events worth attending.
The Organizing Committee was so pre occupied with the complaints of the International community about the Games Village and was trying to prevent the country from getting disgraced in the eyes of the Commonwealth Games Federation, that it did not pay much
attention on the advertising of the Commonwealth Games and the affordable prices of the tickets to the competitions. The local Indian population does not even know about some of the disciplines at the Games like the lawn bowls and netball and thus naturally
the turnout at such events would have been very less.
Most of the fans were not even aware of the ticket sales outlets. The tickets were provided to the railway stations, Central Bank of India and other tourist spots at the very last minute when no one knew where to get them from. To get the tickets from the
aforementioned outlets was a hassle in itself since there were long queues and traffic jams outside these places. Waiting in long lines in a temperature of above 30 degrees, most people turned their backs at Games. The disappointed fans who stood outside the
Central Bank for more than an hour on Tuesday were observed cursing at the organizers of the event. Around 140 people waited in the scorching sun outside the Central Bank to get tickets for the hockey tournaments.
When one of the ladies in the queue was approached by a news correspondent, she said that the Games were a chaos with no proper guidance for the visitors. She was furious at the organizers and left without buying the ticket.
Some of the tickets at the opening ceremony were sold for as much as 50,000 rupees and that is what caused confusion amongst the locals about the prices of the tickets to the tournaments. Most of the passes for the contests were not more than 750 rupees,
starting from as low as 100 rupees.
Another main factor of less people showing up at the events is the withdrawal of some of high profile athletes from the Games. People would have loved to come and cheer for the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and the world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe.
India is a cricket obsessed nation. No sport other than cricket can make these people come out of their houses no matter what the circumstances are. Due to the ongoing cricket matches, Commonwealth Games are not being given a lot of attention.
When the chairman of the Organizing Committee, Suresh Kalmadi was approached regarding the sluggish ticket sales, he blamed the ticket booths for the poor sales.
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