CWG ticket sales gather steam; 16,000 sold in first week

A week after tickets for the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) went on sale, almost 16,000 tickets, accounting for almost Rs 4 crore, have been sold — most of these for the opening and closing ceremonies.

The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) has an inventory of 1.7 million tickets, which it plans to sell by the end of July, generating almost Rs 60 crore.

“The response has been good so far and we have sold more than 16,000 tickets. Most of these have been sold for events like hockey, gymnastics, tennis and athletics, besides the opening and the closing ceremonies,” said Lalit Bhanot, spokesperson for and secretary general of the OC. Tickets worth Rs 1 crore were sold on the first day itself. The break-up of tickets sales was not immediately available, but most of these were purchased by individuals.

Tickets are available for all sports, except free events, including road cycling and marathon, which are to be held across the city. Each ticket for these events costs between Rs 50 and Rs 1,000, while that for opening and closing ceremonies costs up to Rs 50,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bhanot added the OC would release 10 per cent more tickets for the opening ceremony. The sale of tickets is to be done in a phased manner. The first phase commenced on June 4 and customers can opt to buy space (reserve seats) for different sessions during this phase. Actual tickets for these spaces will be distributed on during the second phase, which will commence on August 1.

During this phase, customers can obtain tickets from select retail outlets. There will be five retail outlets for Phase-1, while the number will be increased going forward. There will be at least 50 retail outlets in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Pune and Hyderabad. Although various Commonwealth Games associations have appointed general sales agents across the world and the OC expects revenue to flow in from these, an OC official said: “We have not analysed international sales till now.”