This Article is From Oct 01, 2010

CWG Opening Ceremony: Rs 25,000 can get you in

CWG Opening Ceremony: Rs 25,000 can get you in
New Delhi: With just two days to go for the Commonwealth Games 2010, still a few hundred high priced tickets for the opening ceremony remain unsold, while for the closing ceremony it may be in thousands.

"Still 300-400 tickets of Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000 are unsold. But still two days are left and we hope that those will get buyers," a Commonwealth Games 2010 Organising Committee official said.

"For the closing ceremony, the unsold tickets must be in thousands," the official said.

Spectators have also decided to ignore unpopular disciplines such as lawn ball and net ball, thereby leading to piling up of unsold tickets for the events.

For the opening ceremony, tickets are priced at Rs 1,000, Rs 5,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000, while those of the closing ceremony start from Rs 750 onwards.

A ticketing volunteer said for the opening ceremony, the Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000 tickets are still available, but the lower denomination tickets are sold out.

About 22 lakh tickets were put on sale for the 11-day-long mega sporting event, which will start from October 3.

It, however, could not be ascertained exactly how many tickets are still unsold. As per reports, till mid-September, only 2.5 lakh tickets were sold.

Comments from Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Secretary General Lalit Bhanot could not be obtained as repeated calls and SMS remained unanswered.

Spectators complained about the high price of tickets, especially for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Swati Vaibhav, an LLB student from Dehradun, asked: "Tickets are very expensive and one thing is that there are several games like lawn ball and net ball, I don't know anything about these games, so why should I buy the tickets for that?"

Others, who stood in queues at centres like Central Bank of India outlets, said high prices of the tickets are a deterrent to go to watch the Games.

"The price of the Games ticket are very high. Everybody cannot afford that," Krishna Chandra, a MBA student, who bought the closing ceremony ticket from Central Bank of India, Greater Kailash-I, said.

According to IRCTC, a ticket vendor, over Rs 18 crore worth of tickets for the sporting event have been sold so far.

For individual sporting disciplines, the ticket denominations are between Rs 100 and Rs 1,000 per seat.

The organisers said from the sales of about 22 lakh tickets, an estimated Rs 120 crore revenue is expected to be generated.

Four events will have free entry for fans -- the marathon, the walk, cycling road race and cycling time trial.

About 7,000 athletes from 71 countries and territories are participating in the multi-sport event being conducted under heavy security.
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