High Ticket Prices?

[Hortical]

Just heard from a English cousin that the media has been chatting about the so-called high prices of tickets. He claims the opening ceremony was half full, and the WI game against Pakistan was not a sell out.

Who can set the record straight?

[Tilla]

RE: High Ticket Prices?

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Sabina was sold out for Windies opener</SPAN>
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>Andrew Hancel
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Despite a few empty seats, yesterday's opening match in the ICC Cricket World Cup at Sabina Park was sold out.
All 19,500 tickets for the first game between hosts West Indies and Pakistan were gone by eight o'clock Monday night, said Marvia Roach, communications director at the ICC CWC West Indies 2007 Inc.<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=200 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels drives through the offside during his topscore of 63 against Pakistan at Sabina Park yesterday. (Photo: Michael Gordon) </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>Sabina Park was reconstructed to hold a maximum capacity of 21,000, but due to ICC requirements, there were a few "kill seats", notably behind the bowler's arm in the George Headley Stand.
Space had to be made available, also, for the disabled community on the ground level of the North Stand.<P class=StoryText align=justify>However, while some seats were unoccupied for the entire match, for instance in the temporary stand between the Kingston Cricket Club and the George Headley stand, Roach explained that some ticket-holders did not turn up.
Meanwhile, ticket sales for the five remaining first-round games of the group stage at Sabina Park have been going well, according to Robert Bryan, executive director of the Jamaica Local Organising Committee (LOC).<P class=StoryText align=justify>Bryan said over 60 per cent of tickets for those games have been sold, with more likely to go by match time. The April 24 semi-final at Sabina Park is already sold out, he confirmed.
Meantime, Bryan told the Observer he and his team are very pleased that most things have gone well.<P class=StoryText align=justify>He said: "We have loaded the biggest crowd ever to watch cricket in the island and everybody came in very smoothly. We're going to focus on just making sure that from here on we just get better and better, so by the time the semi-final comes, hopefully the West Indies will be there, we'll be at our tip-top shape."

[Mosiah]

RE: High Ticket Prices?

Hortikal (3/14/2007)Just heard from a English cousin that the media has been chatting about the so-called high prices of tickets. He claims the opening ceremony was half full, and the WI game against Pakistan was not a sell out.

Who can set the record straight?

The opening ceremony was close to being a sell out. However, one must realise that the entire stadium was not used for the opening ceremony. With the stage facing one direction, the smaller stands were not available, but certainly, for the areas that were available, I could see only a few seats that were not occupied.

As for the WI-Pakistan game, the authorities say it was a sellout. And even if it wasn't, there weren't many empty seats in the stands at all.

That said, the ticket prices do seem high. I've been to world cup football games and don't remember them being quite as high. Unless of course they were being sold by Simpaul Travel!

[Peter R]

RE: High Ticket Prices?

Hortikal, I'm an cricket fan but somehow I cannot get excited about paying $50US to run and see Bangladesh play Bermuda let's say. In TT there is only one match wothwhile seeing in the opening round which is India v sri Lanka.

It isn't surprising that the games at this stage aren't sold out; however I think that other than when the big teams clash in the opening rounds, a 60% sale of tickets isn't too bad.

I suspect the Super 8s will be all sold out or close to being so.

pr