Betezy
130,000 World Cup tickets were sold in the first 36 hours of the final phase and 29 of the 64 matches are now sold out FIFA announced yesterday.
Perhaps not surprising to hear was that there are no more seats available for the final, the semi-finals and the opening game between host South Africa and Mexico at Johannesburg’
All matches in the coastal cities of Cape Town and Durban are also sold out.
In the second day of the final phase, tickets were still available for one quarter-final and the third-place playoff, as well as a selection of last 16 and group games.
Foreign ticket sales however, particularly in Europe, have been disappointing. Less than 350,000 people are expected to travel to the country for Africa’s first World Cup.
Also some of thr less popular matches, like South Korea versus Greece at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth and Paraguay versus New Zealand in the northern city of Polokwane, are yet to sell out tickets in any of the four categories of seats.
Ten matches still have unsold tickets in all four ticket categories, including the lowest priced one for locals.
Another eight games have only sold out the cheapest tickets.
Local organisers say they will make sure there are no empty seats at any of the matches to avoid embarrassing empty spaces in the crowd during the international tv broadcasts. They may well resort to giving away free tickets to schools and charities which would then affect the revenue expected to be generated by sales which was estimated at $3.3 billion, including commercial rights and marketing, which all goes to FIFA.
Organisers had 500,000 of the total 2.7 million tickets left at the start of the fifth phase.
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Photo:
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