Limited Local Uptake On 2010 Tickets
Less than 100,000 tickets have been sold to fans in the six African countries competing in the 2010 World Cup finals since the latest ticket selling phase started on 5th December.
Around 1 million tickets were made available in the latest selling phase following last month’s draw in Cape Town when the groups for the 32-team finals were decided.
Of the 3.1m tickets made available overall, just over a million have been sold worldwide but Danny Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 Local Organising Committee, is concerned that they are not being sold to locals.
‘Sadly Bafana are not even in the top 10 (countries buying tickets). England at this stage will have more supporters at their country’s games than will be at Bafana matches’, said Jordaan.
The current ticket selling phase ends on 22nd January. Any tickets remaining after that will be sold on a first-come first-served basis between 9th February and 7th April. This will then be followed by a last minute sales phase between 15th April and 11th July 2010.
South Africa open the tournament at Soccer City against Mexico on 11th June. The opening match and ceremony is expected to be sold out, but not by the home nation fans.
‘This will be the first time in World Cup history that the host nation are not topping the ticket sales list. It will be tragic if this trend continues and I appeal to local fans to come out and support their country’, added Jordaan.
Jordaan added he was confident sales will continue to rise worldwide in the next selling phase as the tournament kick-off nears, ‘Apart from Africa, we are happy with the global sales and expect this trend to increase in the coming months.’
