Football fans queued up at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Thursday for tickets to the Indian Super League final between Bengaluru FC and Chennaiyin FC to be held on Saturday. A total of 6,500 tickets, priced between ₹100 and ₹700, were up for grabs. They were sold out in a few hours.
Fans arrived as early as 6 a.m. The queue started at Gate G of the stadium and stretched all the way to Hudson Circle when the ticket counter opened. Tickets for the West Block stand, where BFC's most devoted supporters gather during matches, were in great demand, and many fans had to return disappointed.
“I came here at 8.30 in the morning. Despite that, I did not get tickets in the West Block," complained Dominic Xavier, a die-hard Sunil Chhetri fan. "There were hardly a hundred people ahead of me, but I was told that tickets were sold out.”
The ISL had stated on Wednesday that fans would be allowed to purchase only four tickets each, and only upon producing a government-approved identity card. But this did not prevent the sale of tickets in the black market.
“I was approached by at least five people offering the ₹100-rupee ticket for ₹500. I wish more tickets were on sale. This is totally unfair," raged Varun Narasimha, an LLB student from BMS College.
Around 2.40 p.m. came the announcement that all tickets had been sold. Going home disappointed was Noa, who is here on a vacation, from Israel. “I was here just for the experience but I feel sorry for those who waited sincerely for over four hours," she said.
An ISL official stated that the stadium's capacity is around 24,000 and close to 10,000 tickets had been sold online. "There was no confusion," he said. "The online sales started much earlier because in some cases, we have to dispatch the tickets. Around 70% of the tickets were sold on the very night BFC qualified for the final."
Of the remaining 7,000-odd tickets, some were bought by the two clubs (BFC and Chennaiyin), by corporate houses, some were allocated to players’ families and friends, some for hospitality boxes while some went to the complimentary quota.
