THE COMMONWEALTH Games Federation has told Delhi organisers to investigate the ticket system as thousands of seats remain empty at Games events.
“We are receiving several reports people are going to ticket offices and being told there are no tickets available when there are empty seats in the venues,” Games Federation chief Michael Fennell said on Saturday (October 9).
“We have been promised this morning that there will be a full investigation as something is not right with these ticket sales and the reports that we have been receiving.”
The 19th edition of the Games has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the last couple of weeks, mostly because of organisational problems.
Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the Games organising committee, continued to blame sponsors and corporate organisations for the empty stands and said more tickets would be released.
“The stadiums are not empty. You can say the attendance is less but there are good numbers of spectators who are present at the stadium,” Bhanot said, adding that ticket sales for the October 3-14 event were now close to one million.
“(People with) tickets issued to most of the sponsors and corporate (bodies) are not turning up. So we have decided to issue some more tickets for every games and sports to ensure more attendance in the stadiums.”
