Most 2010 ticket foreign tickets sales to US
2010-03-09 16:26
Americans appear set to be by far the most numerous group of
foreign fans coming to South Africa for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Parliament’s
sports and recreation portfolio committee heard today.
This is according to the number of tickets sold up to the end of
football governing body Fifa’s third sales phase, which ended on January
22.
Briefing MPs, Local Organising Committee CFO Farouk Seedat said 107
576 tickets for the event had been sold to the general public in the United
States.
The second-highest number of sales was in the United Kingdom (63
835) followed by Germany (29 733) and Australia (26 488).
By comparison, public ticket sales in South Africa’s “top two”
neighbouring countries, Mozambique and Botswana, were 1 474 and 1 257
respectively.
To date, a total of 2.1 million tickets had been sold for the
event.
Seedat said 311 271 tickets were still available for sale to the
general public.
In the current sales phase four – which opened on February 9 and
runs to April 7 – a total of 194 349 ticket sales had been “confirmed” to
date.
“The domestic demand has far outstripped the demand from overseas.
A total of 164 193 of the 194 349 have been bought by South Africans,” he
said.
From April 15 – the start of Fifa’s sales phase five – tickets will
be sold on a first-come, first-served basis, with applications processed in the
order in which they are received.
Match Event Services executive chairman Jaime Byrom told MPs that
many match tickets, originally allocated to commercial affiliates, hospitality
and TV rights holders, licensees and others, would soon become available to the
general public.
Ticket seekers who entered Fifa’s random selection draw process,
which takes place on April 15, therefore stood a chance to obtain tickets to
matches where currently tickets might not be available.
This was the result of tickets being “redistributed” back from
these organisations for sale to the general public.
“One day you can have a match that is not available for sale, and
then all of a sudden certain matches become available for sale.”
Fifa had not yet come to the end of this redistribution process, he
said.
The so-called “random selection draw sales phase” closes on March
31.
- SAPA