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Call centre boosts 2010 sales

Jacob Nthoiwa
By Jacob Nthoiwa, ITWeb journalist.
Johannesburg, 30 Mar 2010

The Fifa World Cup Ticketing Sub-Committee has opened a call centre to boost ticket sales, and to accommodate soccer fans who want buy tickets via channels other than First National Bank (FNB) branches and the Fifa Web site.

Ticket sales clearly need a boost, as this will be the first modern World Cup that has not sold out at this stage, according to the Fifa media team. “To date, 2.3 million tickets out of the 2.95 million tickets have been sold. With just 71 days to go before the first game kicks off, 650 000 of the 2.95 million total tickets are still available.”

In contrast, all 64 games were sold out when Germany hosted the event in 2006, with 15 million applications for only 3.4 million seats.

According to media reports, 330 000 (58%) of the 570 000 tickets sent out to the 31 competing nations are being returned unsold. British newspaper The Daily Mirror reported that the UK, expected to be among the best supported teams at the finals, have sent back 1 000 of the 29 000 tickets allocated to the Football Association, which needed a three-month extension to sell that many.

The reports indicated reasons for the stay away include the heavy costs of flights and accommodation; security fears; and the logistical problems of getting around a country with limited infrastructure, with competing teams not based in individual cities.

Horst Schmidt, chairman of the ticketing sub-committee, says the call centre is operational from 10:30am until 7:30pm, local time. “The fans understand that time is crucial now, as the tickets are allocated on a first come first served basis, and that they should not wait for last minute over-the-counter sales," he advises.

Silver lining

There are five sales phases for the Fifa World Cup, the first of which opened in March 2009. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) says the reason for the different phases is to cater for the varying demand and availability of tickets at different times in the build-up to the event.

After three of the five ticketing sales phases, two-thirds of the available tickets have been sold. This second-last sales phase will run until 7 April and the applications are dealt with on a first come, first served basis.

Fifa says it has sold most of the 400 000 tickets available for the fourth phase, and is confident the remainder will be sold before April when the phase ends. Schmidt said the first 100 hours of the fourth ticket sales phase saw a total of 74 146 tickets being sold, while an additional 130 000 applications were still being processed.

The LOC says over-the-counter tickets will be available at ticket centres across the country on 15 April when the final phase begins. The ticket centres will be open from 9:00am until 6:00pm seven days a week. Over-the-counter ticket sales will run for the duration of the tournament, right up to the day of the final.

SA is leading ticket sales with more than one million tickets sold in the country. Apart from SA, the countries with the most tickets sold so far are the US, UK, Mexico, Australia, Brazil and Germany.

Fifa's goal is to sell out all 64 matches, not only the prime ones.

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