The Sports Ministry on Thursday informed Lok Sabha that the total number of tickets printed by the Organising Committee for all the events of the 2010 Commonwealth Games were 11,42,048 and out of these, only half had been brought by the spectators.
Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Pratik Prakashbapu Patil, in reply to a question, informed the Lower House that the attendance of spectators reported at the stadiums was approximately 6,87,000 which included the spectators with complimentary tickets issued out of unsold stock of tickets.
"The Organising Committee has reported that the total number of tickets printed for all Commonwealth events were 11,42,048 and out of these, tickets sold to spectators were 5,61,909. The attendance of spectators at the stadiums was 6,87,000 which included the spectators with complimentary tickets," said Patil.
"The tickets were available except some sessions being sold out towards the final sessions of some popular sports like Hockey, Tennis, Swimming and Boxing etc. Initially the spectators in the stadia were less but towards the finals, the capacity had been full in the popular sports," said the minister.
During the October 3-14 event, widespread ticketing problems were witnessed with spectators complaining that they were often surrounded by empty seats, despite officials saying all seats had been sold.
The minister also informed the House that the highest number of collection from tickets sale came from Athletics discipline, followed by Hockey, Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Badminton and Swimming.
In reply to a question whether the distribution of tickets were also taken over midway through the Games by the OC chairperson Suresh Kalmadi's office, the minister answered in the negative.
Replying to another question on whether there was 'no-ticket' situation for Closing ceremony for Members of Parliament and they were sent back empty handed from OC headquarter, Patil replied, "MPs were provided with accreditataion cards and tickets for Opening and Closing ceremonies and seats were reserved for them in the South wing lower tier."
"The OC has reported that a total of 1440 tickets were issued for Closing ceremony to MPs," he said.
On a question pertaining to preparation of sports persons for the 16th Asian Games in China, the minsiter said, "for Indian contingent for Asian Games, the government in April 2009 approved an action plan for the disciplines included in the Games."
"Under the action plan, 22 disciplines were included with an allocation of around Rs 56 crores. Major amount was invested in sports like basketball (4 crore 29 lakhs), women boxing (2 crore 15 lakhs), equestrian (3 crore), football (7 crore 34 lakhs, judo (5 crore 45 lakhs) among others," Patil said.
