KOCHI: It will be a full house for the ISL 2016 title clash between local favourites Kerala Blasters and Atletico de Kolkata at the Jawaharlal Nehru International (JNI) Stadium in Kochi on Sunday.
And tickets for the summit clash that went on sale at the stadium box office on Thursday morning were ‘sold out’ within a few hours. The online ticket portal BookMyShow also ran out of their quota of Rs 500 tickets. However, the Rs 300 tickets are still available on the portal.
The rush for the ISL 2016 final tickets has increased manifold following Kerala Blasters’ edge-of-the-seat shoot-out victory over Delhi Dynamos in the semi final game on Wednesday.
“Following the Kerala Blasters’ semi final victory, tickets were sold online like hotcakes. At least 7,000 tickets were snapped up on Wednesday night itself. The ticket counter at the stadium also witnessed heavy rush on Thursday and was closed after the available tickets were sold out,” said an ISL official, adding, more tickets may be put up for sale in the coming days. However, a final decision in this regard has not been taken yet. Expectedly, it were the Rs 500, Rs 300 and Rs 200 tickets which had the maximum takers. ISL, though, has not come out with details of the ticket sales.
Following the semi final victory, hundreds of football enthusiasts, majority of them Blasters’ fans, queued up outside the box office at the stadium right from Thursday morning and were rewarded when the counter opened. However, there were not enough tickets for all those who had gathered and several of them had to leave disappointed.
The closure of the ticket counter around noon led to strong protests from those waiting in the queue.
Many alleged that the ISL authorities were deliberately holding back the tickets, to put them up for sale on the black market. Timely action by Palarivattom Police, who managed to calm down the agitated fans, helped to defuse the situation.
“I have waited in the queue for over two hours. Initially they told us that there were enough tickets. But then they closed the counter saying the tickets had been sold out. This is a 60,000 seater stadium and how could the entire tickets get sold out in no time. They are holding back the tickets,” said a bemused Blasters’ fan from Kothamangalam.