Football ticket sales weakness tarnishes image of KL2017

KUALA LUMPUR: The men's football final of the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games (KL2017) provides the best platform to unite the people of various races in Malaysia and should be easily enjoyed by all strata of society.
On the other hand, however, the ticket sale system which is considered "outdated" became the black spot in the history of the national sport when tens of thousands of local fans were disappointed when they failed to get the ticket to watch the Malaysia-Thailand final match tonight.
The decision of the Malaysia SEA Games Organisation Committee (Masoc) to sell the tickets only at the Shah Alam Stadium, the venue for the final, had angered supporters of the national squad, especially those from the rural areas, besides being severely criticised by netizens through the various social media platforms.
Realising this fact, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin came forward to explain the factors taken in making the decision.
Khairy explained on Twitter that there was actually an earlier plan to sell the tickets online like in the semifinals, however, a problem cropped up when the supplier of the online payment transaction system could not ensure its stability because of the excessively large number of users.
"On the issue of the football final ticket, we intended for some to be sold online. That was the practice for all games before the final. However, last night I was told that the online payment gateway provider could not guarantee a stable process because of volume.
"They were concerned people would transact payment and not get tickets because of the sheer volume. They could not guarantee stability," he wrote.
After assessing information received, Khairy eventually decided to disallow the sale of tickets online and the tickets would only be sold at the match venue until they were all sold out.
"I had a decision to make with that information given to me. Without a stable online payment gateway, a decision was made to sell all at the SSA (Shah Alam Stadium). At SSA we sold all tickets. Until it had to be suspended when barricades were breached. Then we resumed after the FRU arrived," he added.
Masoc's decision to sell the tickets only at the stadium counters was not an effective measure because most ticket sales were now done online.
The existence of ticket touts who were always looking for opportunities to make excessive profits by reselling the tickets at much higher prices resulted in the supporters having to form a long queue outside the Shah Alam Stadium to buy the tickets.
The prices sold by ticket touts on the black market is learnt to reach between RM120 and RM250 each compared with the original price of RM21.20.
It was learnt that only several ticket counters were opened although the statement issued by Masoc previously said that 20 ticket counters would be opened as early as 11am yesterday.
Bernama reported yesterday that about 5,000 supporters of the Malaysian team who had lined up since early morning had to return home empty-handed when the tickets for the final were sold out and it was learnt that 45,000 tickets had been sold to Malaysian supporters while more than 3,000 tickets were allocated to the Thai supporters.
The question is why was the issue on the ticket sales still cropping up? Was it because the organisers had not made any early plan? Who appointed the supplier of the online payment transaction? Who should be responsible for the problem which saw tens of thousands of fans being forced to waste one day lining up to purchase the tickets?
What is even more regrettable is that Masoc has so far been tight-lipped and had not issued any official statement to explain the real issue on the incident.
Its chief executive officer (CEO), Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong when contacted by Bernama yesterday also declined to give any comment on the issue.
Following the shameful incident, it also received the attention of hardcore national football fans, "Ultras Malaya" which had all this while been the backbone of Harimau Malaya when they decided not to open up the "Curva" at the final match.
"They have taken pains, worked hard to obtain the tickets but could not get them because of the weakness of the ticket sale system by the organisers," Ultras Malaya wrote in its official entry on Facebook.
Actually, the problem regarding the failure of fans to obtain tickets to watch the football final was not a new problem because it frequently occurred in several local matches such as the Malaysia Cup and FA Cup.
However, such incidents prove that the country is still lagging behind when the problem which should only happen around the 80's and 90's are still present in the year 2017.
Thus, everyone should take the incident as a valuable lesson so that the organisation of any sport in the country in future could be done in an outstanding manner which could be an example to the other countries. — Bernama