Abdul Mohi Shah
ISLAMABAD: The non-availability of tickets sale points in and around the Dubai International Sports Stadium turns out to be the major factor of low presence of spectators during week days Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches.
This correspondent who has recently covered the first leg of matches at the Dubai Sports Stadium came to know during his stay in Dubai that there was no on-the-spot sale and purchase arrangements of PSL tickets in and around Dubai City making it almost impossible for the Pakistani people living in Dubai to turn up for the match at the end of working hours.
“That has been the main problem. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) or the PSL organisers have made no such arrangements that could ensure on-the- spot purchase of the tickets for the same day match. If you reach the stadium without having a ticket for that particular day, you would not get in. Hundreds of cricket fans wait for tickets outside Dubai Sports City in an effort to get ticket for the match but due to no sale- booth in and around the Stadium, they fail to get one,” a cricket fan in Dubai said.
He called on the PCB to streamline the ticketing system if they want presence of spectators in huge numbers at the venue. “Ticket sale booth should have been here somewhere around the Stadium enabling the crowd reaching at the venue to buy one to enter the stadium.”
The PSL organizers have set some sale points in Down Town Dubai which is about 25km away from the stadium. “It is very difficult to locate these sale points in Down Town Dubai. If one succeeds in locating these, adhering to the timing is all that difficult.”
The second major reason for the low presence of crowd is the Stadium location that unlike Sharjah Stadium situated almost 25km out of the Dubai. You need special conveyance or taxi to reach at the venue in Dubai. For thousand of Pakistan labours earning their bread and butter in Dubai, private travelling arrangements are scarce. This left them with two options. Either to wait for the weekend to make a collective effort for plying to Stadium or hire a taxi which surely is a costly option.
Usually the labour community in Dubai wait for the weekend to give went to their cricket watching emotions by making collective travelling arrangements.
Majority of PSL loyal spectators in Dubai believe that the crowd presence at the stadium during the week days could be enhanced to manifold if PCB tries to overcome these two shortcomings. “One is on spot sale of tickets-near to stadium and second is conveyance problem the labour community faces while travelling to Dubai Sports Stadium.”
from The News International - Sports http://ift.tt/2FzumX7
