Kuch Paise ka Tamasha

namya — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:10:00 GMT

“There are no more tickets available in this area. Please try another area,” said the section of the ticket site www.computicket.com dealing with first-day-first-show tickets for Cape Town. It took two hours to get a hint of the frenzy IPL II is going to create in South Africa.

Tickets for the April 18 opening day double-header were sold out almost as soon as they were available. A majority of tickets for the April 19 double-bill were also gone.

Little doubt that hardly any of the 25,000 seats at the Sahara Park Newlands ground in Cape Town will be empty over that weekend.

“We are very happy that the tickets have been sold out in a flash. We want to make sure the stadiums are full and are hopeful that South Africans will make it a part of their life,” IANS quoted IPL commissioner Lalit Modi as saying.

Modi added that the price of tickets would encourage thousands to pack the stands. “We had promised our fans... a non-stop cricket carnival and the attractive ticket pricing should be a huge impetus for fans.”

The overwhelming demand for tickets may have a lot to do with the prices. No single match ticket in any of the eight venues costs more than 100 rands (Rs 540 approximately). Rates, however, will be revised for the semis and final. In most places, students will get them for 10 rands (approx. Rs 54) — about half of the cheapest of tickets sold last year.

On the higher side, rates are strikingly lower than what they were last year. These tickets were sold for a lot more (from 1000 to 6000, excluding corporate boxes and special lounges) last year. The IPL organisers have taken no chance with prices this time and if the first of sales is any indication, they have got it spot on.

One has been an IPL supporter on many issues and doesn't see it as the sole reason for all things bad in the cricket world. But one can't ignore this question. How is the economics working Mr. Modi? If franchisees were charging 4 times the price last year (In Mumbai for instance the price of a ticket for one semi final for the North stand was some 5k or some such).. So how can the same franchisees afford to spend more on the grounds, for similar capacity crowds, charge 3 times less? Some may argue it is Modi's ego which is pushing him to go any lenghts to ensure the 2009 edition's success. But why would a franchisee go ahead with the pricing if it's economically unviable? So is it fair to assume that the Indian fans were taken for a ride?

The complete lack of the paying spectator's interest has been the bane of Indian cricket for a long time. For the money paid, one had to stand in queues for an hour, hunt for a place from improperly numbered seats, jostle to get drinking water even for the IPL. Where was the VFM to watch an IPL game. And yet the spectators thronged the grounds. The current ticket pricing seems to make a mockery of the central figure of Cricket ecnomics- the India cricket fan.

With acknowledgments to Homer :)

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Kuch Paise ka Tamasha