Football fans queued up at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Thursday for tickets for the Indian Super League (ISL) final to be held in the stadium on Saturday.
Bengaluru FC is set to take on Chennaiyin FC and the former will be attempting to win its first ever ISL title on its home ground.
A total of 6,500 tickets priced between Rs. 100 and Rs. 700 were up for grabs at the stadium counters. Even though it was scheduled to begin at 11, fans queued up as early as 7 am to beat the rush for tickets. The queue which began at Gate G of Kanteerava stadium stretched all the way to Hudson Circle. The offline counter was set up after the online quota of tickets were sold out on BookMyShow on March 11. “The spike in online inventory was witnessed after BFC won the second-leg semis. Within the next two hours, around 8,000 tickets were sold online,” a BookMyShow official said speaking to Times of India.
Bengaluru FC secured a place in Saturday’s final by beating Pune City FC while Chennaiyin overcame FC Goa. The southern Indian contest in the final has seen a high demand for tickets with many fans left disappointed in spite of waiting in line for hours.
Tickets for the West Block A stand where Bengaluru FC’s passionate fans gather was sold out within minutes of the counter opening. Fans were required to show a government-approved ID card and could buy only up to four tickets per person.
“I came here at 8.30 in the morning. Despite that, I did not get tickets in the West Block. There were hardly a hundred people ahead of me, but I was told that tickets were sold out," complained Dominic Xavier, a Bengaluru FC fan while speaking to The Hindu.