By FRANCIS SANTIAGO
June 4, 2011, 6:29pm
MANILA, Philippines — Despite the relatively high cost, tickets to the World Cup qualifying match between the Philippines and Sri Lanka on July 3 were sold out two hours upon their release on Friday.
Bleacher tickets were sold at P200 and P300, while grandstand tickets stood at P2,000 and P3,000, pricelist that for some appeared to be too expensive for ordinary Filipino football fans. The bleacher tickets account for 13,000 of the 18,000 tickets released.
The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) said it was forced to raise the ticket prices to cover part of the renovation of the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium, the match venue.
PFF chief Mariano “Nonong” Araneta said talks with San Miguel Corporation bogged down, forcing them to foot the P6 million renovation of the 77-year-old edifice.
Araneta cited “a conflict of schedule” as one of the reasons why negotiations stalled. He did not elaborate.
“We’re shouldering everything from the repairs of chairs and the dressing rooms,” Araneta said.
“We hope to resume the negotiation with San Miguel once we get back to the country,” said Araneta who has scheduled a trip to Germany after attending the FIFA Congress in Zurich on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Bonnie Ladrido, the PFF treasurer and chair of the organizing committee, said there’s a possibility they would release more tickets once the numbering and painting of bleachers is completed.
Manila Bulletin
Lots of tickets for 2000 and 3000 pesos are still available at Ticketworld. If you are lucky you can also find 200 pesos tickets. 300 pesos tickets are sold out
ReplyDeleteI heard one of the reasons San Miguel backed out was because the National Team was being sponsored by its rival company Asia Brewer
ReplyDeleteGreat to see the high interest of fans for this game. I hope the group organized to lead the cheers are going to be loud and be able to make the entire stadium cheering along with them.
ReplyDeleteGO AZKALS! BEAT Sri Lanka!!!