Despite the frenzy for the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018, several fans were left disappointed on Tuesday after they failed to get tickets for the opening ceremony to be held at the Kalinga Stadium here and welcome celebrations to be held at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.
Though the online ticket sale officially began at 12 pm, several fans were dejected owing to hardships they faced while trying to book tickets online. Some of them had a tough time waiting for hours to get tickets in queue on the official website www.ticketgenie.in.
As per the announcement of the Hockey India, the tickets for both the events were to be made available on the website priced Rs 500 per person for the Kalinga Stadium and Rs 100 to Rs 500 for the Barabati event.
“Attempting to reach the site at around 12.30 pm, firstly it was not accessible due to some technical glitches and later when reached through different processes at the payment window to book the tickets, it failed, which was very disappointing for me and many of my friends as the authorities had previously claimed that it would be hassle-free,” said a fan Ambika Mishra.
Some fans also alleged that though they made payment and money was deducted from their bank accounts but tickets were not available to them.
Around 10,500 tickets were supposed to be on sale for the opening ceremony at Kalinga Stadium here on November 27 and 30,000 tickets for the AR Rahman programme in Cuttack on November 28, sources said.
Later, the Hockey India in a tweet said, “Your overwhelming response to purchase online tickets for the opening ceremony and the World Cup celebration events of the OHMWC Bhubaneswar 2018 from ticketgenie.in has led to the slowing down of the website.”
However, the Sports and Youths Affairs Department washed off its hand of the episode.
State Sports Youth Affairs Joint Secretary Manoj Padhi said, “The website might have crashed due to heavy traffic. Hockey India can better say about such technical issues. However, we take discuss the matter with them.”