Thursday was the first ticket selling day for the first match of Hockey India league’s (HIl) second edition but the ticket counter remained cold.
On one side, organizers claimed that 90 per cent tickets of Rs 150, Rs 200 and Rs 400 got sold for the opening day whereas people deployed in the Astroturf stadium claimed otherwise. “Tickets were sold not like hot cakes primarily due to mismanagement with opening of counter. Hopefully, it will pick up pace tomorrow and all tickets will be sold out,” said a stadium staff. Justifying the late opening, Vikram Jain, one of the owners of the team said that they deliberately deferred the ticket sale due to a book launch titled ‘Veni Vidi Vici’, a tribute to Ranchi Rhinos, the champions of HIl first season.
“To my knowledge almost all tickets, except few for one side of gallery was sold out today. Tomorrow, we will begin sale for January 27 match,” said Jain. Notably, Ranchi witnesses the maximum spectator among all the venues of HIl. The book was unveiled by Former Indian Cricketer cum Member of Parliament Navjot Singh Sidhu. He felt the need to promote the national game. “With HIl matches hockey is in good hands. I want this sport to be recognised with more such felicitations and providing Astroturf to talented players across the country,” maintained Sidhu.