Cape Town - Depressed ticket sales and a spell of bad weather put a dampener on the Cape Town Cup at the Cape Town Stadium on Friday night.
Garreth Bloor, mayoral committee member for tourism, events and economic development, said 10 600 tickets were sold for Friday’s matches, which saw Supersport United take on English team Crystal Palace, and local team Ajax Cape Town facing Sporting Lisbon from Portugal.
But when the the first game started at 5.45pm, large parts of the stadium were empty.
Bloor said the city had hoped to attract 35 000 fans to the stadium.
“Unfortunately, the weather is not playing ball. We do remain optimistic that numbers will increase once the teams playing in the finals are revealed and the weather plays along,” he said.
For Sunday, when the winners of Friday’s matches will compete in the tournament final, 18 200 tickets have been sold. The stadium has a capacity of 55 000.
The city dropped its ticket prices on Wednesday for the pre-season tournament, after lower-than-expected sales.
“A number of fans have expressed a view that the prices were too high. Our intention has not been to exclude die-hard soccer followers,” Bloor said.
Prices for tickets, which originally cost between R200 and R400, were reduced to between R60 and R100. Fans who bought tickets at the original prices were entitled to refunds for the difference.
Cosatu in the Western Cape has criticised the hosting of the tournament, saying the event was “clearly not a success” and was a “waste of public funds that could have been put to better use”.
Weekend Argus