Last season of the ISL saw many ugly incidents crop up, due
to the paucity of tickets and the fact that many fans couldn’t get their hands
on them. Many a claim revolved around the misappropriation of said tickets and
just as many claims surfaced about tickets being sold on the ‘black market’.
However, this season, with online providers and the like being thrown into the
mix, the procuring of tickets and season passes has been fairly streamlined.
However, at this juncture, Goa has reached the semi-final
phase, which will see the demand for tickets go up by default. And the season
passes only cover seating for the league phase of the tournament. Hence, will
there be a clamouring for tickets once again, just like there was last season?
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Conrad Barreto from Margao believes that the demand will be high,
yet there won’t be a problem with regard to the availability of tickets. “The
FC Goa wave has hit the state very hard. Everyone is dying to get into the
stadium for the semi-finals. The performances from the team, although
inconsistent, have shown glimpses of some amazing football. No one would want
to miss this spectacle. I can’t even imagine what it will be like if we reach
the finals. That being said, getting passes for the league phase was smooth
enough. In my opinion, the semis will be well organised too,” he says.
A member of The Football Dug Out, Rohit Pagi is extremely
ecstatic about the phase to come. “In keeping with the current form, who
wouldn’t fight for a ticket when their team is ruthless on pitch?
The kind of football we are playing out there is amazing and it attracts a
crowd, game after game.
These are, after all,
the semis. In a state of 14 lakh people, only 19,000 will be blessed enough to
get through the gates.”
While there was a massive rush for physical tickets for FC
Goa’s first match of the second edition of ISL, with football fans standing in
a queue for tickets at the counters of the Nehru Stadium right from 3:45 am, the fans are
certainly upbeat about getting their hands on their much sought-after tickets
that will let them through to the stands, hoping to witness their team
administer another thrashing to the opposition.
