Ticketing chaos spoils Nedbank Cup final build up

JOHANNESBURG - Excitement over the upcoming Nedbank Cup final between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates on Saturday has turned to frustration for fans after technical problems and a lack of coordination led to oversold tickets and widespread refunds.

Tickets for the match went on sale Monday morning and were sold out in 90 minutes, however a communication failure between various sales outlets and a technical glitch led to more tickets being sold than the venue had capacity for.

The ticketing agent has confirmed that extra tickets have not been issued above the capacity; only those to the capacity of the stadium have been issued.

The people who have paid but have not been issued a ticket because its over-capacity - 80% of the online purchases - have been refunded.

Bertie Grobelaar from Stadium Management SA gave a breakdown of the numbers.

“Available tickets are 5307 hospitality tickets, a further 3000 complementary tickets to Sponsors and Clubs 41 000 general access tickets.”

The Moses Mabhida stadium may be billed as a 56,000 seater stadium but the Soweto Derby Nedbank Cup final has only been approved for a capacity of 49307.

"At the retail outlets 4956 tickets were sold and issued across the country. On the open ticket website, the digital tickets, 2435 tickets were sold. The Computicket website 44121 [tickets were sold] and that should immediately tell you that there's an issue, an over-issuing of tickets” said Grobelaar.