CT 2017: ICC officials struggle as fans might not show up for the first semi-final

Champions Trophy was one of the most awaited tournaments of the season. There were a lot of fans waiting for tickets to be on sale and once they were fans lashed onto them. All the matches India played were sold out and the home team games were also a sellout.

However, there is a slight problem now, as the tickets for the first semi-final were bought beforehand by some of the fans who don’t support the teams actually playing on the day in Cardiff. England plays Pakistan in the first of the two semis in Cardiff at the Sophia Gardens. But 30% of the tickets were bought by the over-excited Indian fans in advance.

Now there is a chance that 14,100 seats would be vacant as India will play Bangladesh at Edgbaston in Birmingham in the second semifinals. This has become a headache for the ICC officials as the game is a sellout but there would be tens of thousands of fans not attending the game because their team will be playing at a different venue now.

This stat is known to the officials because the fans were asked the team they support while buying the tickets online and now ICC have come with a solution. The solution is that the fans can resale the tickets and have urged to do the same if they are not attending the game.

ICC official has his say

Claire Furlong, the ICC communication manager said that they are trying hard to get people into the stadiums. There were as many as 8000 fans missing in the group stages due to the same problem. He said that it is a sell out for sure but the fans need to attend the game for it to look like a sellout.

“That’s been reasonably disappointing here, but we are doing as much as we can across all of our channels. It is a sell-out but we are doing as much as we can to ensure it’s a sell-out with bums on seats as well,” Claire said while talking to the reporters in Cardiff.