Empty triumph for rush to finish Delhi arenas

After much uncertainty New Delhi may have finally succeeded in its efforts to make ready 17 stadiums for the Commonwealth Games. It now appears that the herculean task was in vain.

Athletes are competing in almost empty arenas, while organisers are trying belatedly to whip up public interest and potential spectators struggle with dysfunctional ticketing systems and onerous security procedures.

Of the 1.7m tickets for the 11-day competition, including the opening and closing ceremonies, Indian organisers say just half have been sold. Sales have been focused on a few popular matches, such as the sell-out India-Pakistan hockey game, leaving most athletes to compete before family and friends and rows of empty chairs.

“It’s not cricket,” said Neha Pandey, a young volunteer who was using a megaphone outside the main Jawaharlal Nehru stadium to urge passers-by to buy the many leftover athletics tickets. “Attendance is a real problem, especially with the less well-known sports where India doesn’t have a presence.”

Sunil Kumar, the manager of the 60,000-seat stadium’s ticket booth, said: “For popular sports like hockey, we have sold more than 50 per cent of the tickets for any given match, but less than 20 per cent for sports such as netball.”

Ticket sales were sluggish in the run-up to the games, as New Delhi’s difficulty completing stadiums and athletes’ accommodation on schedule raised doubts over whether the tournament would go ahead.

With organisers focused on ensuring the readiness of the venues, publicity and marketing fell through the cracks. After the government decided to close schools and universities – part of a plan to ease traffic during the competition – many Delhi families decided to go out of town.

Sunday’s dazzling opening ceremony, including a procession of enthusiastic athletes, lifted the gloom and triggered something of a last-minute ticket rush. However, would-be spectators have been stymied by ticketing systems unable to cope with demand because of staff shortages, time-consuming verification procedures and computer crashes, resulting in ticket queues that take hours to clear.

“The online system for buying tickets has been a complete joke,” said Samir Chawla, who was trying to buy hockey match tickets. “There were so many malfunctions.”

High ticket prices, at as much as Rs750 ($17), are also thought to have kept people away, especially for more obscure sports. “The prices should have been as low as possible to fill up the stadiums and build up interest,” said Vishal Jaison, associate director with Total Sports Asia, the sports marketing company.

Suresh Kalmadi, chief of India’s games organising committee, has made light of the empty stadiums, saying sales were “surging” day by day. But he also suggested that unsold tickets could be given away to children and those from the “lower levels of society”.

The organising committee has given 1,000 tickets to Smile Foundation, a New Delhi-based charity, so that children from poor families could watch the games.

Even those who have managed to get tickets may have been deterred by security measures, involving frisking, body scans and confiscation of 42 prohibited items including electronic equipment, motor­cycle helmets, umbrellas, “torn paper” and coins.

Foreign visitors have complained that official games drivers, who were hired from out of town, are unfamiliar with Delhi streets and get lost en route to venues.

It is not just the fans who are struggling to digest the complexities of the event. Several British and Australian swimmers have been felled by illness that some teams fear may be linked to pool water contaminated by the droppings of pigeons nesting in the rafters of the swimming arena.