Amid growing frustration and uncertainty from fans, the PSL has roped in Bertie Grobbelaar of Stadium Management SA to help resolve the enormous ticket chaos surrounding Saturday’s Soweto Derby Nedbank Cup final.
Billed for the 60,000-seat Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, it has emerged that nearly 20,000 more fans have had their ticket applications approved, but half of them will be refunded as the venue is oversubscribed due to the failing ticketing system.
According to the preliminary report, the minute the tickets [sales] opened, they were sold out in 90 minutes ... that caused a breach
— Bertie Grobbelaar
PSL acting CEO Mato Madlala revealed that Grobbelaar had been recruited as “an independent auditor” to oversee the ticketing process, which threatens to turn the final between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates into a fiasco.
Grobbelaar confirmed that Open Tickets, the platform which fans used to purchase tickets, processed more than 10,000 more tickets than it should have.
“According to the preliminary report, the minute the tickets [sales] opened, they were sold out in 90 minutes ... that caused a breach,” Grobbelaar revealed. “The system allowed more people to make payments than there is capacity for.
“Open Tickets stopped the platform from issuing tickets, but the payments still went through. From the overissuing of tickets, 19,561 had to be allocated to people who paid but did not get their tickets, and 10,501 tickets were paid for, but were overcapacity, and those people had to be refunded.”
The shambles will not prevent some fans from travelling to Durban without tickets, however, as some told Sowetan they had already made plans and will hope to secure tickets from the “black market” – which could be a recipe for disaster.
On Wednesday, some fans received emails from Open Tickets letting them know that they didn’t secure tickets. “We are truly sorry to share that we were unable to secure your four tickets. We’ve processed a full refund back to your payment card, which should appear in your account within the next 72 hours,” reads one message.
SowetanLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.