Positive response to IPL tickets across country

The Indian Premier League (IPL) will kick off in another three days and there has been a positive response to the ticket sales across the country. The rate of season tickets vary from Rs 1200 to 30,000, while the daily tickets range from Rs 200 to Rs 5000.

While the sales have picked up in Kolkata, the response in Chennai has been lukewarm. In Mumbai, the tickets have gone for online booking only on Sunday and a clearer picture will only emerge in a couple of days' time.

Though the counters were pretty empty right through the afternoon at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai TNCA secretary KS Viswanathan claimed that the sales are encouraging. However, in what should be the peak hour for sales, the booking counters were empty and the officials in charge were enjoying the practice game of the Chennai IPL team.

Meanwhile, in Mumbai, only 80 per cent of the tickets are available for sale. According to R Balachandran, director of the newly-modified Indiawin sports, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, which owns the franchise outfit, "20 per cent of the tickets will have to be given to the IPL."

The sale of tickets online for the Mumbai home league matches started from Sunday. The ticket price ranges from Rs 250-500 to the upper end Rs 3000-5000 for the first match while for the second match it ranges from Rs 200-400 to Rs 1000.

In Kolkata the fans have warmed up to the IPL, snapping up all the 3046 tickets that were put up for sale on the opening day at the Eden Gardens counter. In all, tickets priced at Rs 220, Rs 335 and Rs 655 worth Rs 8 lakh were sold on Monday, which happened to be the Bengali New Year's Day.

CAB registered players also picked up all the 1100 tickets that were offered at a discounted price of Rs 110, but according to official sources, the response from the CAB members and affiliates continued to be poor. Out of the 31,000 CAB life, annual and associate members, who are used to getting complimentary tickets for international matches at the Eden, only 1800 bothered to buy tickets even though they had the first choice of best seats in all blocks.

Honorary members will be allowed free entry. Of the 121 CAB affiliates only 57 lifted a part of their quota of tickets. Apart from online sales, tickets worth Rs 65 lakh have been sold so far.

The Chandigarh franchise, though, hasn't made any provision for season tickets and the rate of daily tickets are Rs 50, 250, 750 and 3,000. "The first day's response has been quite average," an official said.

The sales in Hyderabad, though, has been encouraging. "The figures haven't come in yet as the sales are still being done through branches of the ICICI bank," an official said. Tickets are priced at Rs 250, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500, and there are no season tickets.