Discounted tickets'deadline not extended

08/01/2002

AFFINBANK, the biggers sponsors for the 2002 Kuala Lumpur World Cup to
date, has come in generously to `buy' the unsold tickets under the 40 per
cent discount package for Malaysians.
Which means that they now have the sole right to do whatever they decide
with the allocation while the public will have to buy tickets under normal
rates from Axcess Tickets.
Which means the cheapest ticket to watch one World Cup match, behind
both the goalposts, will be RM25.
Malaysia Hockey Federation (MHF) secretary S. Satgunam said yesterday
that when the tickets went on sale more than a month ago, MHF set aside a
certain target to be reached for local fans under the discounted price,
but failed to reach it at the closing date of Jan 5.
"We wanted as many local fans to benefit from the discounted prices but
the offer received a lukewarm response. So today we decided to hand over
the allocation to AFFINBANK and they will now decide what to do with the
tickets," said Satgunam yesterday.
An AFFINBANK representative, who declined to be named, said the initial
plan was to distribute the World Cup tickets to their account holders at
their more than 90 branches nationwide.
"We will decide what to do with the tickets on Wednesday after we hold
another meeting with the MHF, but right now, the plan is to distribute it
among our account holders so that Malaysians will fill the stadiums when
the World Cup begins in February," said the AFFINBANK representative.
Satgunam had earlier blamed poor access to the ticketing company, Axcess
Tickets, for the slow sales in tickets and said that MHF had realised that
they have been going about the wrong way to promote the World Cup. That is
why they held a meeting yesterday to change their strategy and make the
World Cup a sporting success.
The process of booking tickets for the World Cup by phone and internet
is just too tedious, and most of the time, the Axcess Tickets hotline is
not available and, as of Jan 2, Axcess Tickets have changed the number of
their hotline as the previous number was faulty.
The generous 40 per cent discount on tickets for local fans for the
World Cup ended with hardly any takers because only 10 per cent from the
maximum of 312,000 tickets that can be sold for the 13 day event have been
booked by both local and foreign fans.
Which means that only 31,200 tickets have been booked with the World Cup
just 47 days away.
AFFINBANK came in with an RM1 million sponsorship pledge earlier, and
now they have come in again to bail out the biggest sporting event for
hockey so that it becomes a national pride and not a sick joke.
When AFFINBANK Chairman, Jen (B) Tan Sri Dato Zain Hashim announced the
sponsorship, he said: "AFFINBANK's sponsorship of RM1 million towards the
World Cup is more than a mere show of support. We would like to think that
our role goes deeper than the World Cup. It is a deep-rooted feeling of
responsibility towards the development of the sports in this country. We
realise the value of sporting excellence to the country, be it as a
sporting nation or as a world-class sporting event organiser."
And he stood by his pledge yesterday.
jugjet@nstp.com.my
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