Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Cricket Association’s request for additional 10,057 complimentary tickets led to the shifting of IPL final and playoff matches from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here, a BCCI source has said.
Bengaluru was to host the final going by convention as Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the defending champions.
But IPL chairman Arun Dhumal told PTI that it became “untenable” to have the finale here due to high demand for complimentary tickets at the relatively low-capacity venue, which can only accommodate 35,000 fans.
This season’s playoff fixtures will be held in Dharamsala (May 26) and New Chandigarh (May 27 and 29) while the title clash (May 31) will be staged at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
“The KSCA is entitled to complimentary tickets amounting to 15 per cent of the stadium capacity. However, KSCA requested for an additional 10,057 tickets,” the source revealed to PTI.
In that, the association needed around 900 passes to meet the demands of the state legislature members alone.
“KSCA agreed to provide three complimentary passes each to MLAs/MLCs (approximately 900 passes in total).
“Further, the Expert Committee and the additional commitments with the Government of Karnataka would have required an additional 750 complimentary tickets in addition to a limited number of hospitality complimentary passes beyond the standard 15 per cent.”
This would have left just about 20,000 tickets for the fans.
The source said the association also required a tranche of paid tickets, but at a reduced rate.
“It also included 3,007 tickets in P3 stand at a concessional rate of Rs 2,000 for cricket-playing clubs and 900 tickets in the Members’ Stand for spouse and children of the members.
“Other than that the association also needed to purchase 1,000 tickets in M4 stand at an average price of about Rs 2000 and 3,500 tickets across stands for purchase by life members,” the source said.
The figures validated Dhumal’s assertion.
“(Chinnaswamy) Stadium capacity is also not that high. Very few tickets were available there for league games as well. Since the IPL final attracts people from around the world, we need to have a larger inventory (of tickets) available for fans,” he had said.
