Tickets chaos show WC interest

We can look forward to stadiums packed with SA fans during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, judging by the eagerness of local fans who queued overnight to buy tickets during the last (5th phase) of ticket sales. The estimate of the number of overseas visitors have now been adjusted to 115 000 – 150 000. Countrywide fans stood in long queues to buy the last 500 000 available tickets, some having stood in line for over 24 hours, some fainting from exhaustion and one man died during the night in the queue in Buitengracht Street, Cape Town. As each ticket took about an hour to process and the overloaded computer systems frequently crashed, frustrations mounted and police had to use teargas to control some crowds.
Despite the chaos, 80 000 tickets were sold on the first day, including all tickets for the Cape Town matches. At the Cape Town ticket centre Sakkie Jenner, the Western Cape Minister for Sport, was first in line to buy his personal World Cup tickets before the centre opened its doors to the queuing public at 09:00. While thousands waited outside ticketing offices, the adjacent collection centres, where tickets issued during the first four phases can be collected, reported far less activity.
Apart from the countrywide ticketing sales centres, the fast-disappearing tickets can also be bought from 600 FNB ticketing sales branches, the call centre hotline (although many people who called the number 083 123 2010 got the message that the number was unavailable), or www.fifa.com and if there are any tickets left, they can be bought from 18 selected Shoprite/Checkers stores from next week Monday.