Organisers hope to boost ticket sales

South African organisers plan bulk sales and a big internal marketing drive to lift flagging ticket sales for June's Confederations Cup, the test event being held ahead of the 2010 World Cup finals.

This week, South Africa's 2010 Organising Committee proposed plans to sell group tickets to companies and fan clubs to boost poor sales for the tournament, which is being held from June 14-28.

Chief executive officer Danny Jordaan said plans had been approved by FIFA after meetings in Zurich.

"We want to encourage companies and fan clubs to buy in bulk and we will engage the host cities to run more promotions," he told Reuters in a telephone interview after making presentations to two separate FIFA meetings.

"The general problem is that South Africans have a culture of buying tickets at the last moment."

FIFA have received applications for only some 200,000 of the 640,000 tickets available for the Confederations Cup, according to officials.

This is despite the event boasting a field that includes World Cup winners Italy, Euro 2008 winners Spain and South American champions Brazil.

Positive feedback

Jordaan said latest figures for 2010 World Cup ticket sales were much more positive.

"We now have as many applications for tickets as there are available in the first sales phase," he said.

There are some 700,000 tickets on sale in the first phase. Applications for tickets opened last month and will run until the end of March after which a ballot in mid-April will determine the allocation.

The procedure has been criticised as too complicated for the South African market.

The cheapest World Cup ticket is almost 10 times the price of admission to a domestic premier league match.