"We made a mistake in setting such high ticket prices" : Najam Sethi

[Abdullah719]

It was evident that the Pakistan Cricket Board had mishandled the sale of the tickets in their historic cricket reviving series with the World XI, with Najam Sethi admitting the pricing was wrong.

The tickets for the series were priced at Rs. 500, 2500, 4000, 6000 and 8,000 – prices that were not very affordable for fans. For the first match, apart from the media, even Faf du Plessis, captain of the visiting World XI side, and Paul Collingwood, the veteran player, pointed to the fact that it wasn’t a full house at the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore on Tuesday (September 12).

There were rows of empty seats in three of the enclosures of the stadium which has a capacity of 25,000.

“Two things contributed to the fact that the stadium was 80-90% full,” admitted Sethi. “First is of course the security was so tight that many people found it difficult to come, or were dissuaded from coming.”

Fans had to go through five security checks with walk-through gates and were body searched at all the spots.

“Some people set out but after one hour on the roads they went back,” continued Sethi. “I received a lot of messages. But there is very little I can do about that. The Punjab government is relentless in providing top security.”

Sethi added the mistake on pricing would not be repeated in the future. “We made a mistake in setting such high prices. We were misled by our experiences of what happened in the PSL (Pakistan Super League) final, when prices were unimportant and people paid the highest prices to come and watch.

“This is a three-match series and the security is even more than was there for the PSL. We should have kept lower prices, and I can tell you we will learn from this experience and considerably and significantly reduce prices for the future.”

There were reports that PCB was forced to distribute tickets for free to fill the stadium in the second match on Wednesday.

http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-...d-in-pricing-world-xi-tickets-too-high/269086

 

[Rana]

Well, they need to somehow recompensate the serious funds they are investing into bringing cricket back home. Im afraid it comes at the expense of the eager fans who at the moment care less about the price. In the long run its not going to work. Eventually the average fan will give up due to high prices

 

[Leo23]

pcb clearly overestimated the eagerness of lahoris to watch cricket

they have had enough matches lately and the passion is dwindling

it would have been a full house at the same price in other venues

 

[shane]

I would guess that it is more the security than the pricing that is the problem here. Nevertheless, it is a poor show from the people of Lahore to be incapable of filling a small stadium by international standards.

 

[ask_analyse_act]

Good to see Sethi realising and accepting mistakes.

 

[iHammad]

Sethi sahaab not making much use of his Economics degree from Cambridge

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

Why is this a bad news UNLESS revenues are down.

If revenues are higher with lesser buyers, so be it.

PCB has two important objectives here:

To show Pakistan can give security.
To recover as much money as possible for hosting this event (as its not exactly a cash rich board).

Who cares how many fans are there in stadium. That shouldn't be a primary concern now.

If the revenues are down, then yeah, this was a mistake.

 

[KyoOne]

Rs 6000 and 8000 is way too high. Max should have been Rs 3000-4000

 

[KyoOne]

Why is this a bad news UNLESS revenues are down.

If revenues are higher with lesser buyers, so be it.

PCB has two important objectives here:

To show Pakistan can give security.
To recover as much money as possible for hosting this event (as its not exactly a cash rich board).

Who cares how many fans are there in stadium. That shouldn't be a primary concern now.

If the revenues are down, then yeah, this was a mistake.

This was a landmark event, with eleven stars, ICC referee, ICC CEO etc showing up to mark a return of cricket to the country. Everyone was told and expected Pakistanis to be cricket crazy (which we are), it ought to have been full house.

There's a reason why Faf mentioned in his post-match comments, he perhaps felt Pakistanis had not bought into the magnanimity of the occasion

 

[sensible-indian-fan]

This was a landmark event, with eleven stars, ICC referee, ICC CEO etc showing up to mark a return of cricket to the country. Everyone was told and expected Pakistanis to be cricket crazy (which we are), it ought to have been full house.

There's a reason why Faf mentioned in his post-match comments, he perhaps felt Pakistanis had not bought into the magnanimity of the occasion

I get it. I am aware of it.

Point is if PCB's other compulsions are greater and this pricing does produce more revenues, then going for it makes sense. Moreover as Sethi said, during PSL's final, fans weren't price sensitive so why would anyone reduce the prices for this event.

 

[Adil_94]

if u spread around the matches in different venues. u would get full houses.

 

[Gabbar Singh]

Admire his honesty. And how quickly he admitted to this.

 

[CanadianG00se]

Weren't the ticket prices lower than PSL2 final? Anyways its good that he openly admitted and showing the intent to improve. Sethi will definately lead Pakistan cricket in right direction.

 

[Hasan123]

Would have preferred some other venues to host games.

 

[Misia]

money money money, the people of pakistan hav sufferd for lack of internationals in pakistan , this is for the bnift of the ntions cricket loving fans. lets charge more for the tickets so the PCB staff can fill its pockets

s

 

[Hedz]

PSL ticket prices

Personally, I feel the ticket prices are too high for your average Pakistani
Majority of tickets should be 500 or 1000 rupees

Haven’t PCB learnt anything from last years PSL and World XI tour?