Ticket sales system gives fans cold shoulder

Only 1,214 are sold during chilly start of open sales for HK-Brazil soccer match

Dozens of soccer fans braved the chilly weather overnight on Monday to queue for tickets for next week's clash between Hong Kong and world champions Brazil.

But the wait was probably unnecessary. Only 1,214 tickets were sold on the first day of open sales yesterday, following the poorer-than-expected response to the computer draw to allocate tickets.

A total of 301 of the $500 tickets were sold, 550 of the $800 tickets, 81 of the $1,200 tickets and 192 of the $1,500 tickets.

The first person in the queue, salesman Hugo Choy, 24, arrived at the Hong Kong Stadium at 9.15pm on Monday. He had few compliments for the computer draw.

There were 18,000 tickets available yesterday as only about 2,000 people turned up on Sunday to exercise the option of buying up to four tickets each - less than a third of the 7,230 winners picked from 53,000 people who registered for the computer draw.

'It's so unfair. Many tickets have been wasted because many people who were chosen in the draw did not turn up. They might have just made multiple applications to increase their chances of success,' Mr Choy said. 'Queuing is much fairer because people are treated fairly and get the tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.'