Asian Games organisers warn the public over fakes in latest ticketing fiasco as closing ceremony seats go on sale
Tickets for the opening ceremony were the hottest in town and organisers are promising another spectacle for the finale
After it was announced that organisers are planning an equally spectacular closing ceremony for Sunday’s grand finale, they are again expecting a rush on tickets.
But organisers today issued warnings to members of the public on the legitimacy of tickets brought from non-official sources, saying any tickets purchased outside of the three official distributors are fakes.
The Indonesian Asian Games Organising Committee (INASGOC) announced on Tuesday that the tickets were now on sale priced between 500,000 and 2 million rupiah (HK$260-HK$1,040), and gave the URLs of three official online retailers with the warning to people who purchase them from unofficial sources.
Ticketing has been a major issue throughout the 2018 Games.
Organisers were forced to switch their official ticketing partner on the eve of the Games when their servers broke down and last week, Husain Al Musallam, director general of the Olympic Council of Asia, wrote to Erick Thohir to voice his displeasure at the ticketing arrangements at the Games.
The OCA wanted to address the issue of bad optics because of so many empty seats at sporting venues after it was earlier revealed that up to 40 per cent of seating inside venues was being reserved, often going unused, for sponsors, officials and VIP guests.