Delhi turns up a full house for the weekend

The trend began on Saturday. At the Indira Gandhi Stadium,spectators turned up in large numbers for the wrestling events where India’s performance has been outstanding so far. Three days ago,when three of India’s best wrestlers nabbed three golds at the stadium,there was a sea of empty blue and green chairs staring back at them. However,on Saturday,while a few seats remained empty,the turnout was pretty good.

However,the stadium that received the most number of spectators was the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The stadium,with a capacity of 60,000,was almost packed to the rafters throughout the weekend.

On Sunday,the National Stadium,with a capacity of 16,000 spectators,was jam packed as India took on Pakistan,one of the legendary rivalries of world sport. In fact,the unprecedented rush prompted the Organising Committee to stop the entry of special guests into the venue without tickets.

Two hours before the game was to begin,long snaky lines had begun to form outside its five gates. Dhruv and Alka Khurana,a couple working in a BPO in Noida and residents of Mayur Vihar,told Newsline they had bought the tickets a week ago. “We wanted to watch a match,but during weekdays it is very difficult for us to find time. The funny thing about today is that while buying the tickets we did not know that India and Pakistan were playing. We were pleasantly surprised,” said Dhruv.

However,commuters did complain about the problem of ticketing and transport. Most people had to walk several kilometres from the nearest Metro station. Others had difficulty in getting tickets as the computers in ticket counters kept crashing.

Yet,from the look of it,the trend is expected to spillover to the last few days of the Games. Ramesh Rana,a spectator who had come to the National Stadium,said he was told that Monday’s tickets have been sold out too. “Only the really expensive ones are left,” he said,waiting at the ticket counter.