Ticket sales increase at BWC with Saina in action

Hyderabad, Aug 12 (PTI) After two days of lukewarm response, spectators today turned out in large numbers at the World Badminton Championship as Indian ace Saina Nehwal was in action for the first time in the event at the Gachibowli stadium here. With daily tickets priced at lower then the seasoned ones, people made a beeline to the only ticket counter outside Gate two of the stadium.

"After two days of slow response, today we sold more than 300 tickets," said K Mohan Menon, an official of ticket counter.com, which is handling the sale of tickets here.

However, this was not the case on the last two days as the authorities found it difficult to sell tickets. BAI president V K Verma feels the stadium''s distance from the main city and negative media reports about terror and swine flu was the reason of the low turn out.

"I know the response was low for the last two days and I feel there are two reasons. One, the distance of the venue and the other negative media reports in the wake of false terror and swine flu scare," Verma said.

"I hope with Saina playing well, people will turn up more in the next days," he added. Before the tournament the seasoned tickets via online booking were priced Rs 9,500 (Gold Class), Rs 6,000 (Silver) and Rs 4,800 (Bronze), which were later changed to just Rs 3,500 (Deluxe Class) and Rs 2,500 (Standard).