T20 World Cup: Pak-India match tickets being sold for millions

NEW YORK: Less than 10 days after the general ticket sales for the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup went live, tickets have already made their way to resale websites, such as StubHub and SeatGeek, with prices that could rival the NBA or Major League Baseball, US media reported.

Tickets for sold-out matches such as Pakistan vs India in New York on June 9 or India vs Canada on June 15 in Lauderhill are being sold for at least twice their original prices.

In the official sales, match tickets started at $6, with the most expensive ticket for premium seating at the Pakistan vs India match for $400 without taxes. The ICC had specified that “no additional fees will be imposed beyond the specified taxes”.

On the resale website, VIP tickets for the same match are being offered for more than $40,000 each with fees close to $10,000, bringing the total price to more than $50,000 (approx Rs14 million). The cheapest ticket for the Pakistan vs India match on StubHub is $1,259 (Rs350,408), as of Friday afternoon. On SeatGeek, the highest priced ticket for the Pakistan vs India match is close to $175,000 with $50,000 in fees bringing the total price to a little less than a quarter of a million dollars (Rs62.6 million).

Meanwhile, the lowest priced ticket for the match on SeatGeek is $1,166 without tax or fees, as of Friday afternoon. By comparison, the average World Series ticket cost about $1,100 last year, courtside seats for the NBA finals were going for as much as $24,000 and the average price for a ticket to Super Bowl 58 was about $9,000 on the secondary market.

Tickets for other matches in the tournament, especially those in which India are playing are also being resold at higher prices, though not as high as Pakistan vs India, which the most sought-after of the tournament, according to the ICC, with the match “more than 200-times oversubscribed,” during the public ticket ballot.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup tournament director Fawwaz Baksh, speaking to USA TODAY last month said that the response was “well beyond” their expectations.

“We expected that to have a good interest in tickets, both in the West Indies and the US, especially the novelty of being a World Cup,” Baksh said to USA TODAY. “But the response we’ve got is actually very, very exciting. Very well beyond our expectations actually.” “Being a new market, you’re not always sure what the response will be, but it was almost an easy job getting people in,” he said. “They definitely want to see the magic.”

Despite the managing committee’s best efforts, scores of fans were unable to secure tickets for their preferred matches.

“It’s an unfortunate reality that not everyone who applied for tickets will get tickets,” Baksh said Friday. “I wish everyone could get a ticket but that’s just not possible.”

Baksh is hopeful that tickets for some matches may become available if sponsors and other stakeholders return tickets to the pool. He encourages those wishing to attend the matches to keep an eye on the ticket portal for a chance to secure tickets for the matches of their choice.