Malaysian Supporters left stranded on roadsides at Guangzhou Asian Games due to ticket touts

Guangzhou, 24 November 2010:

Ticket touts spoil Guangzhou Asian Games 2010 image

Groups of ticket touts are indeed spoiling Guangzhou Asian Games 2010 image by systematically hoarding venue tickets,thus denying passionate,keen and patriotic supporters and parents of athletes from Malaysia, from enjoying the Games.This scenario also applies to supporters from other Asian nations as well.

Kelab Penyokong Sukan Malaysia or Kelab Famemas Malaysia is currently in Guangzhou for 8 days from 20-28 Nov to give fervent support and uplift the morale of our Malaysian athletes to ensure that the 9 gold medals target are met.

However, they have not been able to gain access to the sports venues and games that involve Malaysian athletes, from the date and time of arrival, up to this time of press release.

Chairman of the club, Lee Hui Seng says 'Most of the tickets were sold out within days,two months ago,when ticket sales were open to Chinese nationals.Tickets should also be allocated to supporters who arrive from abroad during Games'.

An example is the price of tickets for the Lin Dan - Dato' Lee Chong Wei final was priced by touts of up to RMB3500 (RM1750) whereas the original ticket price was only RMB200 (RM100) only. Athletics price tickets shot up to RMB50 whereas counter price is RMB10...the ticket touts are having a field day with the exhorbitant prices up to a point of paralysing the attendance at venues where it remains empty and only a handful of spectators were able to attend albeit local people getting free ticket through government lottery type allocation.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and OCM (Malaysia) should allocate reasonable accreditation passes to deserving people to ensure that the attendance of these people are truly meaningful and contribute to the sports success of the nation.

This is a shamble and an utter disgrace to the Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee (GAGOC) and the very people who are supposed to cheer on our team were denied the opportunity.

Most stadiums were not full and yet ticket counters display notices that tickets are sold out eg hockey and diving venues.

We suggest that a selected number of tickets be made available to walkin supporters on the day of events prior to the start of the games and to foreigners,should audience attendance be not forthcoming.

We call upon our Malaysian sport authorities to take up this matter with the relevant Organising Committee seriously to ensure this fiasco is not repeated.

Attached pictures show Malaysian supporters idling by roadside upon hearing that access to the venues are not available and tickets touts freely mingling with public offering exorbitant ticket prices for sale.

For further information,please call Lee Hui Seng (Chairman) at Guangzhou local number 0086-13247687357 or 6012-329 3378 and Hafidz Zihim (Secretary) on 0086- 13794341134

Sent on behalf of Kelab Famemas Kuala Lumpur and Selangor

(Kelab Penyokong Sukan Malaysia)