CWG closing ceremony tickets sold out

NEW DELHI: Tickets for the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games were sold out Tuesday night - nearly 48 hours before the actual event Oct 14, an official at the ticketing helpline said.

"The tickets in the Rs.750 bracket were sold out quite a long time back. After that, the ones in the Rs.4,000 category were also sold out. Until Tuesday morning, there were only eight tickets available in the Rs.20,000 bracket and around 240 in the Rs.50,000 bracket," the manager said.

"But last (Tuesday) night everything was sold out," he added.

The closing ceremony, to be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Thursday, promises to be a spectacular celebration of song and dance with a colourful laser show.

The helpline manager further said that after the great success of the opening ceremony of the Games, they have been bombarded with enquiries about tickets for the closing ceremony.

Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be the chief guest at the event.

The sale and availability of the Games tickets have been mired in controversy from the beginning. Spectators have often been told that the tickets have been sold out while the venues remained half-empty.

Commonwealth Games Federation president Michael Fennell had expressed concern over poor spectator turnout, particularly in some disciplines, and had ordered an inquiry.