By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Premier Soccer League (PSL) says 10 501 tickets that were sold over the official capacity of Moses Mabhida stadium are in process of being refunded.
Tickets for the highly anticipated Nedbank Cup final between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates went on sale on Monday.
The Open Tickets system crashed “due to an unprecedented demand” as the service provider had stated on Tuesday morning.
“We had an unprecedented demand and after 15/20 minutes the Open Tickets server crashed. We then roped in Computicket to assist. “But there was no live report or communication, that’s when the overissue happened, said Stadium Management SA managing director Bertie Grobbelaar.”
Grobbelaar said, that while a crash in the ticketing system meant fans without tickets had also been charged, no extra tickets had been issued. He added that all fans who paid for tickets but did not receive them would be refunded.
“The capacity of the stadium is 49 307 seats. This is a reduced capacity, in terms of a proper grading certificate and compliance with the SASRIA Act,” said Grobbelaar.
“There were 5307 hospitality tickets and 3000 complimentary tickets. 41 000 general access tickets went on sale. The minute ticket sales opened they sold out in 90 minutes.
“This caused a delay, or crash, call it what you want. The fact is tickets went on sale and the system allowed more people to pay for tickets than there was capacity for.
“This immediately raises concerns and a lot of false information went out that too many people had been issued tickets. This was not the case.
“No more tickets were issued than the capacity allows for.”
Open Tickets had already issued an apology this week for the problems with their system.
Grobbelaar also pointed out that Open Tickets were also used for last weekend’s Betway Premiership Soweto derby at FNB Stadium, without these issues.
Mato Madlala, acting CEO of the PSL said, “We’ve roped in Berti Grobbelaar, who has been worked with the same service provider for the derby at FNB Stadium. He comes in as an independent auditor to assess the numbers and facts.
“I’m not interested in the statements from the service provider; I’m interested in the hard facts.
Madlala added that a full investigation will be conducted to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
The last time the two teams met in Durban was for the 2014 MTN8 final, where Chiefs prevailed 1-0 thanks to a first-half Tefu Mashamaite goal.
Pirates, on the other hand, are bidding to win the trophy for a third year in a row. In 2023, they beat Sekhukhune United 2-1 at Loftus Versfeld in Tshwane. And last year, a memorable last-minute strike by Relebohile Mofokeng saw Pirates beat Mamelodi Sundowns 2-1.