Aquatic events make early Splash in Games ticket sales

SINGAPORE — Aquatic events appeared to be among the more popular sports on the opening day of ticket sales for the public for this year’s South-east Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore.

Responding to queries from TODAY, Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee (SINGSOC) chief of community and corporate outreach Toh Boon Yi revealed that as of 5.30pm yesterday, swimming, diving and water-polo events, along with gymnastics and badminton competitions, had sold the most tickets.

About 70 per cent of tickets for the opening ceremony on June 5 at the 55,000-seater National Stadium have also been sold.

However, exact figures on ticket sales — which include priority sales that started on Jan 28 for those who registered their interest last year — were not available yet.

Tickets for football — which are expected to be some of the most sought after — basketball, netball and volleyball competitions will go on sale only after the respective sports’ team draws are made in April.

A total of 790,000 tickets, priced between S$5 and S$20 for non-season, will be available. The SINGSOC also hopes to attract at least 800,000 visitors to the Kallang venue during the Games.

Entry to half of the 36 sports, including athletics, sailing and shooting, at this year’s Games from June 5 to 16 will be free for the public.

Last week, SINGSOC chairman and Sport SG chief executive officer Lim Teck Yin urged Singaporeans to purchase their tickets early, as he noticed they tend to exhibit late consumer buying behaviour.

But Peter Alun, a 53-year-old sales director, felt there is still plenty of time to decide which sports he wants to watch with his 13-year-old son. However, he made an exception with football.

“I used to follow the Singapore national (football) team during the (old) Malaysia Cup days,” he said. “Now that we are hosting the SEA Games, I am interested to catch the football games and will grab my tickets once they start selling as they may be sold out fast.

For freelance trainer Tini Abdul Hamid, she did not know tickets started selling yesterday, but hopes to catch Singaporean marathoner Mok Ying Ren, who won the men’s race at the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar, in action if he qualifies.

Mok was among 950 Singapore athletes who made the first cut for qualification, with the final list to be confirmed by the Singapore National Olympic Council in April.

However, one Singaporean who has wasted little time in securing his tickets is Shaun Chen. The 46-year-old, who is self-employed, spent more than S$400 yesterday on season tickets for sports including swimming, table tennis and badminton.

“A ticket for more popular sports such as swimming and table tennis costs S$20 a session. It is more worthwhile to pay S$70 to catch all the events in each sport,” he said. “But I’m a little disappointed that most are free seating as you cannot select the specific seat you want, unlike many major sporting events.”

Nonetheless, Chen added: “Singapore is celebrating its 50th birthday (on Aug 9) and the SEA Games is right at home, so there is no better time for a Singaporean to watch sports.”

Tickets are available from the official SEA Games website, ticketing hotline (+65 3158 8080), SingPost outlets and the Singapore Indoor Stadium box office.