Premier Soccer League Chief Executive Officer Manto Madlala has confirmed that a server crash on Monday led to the ticketing chaos ahead of the eagerly-awaited Nedbank Cup final in Durban.
Soccer fans were left disappointed as the 41 000 available tickets sold out in 90 minutes, with 10 000 tickets over-issued. Much of a pre-game media conference focused on the ticket sales debacle on Monday, which left thousands of fans fuming.
Social media was abuzz as fans voiced their frustration and anger over the ticket sales flop. Many queued for hours online and at retailers without success. Many fans queried why the popular Soweto derby final is held at the Moses Mabhida stadium, which has a capacity of 49 000.
The PSL says they used Open Ticket as a service provider, who has since apologised for the system crash, which they say was due to the high demand. Another service provider was roped in to assist.
"On Monday, we started looking for solutions. One of the reasons that caused the over-subscription was when they couldnt access it. The service providers website, then we look for a solution to see how else we can even rather than queue, because there was a queue of 3 000 people, so we said what other target solution can provide, and we spoke to Computicket," says Manto Madlala, PSL CEO.