World Cup final tickets in short supply

With all tickets available through the public ticketing system for next year's World Cup final sold out, fans hoping to acquire the remainder of the tickets will have to purchase the hospitality and travel packages, the organisers informed yesterday.

In an article posted on the official website of the World Cup, the organisers said that the demand for the final in Barbados was great during the first phase of public ticketing, and that every category - including the best seats at US$300 apiece and the US$200-per-person Party Stand - was oversubscribed.

However, Cricket Logistics 2007 claimed that travel and hospitality packages are still available - including match tickets for the final, albeit in limited numbers. Tom Roche , the general manager of Cricket Hospitality 2007, urged fans not to delay buying the remaining tickets, including those for the semi-finals in Jamaica and St. Lucia.

"Fans need to be buying their packages now because if they wait too long there will be nothing left", Roach was quoted in cricketworldcup.com. "This not only applies to the finals but, to both semi-finals as well, because they are proving very popular. In fact, because of how the match schedule is structured, people are buying combinations of Hospitality packages to watch Super Eight matches in Barbados, then go to St. Lucia or even Jamaica for a semi-final, and come back to Barbados for the finals."

Stephen Price, the commercial manager of the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007, warned that the tickets for the Super Eight matches are also on the verge of being sold out during the first phase of the public ticketing system.

The second phase of public ticketing will start on September 1, and will operate on a "first come, first serve" basis which runs until November 30, with the remaining tickets being sold online and at the Official Ticket Centres in the nine venues across the West Indies.