All tickets for the final of the Currie Cup championship between the Cheetah’s and the Blue Bulls have been sold on the first day, the Free State Rugby Union said on Monday.
Spokesperson Liza-Anne Mould said they tried as far as possible to help all supporters with tickets on Monday. The Free State Rugby Union offices were swamped by hundreds of Cheetah and Blue Bulls supporters on Monday morning trying to get tickets for the Currie Cup final on Saturday.
”The phones actually started to ring on Saturday just after the Cheetah-Sharks game as people wanted tickets,” said Piet de Necker, spokesperson for the Free State Cheetah Company.
Horak Avenue alongside the stadium’s gate had been experiencing slow-moving traffic since early on Monday morning as every possible space had been taken up by parked vehicles. A long queue of rugby enthusiasts lined the sidewalk from the union’s offices, just inside the main gate, for about three hundred metres down the road since 6am on Monday. By noon the line seemed not to have moved at all.
Mould denied rumours that individual supporters queuing on Monday had bought up to a thousand tickets. ”These rumours are not true,” she said. ”The Free State Rugby Union has empathy with the supporters that had to wait in the queues without success.”
Mould said the public must understand that season ticket holders and sponsors had first choice. She said all season tickets were valid for the final. ”Open pavilion season ticket holders will get a designated block where they can sit,” she added.
Three Blue Bull teams will travel to Bloemfontein on Saturday to partake in respective rugby finals. First on the programme for Saturday is the under-19 final between the Blue Bulls and Western Province. The game starts at 11.30am. In the under-21 final the Lions face their Blue Bull counterparts at 1.30pm.
For the third consecutive year, the Free State Cheetahs and the Blue Bulls will meet at 4.30pm.
De Necker said the practice sessions of the Cheetahs this coming week would be behind closed doors.
”There is so much interest that the stadium would be half full during the practice sessions, it’s a decision for practical reasons,” De Necker said. – Sapa