The offline sale of tickets for next month's FIH Hockey Men's World Cup 2023 began in Odisha on Monday. However, thousands of Indian hockey fans were left disappointed on Monday after not buying tickets for the opening ceremony and India's first match against Spain on January 13.
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The Hockey Men's World Cup 2023 matches will start from January 13 to 29 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and the newly constructed Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela. According to reports, offline ticket counters opened at least 90 minutes late in Bhubaneswar at around 11 am on Monday. Hockey fans, including women, reached the counter early in the morning to buy tickets. However, they did not get tickets for India's first three matches.
Meanwhile, some people flocked to the ground to redeem their online tickets in order to get physical tickets. The chaos at ticket counters in both Bhubaneswar and Rourkela was like a throwback to the 2018 Hockey World Cup when a glitch in the online ticketing system left hockey fans fuming after failing to get tickets for their favorite team.
According to the ticketing website, all tickets for India's matches against Spain, England, and Wales on January 13, 15, and 19 respectively are out of stock. They sold the tickets at a price range between Rs 100 and Rs 500. Something similar has happened in Rourkela as well. Ticket sales started late and tickets for India matches were not available within minutes after the counters opened.
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This will be the 15th edition of the Men's Hockey World Cup. Hockey India is hosting the mega tournament for the second time. The first time was in 2018, Belgium won that edition. Out of the total 44 matches, 24 including the final will happen at the Kalinga Stadium. While the others will happen at the Birsa Munda Stadium.