Kolkata: After a muted turnout for India-Brazil friendly match last Saturday, there has been a desperate bid to fill unsold seats at Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan or Salt Lake Stadium for another friendly between India and Uruguay at the same venue on Tuesday.The C2 stand ticket prices were also slashed to as low as Rs 199. Perturbed over the poor footfall at the Brazil friendly match, several Indian players had also appealed on social media for fans to attend the Tuesday’s fixture. Just over 51,000 spectators attended the Brazil game at the 85,000-capacity stadium on Saturday night.After the match, sports minister Indranil Khan had announced about the complimentary passes, which would be given to ‘all football lovers who had purchased tickets for Lionel Messi G.O.A.T. tour’ last year, on his social media handle. Back then, several spectators were disappointed for not having caught a glimpse of the football legend at the G.O.A.T. tour.On Monday, football fans queued up at eight pass-distribution centres across the city to collect these complimentary tickets for the India-Uruguay international friendly.Long queues were seen at the distribution centres, including the Salt Lake Stadium. Many fans said they had stayed away from the Brazil match because of steep ticket prices and their bitter experience at the Messi event. For some, Monday’s passes were less about watching Uruguay and more about what they considered inadequate redressal for the money spent on the Messi event. Sudip Kumar Das (25), a Murshidabad resident studying in Chennai, had travelled to Kolkata for the Brazil match. He had no plans to watch Uruguay but changed his mind after learning about the free passes.“I came from Chennai to watch the Brazil match. I had no initial plans to watch Uruguay, but when I learnt that free passes were being distributed, I came to Salt Lake Stadium,” he said. Das had spent Rs 5,000 on a Messi event ticket and attended the same with his friends. “I don’t think we will get the money back for the Messi event, so I decided to take the Uruguay match passes,” he said.MBA aspirant, Sambuddha Chowdhury from Birati, had bought Rs 8,000 tickets for the Messi event but said he could not get a glimpse of the footballer. He had had also stayed away from the Brazil match due to the ticket prices. ITI student, Sujoy Chintapatra (22) from New Barrackpore, who had spent Rs 5,200 on the Messi event also collected the pass. But he would give it to his brother. Another football enthusiast, Pritam Das—who had also attended the Messi event—grabbed the passes.
