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Published on December 14, 2007

With just two days left before the drawing of the curtain on the 24th SEA Games, the Provincial Treasury Office (PTO) next to City Hall was packed yesterday with hundreds of sports enthusiasts forming a long queue to book seats for the closing ceremony and especially for the football final, predicted to be a hard-fought thriller.

Scores of die-hard supporters arrived at the PTO last night at 11pm, 10 hours before the ticket counters opened at 9am. Some were afraid the match might be a sell-out like the semi-final between Thailand and Singapore two days ago.

Since only 1,500 tickets go on sale each day at the PTO, hundreds of fans left with their heads hanging in great disappointment.

"I came here at 9.30am only to realise that no more tickets were available. I will come again tomorrow, or I'll miss the showdown between Thailand and Burma," said Chai, a middle-aged man who did not want to disclose his real name.

As almost all ticketed events are over, soccer is attracting the largest number of people anxious to see some SEA Games action, besides the closing ceremony.

Tickets for the soccer final are priced at Bt100, Bt200, Bt300, Bt400 and Bt600. With only 1,500 of them on offer each day, those expecting to get their tickets at the stadium on competition day could be in for a shock, since signs saying "No More Tickets Available" are always set up at the venue when the competition times arrives.

A woman on duty at the Nakhon Ratchasima City Office, who would not reveal her name, told The Nation in the afternoon that soccer final tickets were in hot demand.

"My nephew went there at 5am this morning to buy tickets. He was lucky to get them, while hundreds of fans returned empty-handed," she said.

"As there's no online or phone bookings, tickets will be made available first-come, first-served. Since hundreds of fans are expected to miss tomorrow's final match, Mayor Cherdchai [Chokratnachai] decided to let home fans watch the women's final match between Thailand and Vietnam free of charge at the venue. This is just a consolation for a large number of disappointed fans who'll miss the men's final showdown.

"About 12,000 tickets will be taken for sale at the competition venue tomorrow at 9am, but they'll only be the Bt200, Bt400 and Bt600 kind. The Bt100 tickets are all gone.

"Also, only a few tickets can be bought by each person. This is to prevent greedy fans from scalping. Also, those who intend to buy tickets at the PTO tomorrow will be let down. No more tickets available there. They must buy tickets at the competition venue only."

Today's climax between Thailand and Burma kicks off at 8.30pm. The host side, chasing their dreams of retaining the crown and stretching their SEA Games dominance to eight wins in a row, edged out the visitors 3-2 in the group round-robin preliminaries.

The last time they set up the SEA Games decider was in Singapore in 1993 when the Thai team, sporting dark blue kits, narrowly squeezed past their crack rivals 4-3.

Since then, Burma's hopes of duelling in the final remain frustrated, while the Thai squad has captured all the subsequent SEA Games titles.

Maybe Lady Luck smiled on them when they played in the finals dressed in dark blue. Today, it is also possible that the home players will be in dark blue uniforms.

Meanwhile, the Thai women's team stunned titleholder Vietnam 2-0 to emerge as the new SEA Games champion. Home goals came from Pitsamai Sornsai in the 61st minute and Anootsara Majjarern in the 71st minute with a penalty kick.

Preechachan Wiriyanupappong

 The Nation

Nakhon Ratchasima