By Miranda La Rose
The match between Guyana and Suriname in the CONCACAF qualifying round of the FIFA 2010 World Cup at the Guyana National Stadium on Sunday afternoon saw what was arguably the largest crowd – some 10,000 – at that venue since it was opened to the public for a major sporting event on March 28, 2007.
Stabroek News learnt that 7,559 tickets for the stands and the party mound had been pre-sold; and 2,211 were sold at the gate. Some 300 hundred complimentary tickets were also given out to sponsors.
President of the Guyana Football Federation Colin Klass told Stabroek Sport on Sunday he thought it was the “greatest turnout” that the stadium has ever seen. Nevertheless, Guyana lost that match.
A major blunder was obvious when the organizers failed to find the music of the Guyana National Anthem and had to call on the crowd to sing it. However, to this writer, who attended the CWC 2007 matches at the stadium and the test match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies and saw many empty seats and lack of spontaneity, the energy of the home crowd in national colours on Sunday, sent a strong message that finally the Guyana National Stadium had won.
Some football fans felt the attendance was good because of the affordability of the tickets, which cost $1,500 pre-sold and $2,000 at the gates, compared to between $5,000 and $20,000 per match for the international cricket matches.
Although the since disbanded ICC Local Organising Committee had announced a sold out stadium venue for the Super Eight match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies on April 1, 2007 and a total of 12,080 persons reportedly passed through the turnstiles that day, there were many blocks of empty spaces in the stands. It should be noted too that there were several hundreds of volunteers, media, security, sponsors and officials who were all required to pass through the turnstiles.
The government had bolstered the crowds on that occasion, as well as on following days, by providing match tickets to students from a number of schools after attendance to the matches were generally poor.
The number of visitors to the stadium during the CWC 2007 matches was 43,861 with the average attendance over the six matches being 7,310.
The excuse given for the empty blocks was that many cricket fans, who would have paid for seats in the Super Eight, Semi-Final and Final matches would have been fans of some of the bigger teams, like India and Pakistan, which were eliminated during the preliminary round.
The stadium’s accommodation capacity is just about 15,000.
It has a total seating capacity of 9,460 in the North West, South West and South East stands; the Grass Mound or Party Stand to the north of the stadium can accommodate 5,000 spectators; and the Presidential Suite located in the Members Pavilion has seating capacity to accommodate another 300.
As yet the Guyana government is to provide a full report on its staging of the CWC 2007 matches.
Parking and the general landscape outside the stadium proper remain a problem more than a year after CWC 2007, although the stadium has been identified as a Carifesta X venue.
There is no paved or proper footpath to the security checkpoint and if it rains like it did on Sunday, spectators have to navigate their way carefully to avoid walking in puddles of water, mud and slush and the occasional rock to avoid spraining the ankles.
The parking area between Buddy’s International Hotel and the stadium is in a sad state having deteriorated since CWC 2007.
The parking fee was $500 but quite a number of persons found themselves looking for their cars on Sunday, while walking through mud and slush as there were no park attendants to give direction.
After the match, it was confusion to get out with everyone trying his or her best to get a way out trying to avoid getting stuck in the mud.
The four-wheel drive vehicles had an easier time. One driver recorded taking 40 minutes to navigate her way out of the park.
