With just hours left until the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, tickets remain available for the event, despite chairman Peter Beattie having previously said it was “sold out”.
“We did release a few hundred [tickets] this morning,” he said on Wednesday.
Official Games representatives would not reveal to the Guardian how many tickets were left, only that a “limited” number were yet to be sold. Remaining tickets are for Category A and B seats only, which cost $495 and $380 respectively, pricing out many. Asked if organisers had made a mistake in their pricing structure, Beattie responded that the Games were affordable to attend.
“Mum and dad and two kids can go to the athletic events heats for $60,” he said. “Obviously with an opening ceremony you have a price range, we do need to have more expensive seats because you do have a budget.”
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, was also forced to defend the pricing, arguing that her government had done what it could to make the Games accessible. “You can buy tickets for events from $10, we’ve made them affordable, we’ve been very conscious of that,” she said.
Beattie, meanwhile, said that overall ticket sales indicated the Games would be a success, and surpass a sell rate of 95%. “In terms of [overall] tickets, we had a target of around one million and we have sold a million and 60,000 and they are selling all the time. So, for a regional city, the number of tickets sold for these Games are extraordinary and we are very happy.”
The Games CEO, Mark Peters, confirmed that 140,000 tickets remained for sale, predominantly for events such as squash and table tennis. There was also approximately 20,000 tickets available for basketball preliminaries in weather-affected north Queensland.
Wednesday’s opening ceremony were set to feature Australian celebrities such as Delta Goodrem and Ricki-Lee Coulter, with an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide expected to tune in. The ceremony will also celebrate and have a heavy focus on Indigenous culture, despite the Games’ connection to the British empire attracting the ire of protestors.
On Wednesday morning, 50 demonstrators forced a redirection of the official baton route, calling for “truth telling” about colonisation. Protestors are angry about a range of issues affecting Aboriginal Australians, including the prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s recent rejection of a referendum on enshrining an Indigenous voice in constitution.
The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples subsequently released a statement on the “understandable” nature of Commonwealth Games protests. “Formerly known as the British Empire Games, the colonial roots of the Commonwealth Games are undeniable. Protest from First Nations people in this context is totally understandable,” it read.
“National Congress would welcome other Commonwealth nations to stand in solidarity with Australia’s First Peoples during these games. Our dream would be to see athletes from all 71 Commonwealth nations stand with us calling for equality. That would be gold.”
Protestors are barricading the Queen's baton relay as it moves past the protest camp at the Spit. #GC2018 pic.twitter.com/1xDruBqQ2x
— Ella Archibald-Binge (@EllaMareeAB) April 4, 2018
Larger numbers have been gathering at The Spit for “Stolenwealth” Games protests. Wayne Wharton, Brisbane Aboriginal-Sovereign Embassy leader has said the aim of the demonstrations are to “open up a discussion with everyday Australians and keep it going”.
“We’re talking to the representatives of other countries and asking them to support us in coming up with some sort of agreement about occupation on our land that we share. We are the only people who do not have some sort of agreement and it doesn’t say a lot about our leadership over the last 60 or 70 years.”
