About 50000 tickets were sold on the first day and Danny Jordaan, CEO of the local organizing committee, said the long queues that snaked around ticketing centers and First National Bank branches across the country rubbished European media claims that empty stands would greet teams when they arrived for the June 11-July 11 event.
"They said no one wanted to buy these tickets," a cheerful Jordaan said as scores of soccer lovers braved scorching temperatures outside the Sandton ticketing centre.
"They said we would be forced to give the tickets away because no one wanted to come here. They said we would have to pay people to watch the matches because there was no interest in this World Cup.
"Well, it looks like the tickets are flying off the shelf because people want these tickets badly. We have lived with this kind of negativity since we won the rights to host the World Cup in 2004 and it is OK."
Fifa announced last night that a total of 1610 tickets were sold to 310 customers nationally at the ticketing centers within an hour after they opened at 9am yesterday, while 2166 tickets were sold to 470 fans at First National Bank branches.
Jordaan said that while he had expected South Africans to come out in their numbers to purchase the tickets that became available over the counter yesterday, he had not expected the huge turnout at ticketing centers across the country.
Source: Allafrica