Watzke admits mistakes in ticket sales
Following the turmoil in dortmund, hans-joachim watzke has admitted to mistakes in ticket sales for the first leg of the champions league semifinal against real madrid.
"We have underestimated the incredible onslaught. This is what we have to take on board. We will learn our lessons from this," the manager of borussia dortmund told the dpa news agency on tuesday. In the future, the BVB boss emphasized, the club "will no longer offer free advance ticket sales for such games. "This decrease will help us in particular to fight even more effectively against the black market trade."
In the night to tuesday there were clashes and riots at various advance ticket sales points in dortmund. According to dpa information, the riots were mainly triggered by organized black market gangs. They are said to have massively threatened real BVB fans in order to get ahead in the long queues. When the long waiting supporters did not put up with this, the confrontations began.
As the dortmund police announced on tuesday afternoon, two criminal charges were filed for "dangerous bodily harm and insult". One person was temporarily taken into custody. A total of up to 100 police officers were deployed at various locations during the night and morning hours. The roughest scuffles apparently took place at smaller advance ticket sales points in the center, especially in the thiergalerie and at the august-lenzhaus. Police set up barriers in front of the fan store at the old market to channel the rush. By late morning, all police operations had been completed.
The "ruhr nachrichten" reported that online tickethandlers had even hired students in order to get tickets. These were later to be sold on at a higher price. The tickets offered on the internet cost between 300 and 500 euros on tuesday. In the evening, the association launched an appeal via twitter to report overpriced ticket offers, for example on the online auction portal ebay.
Since no security service had been deployed by BVB at the ticket counters in the city center, dortmund officials had had to intervene repeatedly since midnight. According to the police, there were "tumultuous conditions".
After the BVB announcement, from 8.30 o'clock on tuesday a certain ticket contingent for the mega-fubball hit against real on 24. April at the usual advance sales points, hundreds of fans had already been trying to buy tickets since sunday.A. Camped out in front of the BVB offices on rheinlanddamm. After opening the cash was the game against cristiano ronaldo, ozil and co. Sold out in no time. All 66,829 tickets sold out. Not only nationally, but also internationally, the interest is huge. "I've had 1,200 media inquiries," reported BVB media director sascha fligge. How many tickets went on sale to the general public was not disclosed by the borussians.
At least there were some lucky ones for whom the queue was worth it. "I've got it," shouted one fan, jubilantly holding up two tickets. 40 hours he had been waiting with friends in front of the BVB offices since sunday afternoon. In order to get the chaos there under control, orderlies had issued about 1000 place cards. The fans were only allowed to enter in groups.