World Cup opener marred by an ocean of empty seats

There were a lot of empty seats at Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday for the 2023 World Cup opening game between England and New Zealand. England took the pitch with a relatively small crowd despite playing in the world's largest stadium (with a capacity of around 132,000). Photos and videos captured at the Ahmedabad stadium before the game showed a sparse crowd as it got underway at 2 pm local time.

The BCCI announced the fixtures only 100 days before the tournament, which drew criticism from fans and media alike. Due to concerns raised by local state police authorities, the schedule was modified to avoid clashes with festival dates.

Less than two months before the competition, on August 9, 2023, the final schedule was released, adding to the difficulties. The problems were compounded when users of BookMyShow, the official ticketing partner, reported difficulties purchasing tickets for upcoming matches.

There were still some tickets for the game listed on the website, but many sections were already closed or sold out. The temperature reached 33 degrees Celsius, but there was still hope that attendance would rise later in the evening.

There will likely be a sellout crowd to watch the upcoming match between India and Pakistan at the same stadium.

The Bhartiya Janta Party's Gujarat branch confirmed that 40,000 seats had been reserved for women and that they would be provided with free tickets and coupons for food at the game. Motivated by Parliament's recent passage of the Reservation Bill for Women, the plan is to attract between 30,000 and 40,000 female spectators from Ahmedabad.

Lalit Wadhawan, vice-president of the BJP in the Bodakdev neighborhood of Ahmedabad, emphasised that transport would not be provided.