The gates to the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, will open two hours before today’s finals of the Malaysia Open.
The first final is the mixed doubles event between Thailand’s Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Sapsiree Taerattanachai and China’s Zheng Si Wei-Huang Yaqiong, scheduled at 1pm.
Yesterday, there was a queue of nearly a kilometre long from the National Squash Centre to Axiata Arena, even though some fans had arrived as early as 6am, four hours before the start of the Legends’ Vision event. That was because the gates only opened at 9am.
At 10am, fans who were still stuck outside the stadium grumbled about the long wait, as they were afraid they would not be able to catch badminton legends Datuk Lee Chong Wei, Taufik Hidayat, Peter Gade, and Lee Yong-dae, in action.
The exhibition match, however, only started at 11am as the preamble to the show was delayed by nearly 20 minutes – to ensure that more fans got to their seats.
The organisers were lucky that nothing untoward happened, as the fans were patient and did not try to rush in, although several ticket holders sprinted to their seats after clearing security.
Fan safety is under the spotlight after two football supporters were killed when the match between Bandung Persib and Persebaya on June 17, was marred by overcrowding and ticketing issues.
The Malaysia Open is organised by events management company, KH Worldwide.
On June 30, the organiser issued an apology to ticket holders following seating issues at the stadium that caused an uproar. Supporters had paid between RM60 and RM85 for “premium section” tickets, only for their spots to be taken up by a large group of spectators, who had supposedly “reserved” the seats in advance.
The Youth and Sports Ministry was also forced to issue a clarification. In a July 1 statement, the ministry said neither the Youth and Sports Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, nor his deputy, Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker, gave any instructions regarding the ticketing or seating arrangements.
BA of Malaysia (BAM) secretary-general, Datuk Kenny Goh, said fans were expected to come to the stadium early for the finals, and it would be unfair to keep them waiting.
“For the legends event (yesterday), the gates were only opened an hour before it was scheduled to begin. That contributed to the long queue,” Goh said.
“BAM will also look into the ticketing issues that arose recently.”
The Malaysia Masters will be held next week. While it is not expected to draw a crowd similar to the Malaysia Open, suggestions have been made to ensure there were more entry points into the stadium, to ease congestion.