The reason a good number of seats a Sophia Gardens, Cardiff are empty during the ongoing England v/s Pakistan ICC Champions Trophy 2017 is that 5000 tickets were resold on the eve of the match.
According to a report in Indian Express, an ICC official said, "Already some 5000 for Cardiff and 2000 for Birmingham have already been resold and we’re making all the efforts, except going to the houses of those with tickets and dragging them to the ground, to ensure the match is played out in front of a full-house."
The report says that 8000 tickets, nearly 40% of the capacity, were bought by Indian fans who were expecting India to play against England in Wales.
ICC had set up an online resale platform for the fans who were hedging the best on their teams reaching either of semifinals matches by buying tickets for both. Seems, Indian fans have taken full advantage of it.
Cardiff weather in the past weeks is also one of the reasons for the low turnout of spectators. "It’s strange but 8000 seats were empty for matches because people didn’t turn up. We feel it has a lot to do with the threat of rain in the air. So we even set up on the spot ticket sales for matches like New Zealand v Bangladesh but still not many turned up, which was surprising," the official was quoted as saying by the daily.
