By Kim Rahn
Civil servants at municipalities across the country, especially those near Incheon, are being pressured to buy tickets for events in the ongoing Asian Games.
Currently, only 30 percent of tickets have been reserved, and the low sales are a major headache for the organizers.
Last week, the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) asked for “cooperation” from district offices to boost ticket sales during a meeting of officials from Seoul’s 25 districts.
“The documents say that civil servants are ‘asked’ to go and watch the games,” an official at a northwestern Seoul district said on condition of anonymity. “But in reality, we regard it as an obligation.”
SMG officials said that local governments are obliged to cooperate if the organizing committee asks them to do so.
“In the documents, we asked district officials to promote the games to residents,” said an SMG official. “To become a role model for citizens, we also proposed that civil servants buy tickets and watch the games.”
For Gyeonggi Province, a local daily reported that the provincial government allocated ticket sales to each of its 31 cities and counties ― Suwon was “recommended” to buy 22 tickets for the opening ceremony and 808 for other games, worth 17.6 million won in total; while Yeoncheon County, five tickets for the ceremony and 179 for games, worth 3.9 million won.
An official at the provincial government said, “We are not forcing them to buy the tickets.”
These moves by Seoul and Gyeonggi followed a request from Incheon City Government and the organizing committee earlier this month.
They sent official documents titled “Introduction of the 17th Incheon Asian Games and Request for Ticket Sales Promotion” to local governments of 240 cities, counties and districts.
“Please promote ticket sales especially at support centers for multiracial families, so that foreign spouses can watch events in which athletes from their homelands compete,” it said.
Security and Public Administration Minister Chong Jong-sup held a meeting of vice mayors and governors all over the country on Sept. 1 and encouraged the municipalities to buy tickets and offer them as gifts to acquaintances.
But such reluctant ticket purchases can sometimes lead to other problems.
All workers at Namdong District Office in Incheon bought tickets worth 32 million won in August. The district office said they did so “voluntarily.”
About 100 workers there visited a stadium at 8 p.m. on Sept. 17 to watch a women’s soccer match between Korea and India. Some of them brought chicken, soju and beer, although alcohol was not permitted in the stadium. The district office is currently investigating those workers.