Coldplay ticketing disaster for Singapore Sports Hub 

By Kannan Raj

The Singapore Sports Hub’s ticketing site crashed after tickets for the Coldplay concert went on sale this morning at 10am, leading to many disappointed fans who were unable to purchase the tickets despite camping out online to purchase the tickets.

After being directed into a virtual waiting room, many were kept waiting for more than an hour before a message appeared on their walls saying that the site was “under maintenance”.

Frustrated fans of the band took to social media to express their unhappiness.

On the Singapore Sports Hub’s Facebook page, Chong Hua said: “You have to upgrade your ticketing server if you are using it for international acts! I was in the website way before 10am to purchase Coldplay tickets from 20th to 21st and it keeps jamming up or server is down! That is upright unfair for alot of consumers buying tickets! If you cannot handle the traffic for purchasing of tickets! Do outsource to other ticketing vendors to avoid such disappointment! This is ridiculous.”

Said Safiq on Twitter: “Hi @SgSportshub, apparently your website is doing the mannequin challenge at the wrong time.”

Natalie Hong said, “Horrible ticketing system and your servers are not prepared to handle high traffic. It beggars belief that you are prepared to host one of the biggest bands in the world, and one of the best live acts, yet claim the demand for tickets is ‘unprecedented’. Did you really think only a few thousand people would show up for a multi-award winning act?”

Yet another who goes by the handle @19ninetyxfour said “Wah so now the website is on maintenance?????”. This was obviously being in the virtual room for more than an hour since bookings opened this morning to the public at 10am.

Another person shared the same experience, Nadia Fadmy said, “Pathetic ticketing website. Was logged into the ticketing page from around 7am but the system told me to refresh at 10am to purchase tickets. After refreshing at 10am on the dot, I was taken to the final checkout page where the page crashed due to not having a proper quota allocated for the number or people allowed to make transactions at one time. This happened 3 times until the site crashed. Utterly pathetic ticketing site. Disgusting that real fans cannot get tickets. At the very least, please take a stand against the people selling tickets at over 10 times the agreed rate. Minus 100 rating if it were possible.”

Ong Khai Seng said: “God is telling me to save money.”

Over the weekend, fans also took to the Singapore Sports Hub’s Facebook page to air their unhappiness over how they were kept waiting in the virtual waiting room for more than an hour only to have the system inform them that tickets were sold out during the pre-sales for a major bank.

The Singapore Sports Hub can never seem to be in the news for the right reasons.

Only days after CEO Manu Sawhney announced how the Sports Hub would host more world class events, it is unfortunate and obvious that it’s systems are not equipped to deal with such major events which would invite regional attention.

Said Pradeep Singh: “This is a joke and after so many events and two and a half years of operations, the Singapore Sports Hub remains an embarrassment to the nation.”