Just over 15,000 people were in attendance to watch their favourite track and field stars. The event is the first World Athletics gold status event to be held in Botswana. The number is just a couple of thousand short of the Zebras versus Burkina Faso AFCON qualifiers match played in September 2015. The football remains the most attended sporting event in a stadium with 25,000 spectators.
Speaking to Monitor Sport, the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix's head of publicity, Calistus Kolantsho said the organising team intended to sell out the 23,000 capacity venue. He confirmed a sold-out VIP and Grand Stand setting while the general seating sold just 19,000 tickets. "This is the biggest ever, I think even for other sporting codes. We have gone beyond expectations. This is the first edition of the gold status meet and we still have two more years to prove ourselves," he said.
The VIP ticket was selling at P500, while the grand stand was P250 and the general area was P100 with a 50% discount for students. The ticket pricing makes the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix the highest priced sporting event in the country. Despite the smooth running of the event, Kolantsho admitted that there had been a few shortfalls. He said among other things, the event was short on the personnel and travel logistics. "This was a learning curve. We have observed a lot of things that we could have done better. We will take this as a lesson going forward and for next year we will be better prepared. We did not have enough volunteers, transport and technical support staff. Those are the areas we need to improve on, in terms of getting volunteers," he said. Long queues of spectators were visible outside the National Stadium leaving some ticket holders irritated. Kolantsho said the delay was caused by a thorough screening of tickets in a bid to avoid the use of counterfeit tickets. This caused a delay in the event schedule as the event started some minutes behind schedule.
The FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix has a three-year contract with World Athletics commencing this year. The next edition has been set for April 27, 2024.
