Selling football tickets

Selling football tickets

I read with disappointment the news on the mayor of Surabaya's
"breakthrough" regarding ticket selling strategies (Kompas, Nov.
27, 1996). By virtue of his decree, he is requiring all his
subordinates to buy football tickets each time Persebaya (the
Surabaya Football Association) plays at their stadium. He has
even gone further by making village chiefs act as ticket brokers.
I hope that these chiefs have good salesmanship, without
necessarily exercising their power in selling the tickets. The
final blow to this already saddening situation was the fact that
one of the local representatives considered the mayor's practice
legal, saying that the mayor, in his capacity as the chairman of
Persebaya, had to raise funds by any means, and therefore, his
decision was legal.

Indeed, trying to promote football is good, but forcing people
to buy tickets is ethically unjustifiable by any reasons
whatsoever. What is the difference between his action and the
conduct commonly adopted by a bus-ticket broker who, in an
intimidating manner, convinces the customers to buy tickets.
There is, however, a significant difference. The victims of a
bus-ticket broker, after all, are those who have the initial
intent of traveling by bus. In contrast, the mayor's victims
include those who dislike football, let alone buying football
tickets. Whose action is more tolerable is for the readers
themselves to decide.

However, in my view, such a decree represents arrogance and
indifference on the part of the mayor himself, as well as
people's local representatives, since they did nothing to prevent
such a situation from coming into being. The argument made by one
of the people's local representatives also didn't make any sense.

ANANG FACHRUDIN

Jakarta