Sports

The Kia Oval ticket ballot closes with record requests

Featured image credit: Tmx468/ CC BY-SA 4.0/ Edited for size

The Kia Oval ticket ballot for 2023 international entries has closed with over one million ticket requests, a record for Surrey County Cricket Club and the ground. 

Unprecedented demand for tickets via the ballot saw 119,000 individuals request over 1.1 million tickets in total.

A release from Surrey – which plays its cricket at the 27,500-capacity Kia Oval – said that demand for the Men’s Ashes Test could have sold out all five days 10 times over. The Kia Oval will hold the fifth Test between England and Australia from July 27-31.

Nearly 13,000 entrants have requested tickets for the Women’s Ashes International T20 (IT20), which will take place July 5.

Demand for the ballot has surpassed the figures in previous years – during the international summer of 2019, which included the last time the Men’s Ashes were held in England, there were roughly 33,000 entrants to the ticket ballot.

Entrants will be informed by organisers if they have been successful in the week commencing December 19. Entrants will also receive information on how to purchase tickets.

Any remaining tickets will go on general sale from Monday January 17, though it is expected that there will be low inventory by this point.

International tickets went on sale exclusively to Surrey members last week and figures show that 55,000 tickets have already been sold. This is also the fastest ever start to an international summer, in terms of sales, for The Kia Oval.

Surrey members are still able to secure tickets until Friday (December 16) with any remaining tickets after this point to be randomly allocated in the ticket ballot.