The boss of soccer's Asian Cup remains confident the ACT government's multimillion-dollar investment in the tournament will be money well spent despite Capital Football chief executive Heather Reid admitting she's concerned with "very slow" ticket sales.
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The ACT government paid $3.5 million for Canberra Stadium to host seven games, including a quarter-final, of next year's Asian Cup from January 10 to 23.
It is the largest soccer tournament held in Australia and has a potential television audience in excess of 1 billion people, but ticket sales in Canberra haves struggled despite prices for an adult ticket starting at just $15.
In contrast, organisers for next year's Cricket World Cup have been impressed with the interest for the three games at Manuka Oval between February 18 and March 3, with the match between minnows Bangladesh and Afghanistan surprisingly leading the way.
The ACT government contributed $2.5 million to be involved with the Cricket World Cup.
Asian Cup chief executive Michael Brown said the board remained "positive" about ticket sales, with promotional activities to be ramped up after the finish of the NRL and AFL seasons.
"We're not at the stage of things aren't going to sell, but we are at the stage of call to arms time," Brown said.
"We're 89 days to the event. It's time for people to start to focus on what they're doing in January, and I'm confident people will get behind it.
"We will appeal to people in Canberra and the surrounding regions, south coast, to find a reason to watch a world-class event in Canberra."
In an interview with Fairfax Media last Saturday, Reid revealed she had been told by Football Federation of Australia chairman Frank Lowy to do everything she could to boost Asian Cup ticket sales.
"Ticket sales are very slow," Reid said.
"I'm concerned and I'm particularly concerned when Mr Lowy says we're counting on you, Heather, to get tickets sales up."
Canberra is likely to host the highest-ranked men's team in Asia, Iran, in a quarter-final.
Three other countries which are ranked higher than the Socceroos – South Korea, the UAE and Oman – will also play in Canberra.
Brown said Lowy's input was a sign of how much he believes in the positive impact the Asian Cup can have for the sport in this country.
"Frank is an incredibly driven person and rings me regularly for updates for every venue," Brown said.
"He's so passionate for what this event will do for Australia for tourism, trade investment, community engagement.
"He sees it as a great thing for football and he makes no apologies."
While ticket sales for the Asian Cup have been slow, the same cannot be said for the Cricket World Cup.
Manuka Oval will host three day-night games – Bangladesh v Afghanistan on February 18, West Indies v Zimbabwe on February 24 and South Africa v Ireland on March 3.
Afghanistan and Ireland played warm-up games against the ACT Comets in the past fortnight to see the venue up close.
The allocation for Category A and B tickets for the Bangladesh v Afghanistan game is exhausted, with more to be released to the public in November.
Cricket World Cup organising committee chief executive John Harnden was pleased with the response for all three games, but especially the Afghanistan v Bangladesh fixture.
"We've had good sales for the South Africa and West Indies games, and we've had great sales for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, which is really pleasing," Harnden said.
"There's 14 teams playing in the Cricket World Cup and one of the things we're trying to do is make every match a home match for every single team.
"We've worked really hard with the communities in the various cities for them to come out and support their team."
