One of the main problems was a shortage of gates at which people could redeem tickets bought online, as this was only possible at Gate 7, two visitors told The Jakarta Post. 

"I waited for an hour to change my ticket and then they [ticket organizers] finally cut the need to change as it was too much of a hassle," an Australian expatriate said. 

He, along with his wife and two kids, nearly missed their Taekwondo game at around 10 a.m., which he said they came to watch for the Indonesian team. 

Didit Pringgondani, 23, an Indonesian engineer, complained about the lack of mitigation measures following a server breakdown from ticket provider KiosTix on Friday. The Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee later appointed Blibli.com to help the ticketing system.

"As a result of the problems with the previous ticket provider, the new server from Blibli.com does not accept online ticket purchases within three days prior to a scheduled game to avoid late ticket delivery," he said. 

Therefore, Didit said, the organizers should have set up more on-the-spot ticketing gates to cover the increasing offline buyers. 

The Jakarta Post observed that on Gate 7, which is across from SCBD, many spectators were not aware that the gate only redeemed tickets for the nearest venues such as wrestling, basketball, swimming, taekwondo and fencing. 

One of the officials from KiosTix in Gate 7 told the Post that his firm actually redeemed tickets at all gates, but many fans did not have that information and flocked to gates 5 and 7 instead.

"It is merely a miscommunication as other gates (besides 5 and 7) are reportedly less crowded," he said, while refusing to disclose his name. (yan)