Nitpick: in the 1974 WC in West Germany, the GDR were also qualified, got drawn into the same group as the FRG, and famously won that game 1-0 in Hamburg by the goal of Jürgen Sparwasser. West Germany won the tournament in the end nonetheless.
I logged into the FIFA ticket portal this morning and jumped into the queue, then did a bunch of other stuff (went for a walk, watched chess, played a board game). Four hours later the queue finalized and I clicked “Enter”, and it threw me onto a white screen that I left for about 30 minutes before closing the tab.
I was more curious about ticket prices than anything, and also local availability. Not sure if I would’ve bought anything.
The ticket prices are obscene. $11k for a final ticket?
Being caught by the TV cameras in the stands will be more embarassing than what happened to that unmarried couple at the Coldplay concert. And that in the days of facial recognicion for the masses! Perhaps some attendees will be even lynched fired too?
I got into both the regular and resale markets. There are five matches with face value tickets left, $600 is the lowest. On resale, I looked at my local stadium’s round of 32 match, which is where Germany would end up if they win their group, and the shittiest nosebleed seats start at $1400. That’s interesting since the sides aren’t even known; presumably a marquee matchup would drive that up.
How on earth have they managed to sell so successfully, given how ridiculously expensive they’ve been? Am I just naive? I thought they would be hard to shift. And apparently the stupidly high prices broke the guarantee in the original joint bid between the 3 hosts. No surprise there I guess, when the bids are just lip service to the rules and everyone already knows who’s going to win (the one with the biggest brown envelope).
I’m not sure if I’m looking at the right or wrong thing or place, but Match 76 - which is the Round-of-32 game where Brazil is almost certainly going to end up - is going for just only $772 or so for Cat-3 seats. Why is Germany’s Round-of-32 going for $1,400 in the nosebleeds? I am looking at VividSeats, though, not the FIFA Resale site.
Good question. One thing I know is, FIFA has said that tickets sold through external vendors instead of their resale market may not be recognized by their app, and the app is needed to gain entry. I also know they keep 30% of the resale cost, so that is going to mark things up a bit.
But still a good question.
The US is huge and wealthy and soccer is much more popular here than it was 32 years ago. Not sure what the least desirable game would be. Haiti vs Scotland, Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia, Algeria vs Jordan, and Uzbekistan vs DRC don’t strike me as having appeal to neutrals, those are going for $600? Damn. Hoping to get people with serious FOMO. I guess you can rationalize that $600 is cheaper than flying to Morocco for the next one.
I once paid $200 for Stanley Cup Final nosebleed seats. Paying $1000 to watch a game between middling teams is money better spent at the local, in my view.
I have zero interest in buying tickets, but those kinds of games have always been one of the minor appeals of World Cups for me. I may very well watch one on TV, just for the oddity of it.
Hmmm, Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia, or Uzbekistan vs DRC?
Since all these uncivilized ferners’ don’t know how to tip.
The Missouri Restaurant Association (MRA) is advising Kansas City restaurants to add automatic 20% gratuity to checks this summer as the city hosts the World Cup.
How can it be legal to automatically add tips?
Lots of restaurants in the US do it for parties of eight and more, occasionally for parties of six and more. As long as it’s disclosed somewhere on the menu, it’s legal.
Yeah, that slipped my mind.