Friday, December 23, 2005
Tickets and Friendlies
Once the draw was made on the 9th, tickets was the first thing a lot of people thought about, except many of us who are guaranteed tickets. We got straight into action, if you recall, booking flights and hotels.
The location of this World Cup has definitely had an influence on demand. Germany is fairly easy to get to from all over the world and Europe is a hotbed of football. As always, it's a nightmare trying to get hold of tickets for England matches, I do feel sorry for fans of teams drawn against us as there is always a huge number of England fans who are prepared to pay over the odds. The problem for us is, the touts know this and take huge advantage of it.
The official England fans club has 25,000 members but FIFA have decided to allocated each team just 8% of stadium capacity. We will get around 3,500 tickets for each of our group matches. Now, it doesn't take a marketing expert to realise that demand will easily outstrip supply especially when you consider in recent away games, there were 5,000 England fans in Demark and in the region of 15,000 in Geneva when we faced Argentina - and those were friendly matches.
A quick 'Google' (is that a verb now ?) for "England World Cup Tickets" brings up 3.28m websites. A visit to the first one (I won't advertise it) reveals they are offering a Â45 ticket for England v Trinidad and Tobago for $895. The cheapest I could see was Iran v Angola for $139. A Cat 1 for the final, face value Â600 is on sale for $5,750. Quite simply, regardless of what FIFA say, they are allowing this practice to happen. These prices are criminally high and many genuine supporters for all countries will miss out on seeing games.
Other England fans without tickets I have spoken to, fully expect to have to pay £300-500 per game in the group matches and prices will increase as the tournament progresses. Thankfully, our supporters club have a system in place to reward supporters who hatraveledled around watching friendlies and qualifying matches. Supporters who have been to more games will have priority on tickets. To my knowledge, all other competing teams are just having ballots for all applications regardless if they have been to a game before or not.
And so onto out the build up. 3 friendly matches are planned prior to the tournament and the FA confirmed the first of these earlier today. Hungary will be the first team to play at the new Wembley on Tuesday 30th May. Back in November 1963, the 'Magnificent Magyars' were the first visiting team to beat England at home, the score was 6-3. Personally, I can't wait to see England playing at the new Wembley. From the outside, the stadium looks awesome with the 133m high high dominating the skyline for miles.
The remaining 2 fixtures are still to be confirmed. There will be a home game on 1st March, rumoured to be at Anfield against Uruguay. The other fixture is almost certainly going to be against Caribbeanean team, this time rumoured to be Jamaica.
The location of this World Cup has definitely had an influence on demand. Germany is fairly easy to get to from all over the world and Europe is a hotbed of football. As always, it's a nightmare trying to get hold of tickets for England matches, I do feel sorry for fans of teams drawn against us as there is always a huge number of England fans who are prepared to pay over the odds. The problem for us is, the touts know this and take huge advantage of it.
The official England fans club has 25,000 members but FIFA have decided to allocated each team just 8% of stadium capacity. We will get around 3,500 tickets for each of our group matches. Now, it doesn't take a marketing expert to realise that demand will easily outstrip supply especially when you consider in recent away games, there were 5,000 England fans in Demark and in the region of 15,000 in Geneva when we faced Argentina - and those were friendly matches.
A quick 'Google' (is that a verb now ?) for "England World Cup Tickets" brings up 3.28m websites. A visit to the first one (I won't advertise it) reveals they are offering a Â45 ticket for England v Trinidad and Tobago for $895. The cheapest I could see was Iran v Angola for $139. A Cat 1 for the final, face value Â600 is on sale for $5,750. Quite simply, regardless of what FIFA say, they are allowing this practice to happen. These prices are criminally high and many genuine supporters for all countries will miss out on seeing games.
Other England fans without tickets I have spoken to, fully expect to have to pay £300-500 per game in the group matches and prices will increase as the tournament progresses. Thankfully, our supporters club have a system in place to reward supporters who hatraveledled around watching friendlies and qualifying matches. Supporters who have been to more games will have priority on tickets. To my knowledge, all other competing teams are just having ballots for all applications regardless if they have been to a game before or not.
And so onto out the build up. 3 friendly matches are planned prior to the tournament and the FA confirmed the first of these earlier today. Hungary will be the first team to play at the new Wembley on Tuesday 30th May. Back in November 1963, the 'Magnificent Magyars' were the first visiting team to beat England at home, the score was 6-3. Personally, I can't wait to see England playing at the new Wembley. From the outside, the stadium looks awesome with the 133m high high dominating the skyline for miles.
The remaining 2 fixtures are still to be confirmed. There will be a home game on 1st March, rumoured to be at Anfield against Uruguay. The other fixture is almost certainly going to be against Caribbeanean team, this time rumoured to be Jamaica.
// posted by Big Blue Marble @ 4:04 pm 
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Coach Wallets is one of the most sought after brands of Coach Gallery . What is the reason behind this? This bag is famous because of distinctive design of Coach Luggage and the added touch of Zebra lines. Wow! What else the customer wants. The design of this handbag is a mix of classic colors of Coach Madison pattern. So it is the greatest offer for the customers who are in search of chic.
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