There is little that creates more anticipation, nail biting and angst than the FIFA World Cup finals, which come around once every four years, following a year of qualification games.
Six nations are yet to book their passage to the host countries of Canada, Mexico and the U.S., but the diehard fans of those as-yet-to-be-qualifiers might be secretly hoping they do not make it.
Why?
Well, last week the ticket prices were announced, some of them seemingly higher than some country’s gross domestic products.
In newspaper reports online, the one word I see more than any other on these prices is “betrayal.”
One organization, Football Supporters Europe, is among the loud cries demanding that ticket sales be halted.
It said in a press release, “based on the information currently available to FSE, if a supporter were to follow their team from the first match to the final through an [official, FIFA-designated] allocation, it would cost them a minimum of $6,900 — nearly five times as much as during the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.”
Put that in context with my own experience.
In 1994, just a year after I moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, I went to a World Cup semifinal match when, incidentally, it was last held in the U.S.
I enjoyed watching Italy play Bulgaria, a game that ended 2-1 to the Italians, and my ticket cost $50, a price that is in line with what I see people remember spending on the internet.
Adjusting for inflation that is today an approximate $110.
My ticket was in the second row from the pitch, right in the middle, which I am sure would have been considered a premium ticket.
According to the Somerset County Gazette (yes, the anger is felt by newspapers large and smaller), if England reaches the semifinal — please! — the ticket price for a fan would range from between $920 to $3,170. And of course if — sorry, when — England wins, what fan already there would be able to resist trying to get a finals ticket?
That $920 price, by the way, is deemed a “supporter value category 3” ticket, and there is uncertainty about how many of those will be available.
A cynic would say few, and fewer as the remaining games come closer.
No one is naive to suggest football is not a global money machine, but to see ticket prices rise so much from even the last edition must be grueling for many.
Some might say going to the New World to see their nation raise the trophy would be worth every penny, but hoteliers might be raising eyebrows as to how guests will afford these prices, as well as the hotel average daily rate, which one assumes will climb as the competition starts moving through its gears.
I will be watching on TV, and in the United Kingdom that already comes at a cost, at least the games shown on BBC; the BBC TV Licence is expected to rise from the current £174.50 ($234) by the time the games begin in June.
I will watch, of course, and in preparation, CoStar News Hotels’ Trevor Simpson — our sports fanatic — has done an admirable job reporting on the lead up to the World Cup, writing on trends, game schedules and those cities likely to benefit financially from the soccer madness.
Here’s his latest, and I will have an article in our pages on the European reaction on Dec. 31.
What a way to head the ball into the year!
Comoros comeback
I received a very pleasant letter following my blog last week on the Comoros Islands, from a Comorian-American currently living in the islands and developing a hotel there.
That is not an easy endeavor, so he told me. Financing can be tricky.
“It’s always nice to hear some positive news about the Comoros in the international media,” he added.
I am personally thrilled that our pages are being read in the Comoros!
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