FIFA Conditional Tickets

[chilistrider]

Reading all the USSF ticket allotment stuff makes me anxious, but it also makes me grateful that in November I put in a successful application for the FIFA conditional ticket program. Those app's had to be in before the final draw, and it didn't really dawn on me until today to check & see who's going to be playing in the matches I put in for. Some of these I would be absolutely delighted to see, and others would be more in the category of "Hey, at least I got tickets for a game."

group matches:
KSA-UKR
CRC-POL
NED-ARG
CZE-ITA
SUI-KOR
UKR-TUN
round of 16:WH-RG

Who else applied for conditional tickets? What matches did you put in for?

[Lobotown]

Reading all the USSF ticket allotment stuff makes me anxious, but it also makes me grateful that in November I put in a successful application for the FIFA conditional ticket program. Those app's had to be in before the final draw, and it didn't really dawn on me until today to check & see who's going to be playing in the matches I put in for. Some of these I would be absolutely delighted to see, and others would be more in the category of "Hey, at least I got tickets for a game."

group matches:
KSA-UKR
CRC-POL
NED-ARG
CZE-ITA
SUI-KOR
UKR-TUN
round of 16:WH-RG

Who else applied for conditional tickets? What matches did you put in for?


Similar to yours:

CRC-POL
POR-MEX
SUI-KOR
various rd of 16
various quarterfinals

As I understand it, allotted tickets returned by applicants or corporate sponsors will be the ones available for conditional tickets. One newsnote stated that 140,000 tickets were available for 60,000 applicants, which means pretty good odds. At France '98, a larger number of the prime category 1 tickets were taken by sponsors (IBM, Lotus, French rail service, etc.) and those seemed to be most readily available from scalpers. Some sponsor tickets will probably be returned without regard for game quality, but I'd assume a large number of the applicant returns would be undesirable games for Eurofans.

I'm hoping for category 1 Rd of 16/quarterfinals tickets, but will probably be sitting with you in category 3 or 4 seats for Costa Rica-Poland instead. Here's to you getting the Netherlands-Argentina tix, though.

Guess we'll know about the USSF tickets within a week.

[primusux]

Posted on Soccernet.com:

Updated: Jan. 6, 2006
Tickets biggest worry at start of World Cup yearKevin Fylan


FRANKFURT, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Ticketing remains the biggest worry for organisers at the start of World Cup year, with orders running at 100,000 a day and little prospect of returns to ease the shortage.

'The problem with tickets will be with us right up until the referee blows the whistle for the start of the final,' organising committee president Franz Beckenbauer said at a New Year reception on Friday.


'I thought, for example, that Angola, after a long civil war, and with the huge costs involved, might give back some tickets, but nothing. Everyone wants more tickets.'

Only around 250,000 tickets are up for grabs in the last major sales window, which closes on January 15.

Those tickets will be massively oversubscribed and the vast majority of would-be fans will be disappointed when a draw on January 31 decides who gets them.

Organisers agreed to back down last month and refund a service charge for people who do not receive tickets from a separate sales opportunity for returns.

That followed a legal challenge from Germany's consumer association and Beckenbauer said organisers could not afford any more such problems.

'I hope we can work in peace over the last few months,' he said. 'We don't want another spanner in the works.'

After selling the tickets, organisers then face the huge task of printing them all with the names of holders.

That will be complicated by the forthcoming opportunity for fans to exchange tickets legally via an official website.

Organisers insist that only the person named on each ticket will be allowed access to the stadiums. They have warned that spot checks on identity will be carried out as fans make their way in for the matches.

The tournament, featuring 32 teams and 64 matches, begins on June 9 in Munich and ends with the final in Berlin on July 9.

[Jimbo]

I signed up for a bunch of conditional tickets, figuring it couldn't hurt. I've got:

Ivory Coast v. Serbia & Montenegro in Munich
Ghana v. US in Nuremberg
Croatia v. Australia in Stuttgart
WA v RB in Munich
WB v RA in Stuttgart
Berlin Quarterfinal
Frankfurt Quarterfinal

We won't be going to Germany until mid June and we figured we'd be staying in the south of Germany and trying to do the Alps when not going to games, so I focused on the southern matches. But I screwed up because the US v. Ghana and Croatia v. Aus games are on the same day, which I believe isn't permitted. Frankly, I thought the quarterfinal conditional tickets were a low probability chance. If the USSF comes through for me, I may have to withdraw the conditional application by 4-15 to avoid disqualification.

[dfb547490]

Posted on Soccernet.com:

Updated: Jan. 6, 2006
Tickets biggest worry at start of World Cup yearKevin Fylan


FRANKFURT, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Ticketing remains the biggest worry for organisers at the start of World Cup year, with orders running at 100,000 a day and little prospect of returns to ease the shortage.

'The problem with tickets will be with us right up until the referee blows the whistle for the start of the final,' organising committee president Franz Beckenbauer said at a New Year reception on Friday.


'I thought, for example, that Angola, after a long civil war, and with the huge costs involved, might give back some tickets, but nothing. Everyone wants more tickets.'

Only around 250,000 tickets are up for grabs in the last major sales window, which closes on January 15.

Those tickets will be massively oversubscribed and the vast majority of would-be fans will be disappointed when a draw on January 31 decides who gets them.

Organisers agreed to back down last month and refund a service charge for people who do not receive tickets from a separate sales opportunity for returns.

That followed a legal challenge from Germany's consumer association and Beckenbauer said organisers could not afford any more such problems.

'I hope we can work in peace over the last few months,' he said. 'We don't want another spanner in the works.'

After selling the tickets, organisers then face the huge task of printing them all with the names of holders.

That will be complicated by the forthcoming opportunity for fans to exchange tickets legally via an official website.

Organisers insist that only the person named on each ticket will be allowed access to the stadiums. They have warned that spot checks on identity will be carried out as fans make their way in for the matches.

The tournament, featuring 32 teams and 64 matches, begins on June 9 in Munich and ends with the final in Berlin on July 9.

Screw this. I'm not gonna count on the FIFA lottery to get me my US tickets...if I don't get tickets thru the USSF, and if the kind BigSoccer poster who's offered to sell me his TST if his friends get them thru USSF can't help me out, I'm gonna buy from SoccerVacations and use the FIFA lottery to apply to 6 high-profile games (2 I could actually go to--Germany-Poland and Brazil-Australia--and 4 others I haven't decided on yet), hoping to luck out on 1 or 2 of those and sell the tickets off to finance my US tickets.