Euro 2004 Ticket Info?

[csh2000]

This is the only ticket information I've been able to find for Euro 2004 - http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/EURO/Tickets/Index.html

The basics are:
* Sales begin online on April 28
* "The basic principle is that everyone should be able to apply for tickets at a reasonable price."
* Tickets will be available as "Individual Match Tickets" or "Follow My Team" Tickets

I'm curious if anyone knows more information - I'm mostly curious about price (what is "a reasonable price"?) and the likelihood of getting tickets to the games I want to go to. I'm planning to spend a week there, but want to be assured of getting tickets to the games I want to see.

[comme]

I'm trying to organise a trip for about 8 people to the finals, and wish that UEFA would make more information available. If anybody can answer some questions it would be much appreciated.

How can tickets go on sale before the teams are decided?
Are there ways to get priority of tickets? (ie joining a supporters club)
As both england and wales may well be at the finals, is it possible to have tickets to follow more than one team?

[csh2000]

Originally posted by comme
How can tickets go on sale before the teams are decided?

This is kind of similar to what FIFA does with the World Cup. They aren't putting all the tickets on sale in one big bunch. They split the stadium up into some "Follow My Team" blocks that are reserved for supporters of Team A and others reserved for supporters of Team B, and then other sections are general seating for people who just want to go to the game regardless of who is playing ("Individual Match Tickets"). Of course, corporate partners take up a chunk of the good seats as well.

The "Follow My Team" packages can be bought for all teams in qualifying, but obviously only a certain number of them will be fulfilled. Let's say that there are 8,000 tickets reserved for each team for the "Follow My Team" packages (totally a hypothetical). For a team like Portugal, Spain, France or England (popular teams that aren't too far away), they're probably going to get more than 8,000 applications for those tickets as "Follow My Team" packages. In that case, they'd hold a "lottery" to determine which applicants get the tickets. If a team doesn't qualify, those orders aren't fulfilled and the applicant gets their money back, probably minus a processing fee.

This is very similar to how ticketing works for the college basketball championships in the U.S. (even up to the detail of a lot of the good seats being reserved for corporate partners and the most passionate fans having the worst seats). Some tickets are distributed through the school - for students, alumni and other people close to the program - and the rest are sold to the general public, mostly fans near the venues. For the Final Four (semifinals and final), a lottery is used to determine who gets the seats available to the general public, beyond the ones for the competing teams, as applications always outnumber available seats for the Final Four.

I believe if they sell out the "Follow My Team" packages in Phase I (before the field is determined), they just won't put more on sale in Phase II (after the draw) ticketing.

For a smaller team (let's say Wales, though it may not be accurate), they may not get 8,000 applications for tickets in Phase I, so everyone who requested them gets tickets. Once they qualify, they put the remaining seats on sale in Phase II at which point they would likely sell out. If they don't, they sell them as "Individual Match Tickets" up until they sell out, or even up through game day if it doesn't sell out.

Where this becomes complicated is once you get out of the groups and talk about "Follow My Team" tickets in the quarterfinals and beyond. I'm not sure if they actually issue provisional tickets pending the team advancing or how that is handled. That's where it gets to be difficult to know how they fulfill it. Do they sell and issue vouchers or tickets all the way through to the final for all teams, and then issue refunds to all the teams that were eliminated before that point?

The "Individual Match Tickets" are also probably done in two phases, but it's a lot more straightforward in Phase I because it doesn't matter who is in those games. You know you've got capacity of stadium minus the allotment for the teams and the allotment for the corporate sponsors - everything else is opened up for the "Individual Match Tickets". Those probably sell a lot better once the teams are known, as the people who couldn't get "Follow My Team" tickets in Phase I for a popular team can try to put together a package to follow their team on their own, using the "Individual Match Tickets".

One thing I'm not sure of is whether they will offer "All Matches at Venue" packages. For some reason I think that's been done before for big tournaments, but I haven't seen anything about it with regards to Euro 2004.

I will plan my trip based on my travel dates and which venues I want to be in and hope that teams I like get drawn into them. I'm going entirely with "Individual Match Tickets" this time around.

I'm going more because I enjoy watching high-quality matches with a lot on the line, than wanting to support a specific team. That's why I'm going the week that group play concludes and also trying to catch a quarterfinal or two. I'll probably be there a week and the weekend on each side of it (nine days) and try to catch about five matches. Not sure yet if I want to stay in just a couple of venues or travel around a bit. A lot of that will depend on the costs.

[comme]

My problem is that although I'm welsh, the other group members are english, and one Irish, so I'm not quite sure what to do. I just hope wales get drawn in Faro.

Thanks for your reply.

[comme]

BTW I would expect reasonable prices (from UEFA)prices to be around $50.

[AFCA]

I don't see anything reasonable in those prices.

But that's an old story.

I'll hop by in Germany 2006.

[Mobile]

A few things that are certain about Euro 2004 tickets:

They will be overpriced

The system will be badly organised

Very few fans of teams will be allocated tickets to games they want to see

The vast majority of tickets will be allocated to corporate sponsors

The vast majority of corporate sponsor tickets will make their way into the hands of touts

The touts will sell the already-overpriced tickets at vastly inflated cost to fans desperate to see their team

The whole thing is one big ********ing joke. It's only football that can get away with this. Imagine if organisers for a pop concert said "Ok, we'll sell you tickets for a series of concerts but we'll offer them for sale about 18 months in advance so we get to keep the money and the interest for that time. We'll also offer no guarantees as to which bands will be playing at what venue, so when you buy one of our overpriced tickets you may well end up going to see a band you have no interest in. Oh, and most of our tickets will not be available to music fans but will be handed out to sponsors."

I'll just do what I do every time and what thousands of other England fans will do, and that's turn up and try to get lucky. If not, we'll watch in Portuguese bars, which doesn't sound too bad anyway.

[AFCA]

Enjoy the fado :D

[Mobile]

Originally posted by AFCA
Enjoy the fado :D

Yeah I'll be practising my singing especially so I can join in :D