How much more is the demand for tickets to WC 2006 versus.....

There is much more demand. The team has more fans and Germany is a lot closer. Also, online ticket scalpers are much more organized than they were four years ago. Throw in the fact that there was nothing preventing Germans (and others) from buying USA TSTs and there's plenty for us to worry about.

 

There is a much higher demand. This one is in an area most people want to go, there are also more people that speak english.

I know for myself, Ive been planning this trip since the day germany was announced. I had no desire to go to korea, but I was also a poor college student taking summer classes to speed up graduation.

 

Good God, people, relax. I really don't think tickets are going to be that hard to come by.

 

Same boat.

 

The only other soccer game in Europe I've been to was a sold out Real Madrid match. This was their 2nd to last home game and they were 1 pt out of first(a few years ago). We got tickets right outside the stadium from scalpers, slightly over face, lower level on the sidelines. There were scalpers everywhere. I assume it will be the same in Deutschland.(especially considering only 16% of tickets go to the Federations)

 

Yep. I'd like us to have match tickets in hand before my wife and I go to Germany, but if we don't have them we're going to go anyway and just get tickets from scalpers. It's not going to be that difficult.

 

in france 98 first round games were not hard to get into. face value.

 

But zee Germans, zey are more efficient no?

 

Ezpecially if yowr paperz are not in owrder.

 

English "touts" (scalpers) are fairly well organized. I recall posts about the ease of obtaining tickets for many Euro'04 matches in Portugal.
At France'98, there seemed to be tickets available from regular fans with extras. I also bought from the Romanian FA for the Tunisia match. I didn't think there would be much demand, but every waiter in Paris was there! Of course, the Stade de France holds 77,000. http://www.planetworldcup.com/CUPS/1998/groupg_tun_v_rom.html

 

I'm also a college student (well going to graduate right before the WC)...I ordered a pre-approved credit card just to go to this thing and I'm going to put myself in a couple thousand dollars debt to go to Germany (maybe to Idaho for BC's bowl game as well)...who cares it's worth it.

 

It won't be- getting scalped tickets is significantly easier in spain than, say England, or most places in Europe- on top of that, there is so much demand that the scalpers (who will be present) will seriously jack up their prices.

 

Maybe it was just my experience -- in France 98 there just weren't that many people selling tickets around the venues for the decent games -- if you could find them, they weren't outrageously priced, but we tried to go to a couple of non-US games and no one was selling. With the US playing two neighboring countries, I would think you will need to get tickets in advance.

 

France 98 - I remeber there was a fairly brisk market for WC tix, there were ticket brokers from every corner of the world, as well as individuals looking to unload unwanted tix, congregating at the far side of the Champs Elysees (away from L'Arc de Triomphe, towards Le Louvre) - but yes come game time, tix were hard to find in the perimeter surrounding the stadiums.

One approach a friend and I had was to find some tix at a reasonable price (as close to face value as possible) and use those to trade for the games we wanted to see.

There were so many great games to see, and so many tix flying around, that we actually looked forward to the next day of purchasing, bartering. Mind you, this was only for the 1st round games.

 

Not so sure about that. Last time around I got tickets through FIFA fairly easily. This time demand appears to far outweigh supply. I'm in for the latest round of FIFA tickets but do not have my hopes up. And if anyone is going to enforce the rules regarding names on tickets and crack down on scalpers, it's going to be the Germans.

 

Yeah my thoughts also . I didnt go to the WC in 2002 or even try to get tickets , I was too young to really understand what it was , but as of now , I have been unsuccessful twice through FIFA , and am hoping that I get my tickets for the USA through USSF , so I dont have to try FIFA again . But it just seems like there is a huuge demand for tickets for this WC.( i have nothing really to compare it to though )

 

Being denied entry to the stadium while holding a scalped ticket is my fear also (granted that I am a pessimist by nature). It is bad enough having to buy an expensive scalped ticket (which I am prepared to do), but it would be much worse finding out at the last minute that my scalped ticket would not get me into the stadium.

I am fairly confident that the German OC officials will not check every ticket holder entering the stadium, but (being the pessimist that I am) I am fairly certain that they will check my scalped ticket. It is not like I am being denied entry to Gillette Stadium after spending four hours to drive there for a qualifier, I am planning a 3-week trip at considerable expense centered around attending the USA group games. Soaking up the soccer atmosphere and attending other games of interest as I find tickets available, while important, is secondary to seeing the USA play live.

 

FYI, both of my brothers went to France '98 and never had a ticket before the day of the game. The prices weren't much more than face value and they were able to see all 3 US games and a couple of the Dutch's games. Things might have changed, but I doubt it.

(of course, if you want to go to the semi-final or final matches you'll have to pay big time prices)

 

IIRC, during France'98, didn't some Croatian players supply tickets to their young fans, who had run out of tickets & money while following Croatia around France as they kept advancing?