It seems plenty of international media agencies, discussing the empty seats, are coming with theories regarding the price of tickets vs income in Brazil. That´s the first theory, and let me say right away: bullshit. Look, I just saw the France vs Honduras match at Beira Rio. Plenty of empty seats. Was that because locals couldn´t buy the tickets?? Well, I am a local and I stayed FIVE HOURS in front of the computer, connected to FIFA website, pressing reload every 5 minutes, trying to get a ticket to either FrancexHonduras, or NetherlandsxAustralia or ArgentinaxNigeria. I just COULD NOT GET A SINGLE TICKET for those matches! FIFA website said they were all SOLD. I had to content myself with S.Korea vs Algeria. I know plenty of people here in Brazil who tried to get tickets to those matches and also could not. And that happened to me in TWO occasions (when FIFA released their packets of new tickets) and also when I went personally to get my ticket at Porto Alegre distribution center, and I asked if there was not any available ticket for those matches. Maybe it was not a case of Brasilians not being able to buy tickets, but of tickets being denied by FIFA to buyers from Brazil, waiting for foreigners to buy the tickets... and foreigners buying less tickets than were available. maybe too much bureaucracy by FIFA in the process of reselling tickets you don´t want anymore?? Mind you, you must buy tickets many months in advance. Many people do it, but later discover they won´t be able to attend the match. The anti-scam practices by FIFA prevent scams but also end up making difficult for honest people to resell their tickets? As for ticket prices and brazilian income The ticket prices were like R$200 (the ones I got for South Korea x Algeria, which were THE ONLY ONES AVAILABLE, were R$180) (monthly income and salaries)
the FIFA servers? I don´t think so, because even after hours or days, there would still be no seats available. really, I live 40 km from Porto Alegre and wanted like hell to get tickets to France vs Honduras... can you imagine how bad is to see all those empty seats that FIFA website said were UNAVAILABLE?
Don't know about this 100% sure, but I know for a fact that hundreds of tickets are sold to corporations for their employees, families and what not and most times they don't even end up going to the game. This happened to my best friend at the 2012 Olympics in London. He was there on vacation and tried to get tickets to a few swimming events (I think it was swimming) and they told him 'sorry, sold out'. Turned it on TV later that night and half the seats were empty..
It's because so many tickets were either: A) Given to FIFA sponsors/national federations/bigwigs, etc., who didn't bother to go to the match B) Bought by people intending to scalp them, only to find that demand was a lot less than they anticipated. My impression is that much like South Africa, a lot of people such as myself got scared away by the high travel expenses and decided to stay home instead. This is where FIFA's decision to organize the groups so that teams plays their three matches in three different cities (often ones far apart from each other) really backfires. I know FIFA wants to help the host country financially by forcing visitors to spend a lot of money on transportation, but there's a point where people do decide that its not worth it.
I am not sure it really helps the country people spending money on transportation. Quite the inverse, as for example, Brazil, which had major problems with congested airlines, had to invest a lot of money on new terminals and stuff and that was not 1/3 of what is needed to solve the problem...
I wouldn't totally discount the possibility of the FIFA website being a hopeless mess. Obamacare comes to mind...... Either way, there should not be any empty seats for any of these matches, not at a World Cup in a country like Brazil. Maybe what they should do is keep an eye on which seats are actually being occupied, and then just put someone from a line at one of the gates in an empty one. If the daughter and son-in-law of Swiss millionaire X can't make it to Rio after all (despite having bought their tickets at 500 times the normal rate 7 years ago), let Joao and Raoul from a few streets over have them. For free. Someone else already footed the bill......
Could be. My point is that once the draw was made, a lot of people sat down and did some math, saw how expensive it would be travel to and around Brazil (never mind the bloated accommodation prices), and decided to stay home instead. This greatly reduced demand for match tickets, and left the package tours and scalpers with a lot of tickets on their hands that they couldn't get rid of. And then you have to factor in all the tickets given to sponsors and FIFA cronies which are sitting unused in drawers somewhere. For example, I doubt there's going to be too much demand for the Cameroon-Croatia or Honduras-Switzerland matches in Manaus, Iran-Nigeria and Algeria-Russia in Curitiba, or Russia-S.Korea and Nigeria-Bosnia in Cuiaba. Korea-Algeria (Porto Alegre), Greece-Ivory Coast (Fortaleza), and Bosnia-Iran (Salvador) are also likely to feature more than a few empty seats as well.
It is somewhat disapointing.The FIFA World Cup held in X country is a once in a lifetime event...If true,it's a shame that some people are given tickets and don't even bother showing up...If only they knew what some of us in other parts of the world would do to get our hands on a few of those....
us in all parts of the world, including Brazil. I mean... that's the crux of the question... attending World Cup costs money, but it costs a LOT OF MONEY, really a lot, if you do it in another country. (well, not so much for europeans, if it´s a country near to theirs, and connected by rail and stuff). But for us brazilians... the last closest World Cup was South Africa... distance between Porto Alegre and Cape Town is 6462 km!! And before that? Mexico City, 1986, 7500 km!! Therefore, for most of us, the best chance to see World Cup matches was here in Brazil (and maybe Argentina-Uruguay 2030!!)... and plenty of us, WITH MONEY TO PAY FOR TICKETS, could not get tickets! It really sucks when we see those empty seats. Just talking in another forum... the guy attended today match, but he tried to get 3 tickets, for his son too, because it would be an unforgettable experience. He could not get more than one ticket.
If corporate sponsors don't pick up their tickets perhaps there could be a will-call for us untermenschen. If you don't get tickets you get credited a refund.
Pretty pathetic IMO ... giving tickets away to sponsors and corporations and bureaucrats. What is even more pathetic is those organizations letting the tickets go to waste. If you're not going to use it then donate it to local orphanages, youth groups, community groups etc ...
I got 4 tickets from guy that got the tickets and end up not coming to Brazil, like mentioned above. He was going to donate or even leave it a side if it was too much hassle. This 1 guy, how many more WW have done the same?
I strongly dislike scalpers and refuse to do any business with them. I would rather not go and be forced to watch at a pub than to do business with them. Scalpers=Scum
What I wonder, how the mexicans manage to get huge amounts of tickets to WC matches anywhere in the world? Every time they play, it seems that they are always locals.
To be fair the last few games have been a lot fuller. Even Iran-Nigeria looked full to me. Belgium-Algeria looked full. Russia-S. Korea looked full.
Well guys, I'm sorry to say that but it seems that in 2018 the cost with transportation will be so high as were here in Brazil: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/russia2018/ Did you see the host russian cities? They are so far away from each other than were brazilians ones!!! A tourist nightmare...
Just looked at the map and distances then. That looks outrageous! Qatar will be terrible but at least there will minimal travel time between host cities/stadiums.