Going to North America '26: tickets, accommodations, etc. (non-politics)

Good point about fans from France. But the fans of the France national team do travel in large numbers within Europe. There were a lot of them at the 2006 final, and of course the 1998 final was about 95% of the stadium, of course. Spain fans are kind of similar. There were very few Spain fans at the 2010 final.

 

I did my research as well:



The three earlier ones were CC unique.

All the rest shared credit cards 3-5 times each.

Emails were all from random domains.

 

Euros do travel mostly within Europe’s but they are very price conscious. These prices are too much for most euros. Not that they can’t; but just won’t. They refuse to be fleeced for soccer.

 

Add "San Francisco Bay Area" to the list of cities where you should stay near the stadium. Levi's stadium is pretty far from San Francisco - public transportation is dismal around here! - yet is in a populated area most famous for Silicon Valley types of businesses which means there's a lot of hotels nearby. Also San Jose International Airport is less than 15mn away from the stadium so if possible you should aim for SJC instead of SFO for your flights... though I know the "International" moniker for SJC is exaggerated since the only foreign destination outside of Mexico is Tokyo!

 

Which ones were successful if any?

 

Just want to confirm that:
- by "clean" you mean NONE of the info - name, address, phone number, credit card # - was reused in any other applications,
- the one "not clean" which you suspect was accepted had a credit card (CC#1) that was NOT used in any of the "clean" applications and only used once more in a "discarded" application (according to your table)
I'm going to study my applications in detail and see if I find a pattern too.

 

Staying in Santa Clara/San Jose is a good idea if you’re just visiting for 1-2 days, basically going to the match and leaving. And a way better option than staying in East Rutherford, Miami Gardens, or Foxboro.

But for any longer period, I would think staying in San Francisco might be a bit more interesting for visitors. And that’s where the FanFest will be? You’d need to figure out the commute to the stadium but maybe there will be special buses from SF (I haven’t seen any news on that yet).

 

From San Francisco you can take Caltrain or BART to get to the south bay, then transfer to VTA light rail right to the stadium. At least in theory; I've never done it, so I don't know how well it actually works.

 

I know it's early in the process, but I have to say I'm disappointed in how FIFA is handling ticket offerings for those who use a wheelchair.

1) Hospitality seats. I asked On Location whether I could buy a wheelchair seat, and they said I had to buy a regular seat, then call them and let them know I wanted a wheelchair space, and they would try to accommodate. But, "please note, while we will do our best to accommodate your request, this is not a guarantee." Great, so I spend $2,000+ on a ticket, and you can't even guarantee that I can use it.

2) Right-to-buy. I asked FIFA Collect if I could exercise a RTB to get a wheelchair seat. Their response was "Unfortunately we do not handle this. After you buy your ticket you should address to FIFA Ticketing direct in order for them to assist you." Again, spend a lot of money up front, then hope you'll get what you want, no guarantees. No thanks.

3) I got the 4th slot in the VISA presale. There were wheelchair seats available for many of the San Francisco games, but no companion seats. I think that's because FIFA lets you buy up to 3 companion seats for each wheelchair. So the companion seats were all gone. I ended up getting singles to a couple of games. Maybe they shouldn't allow people to buy so many companion seats?

And of course, trying to contact a real human at FIFA about this is impossible; it's all bots.

There are several more ticket phases, so I suspect it'll work out in the long run. But they aren't making it easy.

 

That is disappointing to hear. Unfortunate that options are so limited, and that the ratio of wheelchair to companion seating is not 1:1.

 

Can you buy a companion seat without having a wheelchair ticket in cart? If so Id suggest buying the companion seats later phases. It sucks if they do because that means the scalpers just got them.

 

Hey guys,

I’ve got a question about the complaints people have been making about the RTBs. A big part of it seems to be that 70% of the tickets offered are for Category 1. But looking at the stadium maps, it actually does look like around 60-70% of the seats are Cat 1 anyway.

So… what was the surprise when FIFA announced that?

 

From what I can tell, it appears that you can only buy companion seats in conjunction with a buying a wheelchair seat at the same time. That may change in the future.

 

It works fine, just takes a while. There is also a rail station one block from the stadium served by both Amtrak and a regional commuter service called ACE. These run far less often than the transit services, but perhaps there will be special trains. ACE runs specials for NFL games.

San Jose will also have a Fanfest type of thing. It might not be FIFA official, but there will be stuff going on. Transit from downtown San Jose as well as from the corridor of airport hotels north of downtown is very easy.

 

Quick question, ive seen some people saying that tried with differenr accounts, i only tried with one( got selected) but for oct 27 want to try a couple, does it go by ip adress? Or can my wife and kids open one to? Also was planning on doing one with mom and brother that live in colombia, and i could probably get 5-8 more with people that are not interested in going… my question , if one of them wins, say joe smith.. he gives me the link , i enter on that day, can i pay with my card.. or would it have to be on joe smiths name?
And if so, can i just go get a prepaid visa, put $5000 on it and use that

 

That's always been the case for the WC, you can only buy with a wheelchair user

 

Card wont matter

 

Yes, it's feasible but the shortest trip from Union Square will take 1h 45mn.

 

My two bobs worth on the transport to the stadium:

I would assume that there will be special buses put on to move fans around. FIFA generally do not want anyone driving to the games except VIP's. Even though some of the car parks around the stadiums look big enough to land a private jet in, i cant see FIFA allowing 20,000 cars to drive and park right outside the stadium. Security would be the main reason.

Time will tell.

 

Must be 18 to apply (you mentioned kids)
Based on the information we got from people who submitted multiple applications and got selected (or not, like me!), you should not use the same name, definitely use different addresses and different credit cards/debit cards for the applications. Once selected, any card (Visa only for the first round, I suspect no longer for future rounds) will be accepted even if it does not match the name and address on the application (greedy FIFA!)

 

But it's an opening match! (1 of 3, so...maybe not so prestigious this time?) Plus you'll get Lee Greenwood singing "God Bless Infantino". Surely worth $1000?

 

Boston is planning that the T train to Foxborough will handle 20k passengers per match. That's less than 1/3 of the stadium capacity so I suppose they expect everyone else to drive.

One of the reasons FIFA rejected Washington DC as a host city is that the stadium (used by the Commanders) was so far outside the city. I assume they feel Foxborough has adequate public transport capacity for the games or they wouldn't have accepted their host application.

 

Don't stay in the sticks in KC, unless it's literally overnight. Stay near the Fan Fest for easiest transport (the Sheraton Crown Center would be best; Fairfield if you prefer) but anything between the Convention Centre and T-Mobile is prime position IMHO. There'll be plenty of buses, although I don't think anyone knows the routing yet. I've stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and it met my (very minimal) needs.

Walking to Jerry World is an impressive feat!

Well, it has been slower. lol But at least you'll know exactly when you get to South Station - there's only one train, it runs at a specific time, and takes just over an hour to crawl to/from Boston. But no Secaucus transfer is worth the slog alone!

If they optimize either route the train(s) would be reasonable. Much easier to do on a Sunday afternoon than on a Wednesday afternoon. But we'll see what they promise once the transpo plans are published. Guessing Boston goes for buses rather than deal with Amtrak and MBTA.

 

Qatar had no issue encouraging people to drive to stadiums with large parking lots. Best entrance experience I had was at Al Bayt from the parking lots (not the Uber lot) via the McDonald's. Now the parking lots 20 steps from a stadium entrance gate will be closed, but as long as FIFA can put up fences they won't mind people driving and parking hundreds of metres away. At least no one minded 3 years ago.

But yes, buses have been ordered. Enough? Going to/from where? All will be revealed...soon. After the draw. To some extent.

 

The Commanders' stadium is closer to DC than several of the World Cup venues are to their named cities. I think that was mostly about a reluctance to do the necessary renovations.