So, the world cup started yesterday and I was able to attend the opening match. Here follow my impressions on what it worked and what didn't. Also impressions regarding flags and id check. Arriving and leaving the stadium Very easy to me. Yes, the station near the stadium was crowded but yet I had no problem. It took me 1 hour from my seat inside the stadium until the gate of my apartment in Vila Mariana that is so far away from there. Crowd can be intimidating, specially when you are worried about pickpockets, but it was all good to me. Getting in and out Very easily, and smooth. Nobody checked my ID as expected. Only I was carrying tickets with my name on it between the 4 of us that went together. Police officer were confused with information, but voluntaries had them properly. People selling/buying tickets I only saw people trying buy, saw no one selling, even for above face value. No flip flops are allowed So you need a proper shoes to get in to the stadium. That's bullshit, but that's the way it is. According to them, you can use flip flops as weapons and throw them in the pitch. I pointed that I could also throw my shoes, but they reply saying it was too expensive to do so. They think we are barbarians enough to throw flip flops in the pitch, but broke enough to throw tennis shoes. In the stadium they give you cups for drinks, cans and bottles. I don't know if they noticed, but I would prefer to throw a empty cup of beer than my flip flops than walk back home with no shoes. But, whatever. No food, big lines Food ended 50 minutes prior the game. I mean, no hotdogs, burgers or even chips. All gone. Some were re-supplied, but you would had to missed half of the game to be able to get it. Even for drinks, line was huge most of the time. Atmosphere Outside the stadium was great. People living nearby went to join the party, take pictures and all. Inside, well bellow usual brazilian crowd. But I get this. People that buy 200 dollars tickets to watch world cup games aree not the same people that pay 20 dollars or less to watch a brazilian championship game.
Oh, 1 thing I forgot Bags and Flags All bags were being x-ray mainly for drinks and foods(and weapons I guess). Nobody were checking your flags size or anything. But you would probably pass by with a Snickers in your pocket, which I highly recommend since there was no food in the stadium. I don't know if they showed on TV, but there was a Flag "Torcida do Castilho" which was the size of a entire block of people. So...
Regarding the flip flops...so they were actually refusing entry to people wearing flip flops? That could explain the empty seats in the stadium because, at least in Rio, half the population lives in Havaianas. I don't see anything regarding footwear on the terms and conditions on the tickets, and I can imagine quite an angry mob if people are denied entry based on shoes. Most people are not going to have time to either run home or find a shoe store and get back to the stadium on time.
i am cross posting here my comments on TA thread about Match 1 in Sao Paulo: it was a beautiful day, blue skies, perfect weather to go to match. rode to stadium from Av Paulista area with a number of TA and bigsoccer members who showed up at meetup. didnt time it, but it was less than an hour (only a few did not buy subway tkts in advance so it was not too bad waiting for people to do that). from a stop on Av Paulista to connection to Line 4 (which takes to Luz) and then from Luz on nonstop Expresso da Copa to stadium.... at stadium kind of got separated as people had different entrances. you can indeed ride either Expresso da Copa or line 3 all the way to stadium... if it is not the "assigned" entrance, it just means you have to walk around more to get there. no names checked on tkt... not even my mom who had an elderly discount tkt... girl just scanned it and let us thru.... tkts only checked at one point (tho at an earlier check point police officers only let people with tkts get thru gate). all bags had to go thru scanner.... if you dont have any, just go to metal detector and walk thru it (they asked to have mobile phones in hand, out of pocket) the usual assortment of sponsor tents around stadium; one can spend some time taking a few pics there. major problem with lines was to get drinks, both before opening ceremony and match itself and during half time... my advice: befriend someone over 60 yrs old and you will get to front of line... I joked that I was going to rent my mom to tourists who did not want to stand in line. gettiing back took longer (as expected)... arrivals at stadium were much more staggered, not everyone came for 3:15pm opening show; one could see many seats available at that time (VIPs seem to have walked in last minute, in particular).... it may be a more crowded experience on all other matches as there in not the opening ceremony. on way out, volunteers told us that stop for Expresso da Copa was more crowded than Artur Alvim subway stop... so we went there.... line to get into station took a while, at some point we were just standing literally few meters away from it and not moving (but crowd was orderly, no pushing around that we saw)... and once inside, we comfortably boarded cars and got seats on subway. i also only saw people (just a few) trying to buy tkts... if there were touts trying to sell tkts , i totally overlooked them. FIFA reported attendance of 62,103... about 500 below revised total capacity announced earlier yesterday. i was VERY pleased and positively surprised with view from my seat (block 428, row Y)... that was behind corner flag behind Croatia goal area in second half. stadium itself clearly was finished last minute; it could have used a couple of more weeks to be 100% ship-shape... but, IMHO, there was nothing that hindered my game viewing experience.... there were tons of volunteers at Luz stop, Corinthians-Itaquera stop, around stadium, all very helpful (at least in Portuguese) and many were even quite proactive in approaching us to tell that we could preferential queues etc for elderly. and to show my welcome to visitors to Brazil... I wore a Brazil jersey and flag, but a Croatia cap. links to some pics; i posted a couple at end just to show what upper tier temp seats look like (we sat below them in permanent sectors): http://imgur.com/a/b81Ag#0 mobile data in SP stadium... it worked on and off (i use Claro 3G network).... sometimes I could not get signal, but sometimes i could... i kept family informed thru whatsapp text messages.... did not always go thru first time, but it eventually did... same happened with sending pics (it could take a few attempts before finally getting done). as my expectations were the worst in that matter, i came out somewhat pleased. booing opponents... i also find it disrespectul, but that has been common inBrazil (as a nation, we seem to have missed that memo about how to treat opponents in stadiums)... this is not new to this WC... however, there was a limit to it... for example, everyone was quiet during Croatian national anthem... I would have been ever so ashamed if that did not happen. i saw some nice gestures... post match, this Brazilian guy, speaking Portuguese to some Croat who did not speak much English either, asked several times for a large Croatia flag as a souvenir.... Croatian guy just unwrapped flag from his waist and gave it.... I never thought he would do it. story (in Portuguese) says that FIFA caught 50 fake tkts at stadium entrance yesterday. It adds that forgeries looked good and it was only embedded chip that flagged them as invalid. http://copadomundo.uol.com.br/notic...os-em-abertura-da-copa-torcedor-fica-fora.htm
There were no programmes. I don't remember programmes on South Africa either. Anyway, no game in Brazil have programmes. Not part of our culture to buy that.
Thanks for all the great info! Interested and somewhat perplexed/worried about the flip-flops as I was hoping to do my entire trip in Birkenstocks: http://birkenstock.com/collection-en-category-classic.htm?PHPSESSID=sgjcsjfr9tphmt16brtrda25j0 Do you think wearing these would prevent me from entering the stadium? I leave on Sunday so I'm doing my packing!
Was in salvador today. Traffic is horrendous. The fan walk was incredible with all the Dutch fans. Lots of security. Most of concession stands were closed. No food at all. A few spots sold beer. Huge lines. At halftime the mobile beer carts opened. Fans dove on them like vultures. Myself included. Not so much that I needs beer (although I did want it) but that I was thirsty from pre partying and the heat, and I couldn't even buy a bottle of water. Not sure what was up with that? Never seen concession stands closed in a packed stadium. Amazing atmosphere at the match.
Biggest problem I had in Cuiaba was the staff manning the drink stands at ht seemed to have no urgency to serve customers. Basically they were taking their time serving 1 customer with 3 staff and taking a minute to do so. Seemed completely out of the depth dealing with a crowd
No food in natal beer and soft drinks only. No merchandise either just empty stalls. Great atmosphere despite the rain Loads of tickets outside for sale and no buyers. A friend was in Salvador and paid less than half face value there. Starting to sound like South Africa ticket wise Very strict on what was allowed in to the stadium no insect repellant hand creams nothing liquid any size As always no name checks on tickets Chaos on the roads btw and heard a rumour that the buses were all cancelled and certainly didn't see any. Taxi to and from the stadium was our route
Seems hard to me. They x-ray your bags and do a quick check up on your body. you can manage to hide something, but not as easy as put it on your back pocket. Drinks are fine at the stadium. I had no problem buying water. Food is the big issue.
Yes no problem buying drinks I would be surprised if you got them in though Nice souvenir cups from coca cola and the domestic beer whose name escapes me There is meant to be food and souvenir stalls but no sign yet
I wonder when the souvenir/merchandise stands will open? FIFA is losing a lot of money. At Match 1 in Sao paulo they were all tarped up, but someone in our group said they looked inside and it looked the merchandise was all in it. I'd like to buy a few things to bring home as gifts. Also, it would have been cool to have some Opening Match stuff. I did save my red beer cup that had an Opening Match thing on the side.
Thanks guys for the useful info/advice, truly appreciate it! I am guessing cameras are allowed? I would like to take my SLR to the games!
Thanks! One more question-- do you guys think if I buy two tickets separately (since it's usually harder buying a pair together for a high demand match), I could move to a different section once I'm inside the stadium to stay with my brother during the match? Just wondering how tight security is once you get inside.
There was nothing preventing anyone from moving anywhere in São Paulo. People were moving around near me. One weird thing is many seats including the 3 rows behind me had green tarp on them. Some guys took the tarp off the first row and commandeered about 15 seats. Nobody stopped them even though it was obvious what they did. I have no idea why the seats were covered and not in use. I could see areas like that elsewhere too.
Manaus, stands near our sections ran out of water. No food at all. Seats between 323 and 324 dont have actual seats. It's just slabs of concrete. You can see the bolts to install the seats but they just weren't put in.