Tickets for the Soccer World Cup 2010
Distribution
Fifa has indicated it will scrap its practice of giving teams only 8% of the seats at their matches (each team at the European Championship gets 18% of the tickets), by increasing the proportion going to each of the 32 finalists at the Soccer World Cup. Currently (May 2006) each team receives 8% of the seats, Fifa's sponsors share 16%, while a further 11% are sold as part of hospitality packages.
Complexity
The German ticketing system has been described by FIFA as being complicated; FIFA will therefore be doing its own distribution for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
At the German World Cup, for the first time in World Cup history, all tickets contain electronic chips with personal data of the ticket holders. An electronic RFID (radio frequency identification) chip was embedded in all game tickets. The information embedded on the chips includes name, address, date of birth, nationality, number of ID card or passport and bank or credit card data. Officials say the purpose of the information is to help prevent black marketing and keep hooligans, rioters and other troublemakers out of stadiums. It is unclear whether or not FIFA will be using RFID chips during the Soccer World Cup 2010.
Demand far outstripped supply of tickets for the 2006 World Cup (there were 3.07 million tickets). Ticket prices varied from 35 to 100 euros during the group phase with a ticket for the World Cup final costing between 120 and 600 euros.
Ticket prices
Sepp Blatter on the tickets on 25 April 2006: "We need to make sure that people in South Africa will be able to afford the tickets. We need to make them less expensive than those in Germany, but not too inexpensive as the local organising committee needs the income from ticketing sales. A possible scenario is to sell tickets to the local population at prices less than their face value". This programme is to be called 'Win in Africa with Africa' and is to be presented to the FIFA congress later this year and then "hopefully adopted".
Soccer World Cup 2006 prices
The prices for first round group matches ranged from about $44 to $126, and went up in succeeding rounds to a high of $758 for the best seat at the Soccer World Cup final in Berlin.
Cheap/free tickets for the poor
Fifa is looking at either giving away some tickets to the local population, which could come from their sponsors' allocation of seats, or having very, very cheap prices for South Africans. Fifa is worried that, unless action is taken, matches could be played in half-empty stadiums, which would lessen the atmosphere and create a negative impression of the tournament among billions of TV viewers.
South Africans watching
Danny Jordaan indicated in September 2006 that the 1 million tickets allocated to South Africa would be distributed throughout the African continent: “We’ve been saying that we want this to be a World Cup for Africa…tickets have to be distributed accordingly. Only 12 000 to 15 000 of those tickets will be sold to South Africans. So as you can see, you are not going to get tickets, I have no tickets to give you”.
References
20 September 2006 |
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6 August 2006 |
Free World Cup tickets for the poor: Fifa's plan to fill seats in South Africa |
26 July 2006 |
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