World Cup Ticket Scalping: My story

As this ESPN article suggests, ticket scalping, or as I like to call it, the free market is working at this year’s world cup. For a bit of history about this year’s tickets and how things were supposed to work, read the above article and check out World Cup Blog’s articles on ticket scalping and world cup tickets.

Two days ago I decided to test the free market and the law of supply and demand at the Ukraine vs Saudi Arabia game. I picked that game for a few reasons. The fans of those 2 countries are not known to be huge travelers and have loads of cash to drive up the prices. So I figured I’d get some tickets, no worries.

I arrived at hamburg stadium about 2.5 hours before the game. Blokes on bicycles were riding around the stadium with “I need tickets” on a small piece of cardboard. I pulled one over and he had category 1 tickets (best seats in the house) for 200 Euros a pop. 100 over face value. I continued on and ran into another bloke - he had category 1 tickets for 150 a pop. I said sure. While I was waiting for delivery, a guy from Saudi Arabia walked up to us with a stack of tickets - face value 45 euros, he offered them for 60. I said sure, I’ll take 2.

It was dead easy to get tickets to this game. I could have probably hunted around a bit more for more of a deal, but the fun of a World Cup game for me is getting in and enjoying the atmosphere and the build-up. You can be sure, for games that involve Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Spain and other European powers that are nearby with avid fans. These tickets are rare, expensive and will only get moreso as the tournament progresses.

The bottom line is, if you got cash, and you want to go to a game, you will find tickets and they are not checking names on tickets - so you can buy whatever you want and be confident that you’ll get in. The tickets I bought said, “Saudi Football Association”. No worries mate.

Good luck, talk to lotsa people - find the going rate and negotiate, but don’t wait too long. You may well be left outside the gates as the game starts.

World Cup Blog has World Cup Tickets available via online scalpers/ticket brokers that can be delivered to fans in Germany. Tickets for the Second round, and all the knockout rounds are still available. See all the World Cup Game Tickets here.