Tickets – black market
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December 8th, 2009
FIFA announced that, as scheduled, the phase three of the ticket sales process started on December 5th, and will continue until January 22nd 2010 (see how FIFA is selling tickets for the World Cup 2010). A little more than a million tickets will be available during this phase, and FIFA informed that 220,000 applications were received within 48 hours.
This is no surprise: after the draw of groups on December 4th, the matches of the first stage are already defined (Brazil, for example, learned that we will play against North Korea, Cote d’Ivoire and Portugal); now, fans from all over the world know when and where their teams will play, and assess the chances of moving forward. It is natural that the demand for matches increase.
What is surprising is the information (same reference) that “the first phase of purchasing opened in February. Since then, Fifa says 674,403 tickets have been sold – 90% of those made available to date”.
During phase one of sales (which finished March 31 2009), very few countries had secured qualification to the finals. During the phase two (which finished November 20th), the groups had not been drawn yet.
Who would buy tickets not knowing which teams were going to play? The answer may be: black market sellers.
The image below was captured today, December 8th, from a site which sells tickets online:
The site is selling tickets for the match Brazil x North Korea (which, until December 3rd, was referred to as Match n. 14), for the prices of US$ 1,000, US$ 1,200 and US$ 1,500, approximately. Official ticket prices were US$ 80, US$ 120 and US$ 160.
England versus USA is going cheaper. English and Americans are the nationalities which purchased most tickets so far (read: there are more ticket brokers in USA and UK than anywhere else).
At ebay, someone is auctioning a pair of Category 1 tickets (the most expensive) for US$ 1,800:
So, there is already a secondary market, where tickets are costing ten times more than official prizes. And we are still six months away from the Cup.
FIFA is trying to create a fair system to sell tickets. For example, there is a draw system, there are limits for the number of tickets which a person may purchase, there is an obligation for the purchaser to collect the ticket, etc. However, FIFA can’t check at the stadium gates whether or not the ticket holder is the actual purchaser.
It seems very difficult to stop profit seeking brokers from buying tickets and reselling them in the black market. Let’s see what will happen in the World Cup 2014.