FIFA really is the worst. Here are the issues I'm having:
- I bought 3 games for me and 5 games for friends. I wanted to transfer the games to the friends. It's impossible to do. The tickets are not where FIFA says they should be. I found a back-door way to find the tickets (which actually had seat assignments), but there's no way to transfer them from there.
- I guess I should've sprung for Cat 1. I bought Cat 2 and they are towards the half-way line, but WAY up. Like 3rd to last row on one of the games.
- No tailgating at Metlife? Ok, I guess. No parking at all? That's crazy, but I live on a train line. Now there's rumors it may be $100 to take the train!!! NJ Transit trains from Secaucus to Metlife are not typically transporting the whole stadium to events. Even with extra trains, it's going to be chaos.
- I bought the games expecting to go to all. But part of me now just wants to just sell all the tickets. But I definitely have to bring the family to at least one of them. I have Round of 16 tix in Philly. Maybe I'll keep those even though it's less convenient. If I sold all three games at the current rate it could help pay for some of the kids' college expenses!
This has been a bucket list item of mine for a long time. When the US was announced as host, I was committed to being there. Though I have at times through this process tried to force myself to question the value of it all given how poorly FIFA has run this, I regret nothing.
I have tickets to 4 matches, and have worked my way through scheduling, contingencies, lodging, parking, etc., and here are my personal judgements.
1. FIFA is as a corrupt organization as there is. The amount of grift, patronage and flat incompetence is stunning. They are literally acting as both sponsor and scalpers. Make Ticketmaster/Live Nation look like the Boy Scouts.
2. Tickets: They never planned on making this accessible or to prioritize actual soccer fans (especially supporter groups). From the numerous scam lotteries, the ridiculous markup, resale fees, manufactured scarcity, performative tier ticket structure all lead to one thing, super expensive tickets.
Last night I received another insider invite from US Soccer (3rd one now), that FIFA is providing new tickets to one of the US group matches. (I guess Paraguay isn't selling well). I've been a pretty decent donor over the years and have yet to be able to acquire any tickets through that portal. Most of mine came from the first Visa lottery than was relatively unpublished.
I'm now convinced that FIFA is still holding back a ton of tickets (not just to sponsors and partners). I'm also convinced that FIFAs plan is to sell as many expensive tickets as it can before it dumps whatever is left to fill the stadiums. I'm glad I have my tickets and still regret nothing but it's about as unfan- friendly as it gets.
3. Parking and Transit: While I understand an expanded security zone would reduce parking and discourage tailgating, they took this way too far as to imply what they really want is to sell more pregame hospitality and concession packages. Talk about low class. If security were really the top issue. They would be more proactive about getting people to and from for as little as possible. NJ transit is telling the truth. All of these east coast football stadiums have game day transit options. They are special services that cost extra to run. More when you are pushing a bunch of away fans to use them. If it's going to cost NJ transit $48M to run the trains for all the games at Met Life then FIFA should be paying for it.
Fortunately for me Seatte and San Jose are directly on an existing commuter rail. As for LA, I found an off site lot that isn't charging $500 to park. For true fans the WC is it, but I'm not sure how many fans of other teams are going to fly here for these games. Again, points to a ton of last minute ticket dumping or a ton of empty seats.
4. The government: without making this political the organizing committee has been MIA from the start. Anyone know who is running this? One is Matt Cocker, the US Soccer Sporting Director who just quit to join Saudi Arabia. I don't think he's quitting if he thinks WC is going to be spectacular. The other guy, Andrew Giuliani, the famously annoying, empty headed son of Rudy Guliani. Perhaps explains why no one is standing up to FIFA on these matters.
I feel that I've done all I can to mitigate these things so, I'm going to enjoy the 3 weeks planned and hope the USMNT is able to keep up with my schedule but they did not make these easy and it did cost a ton to make it all happen.
