Wednesday, July 31, 2013


FIFA move this world cup from Qatar 2022. The entire voting process of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were controversial, from England which thought it was the favorite (but they think they are the favorite for everything…) receiving only 2 votes in the 2018 voting.. to Qatar winning the 2022. After Qatar wins, it seems all of FIFA except his Holiness Sepp Blatter either quit, was suspected of taking bribes, expelled from English soccer. With CONCACAF losing its former corrupt headman Jack Warner, and his second in command Chuck Blazer turning whistleblower on his boss but eventually realizing he was unwanted and stepping down.. to the former Qatar head of Football and want to be president of FIFA candidate Mohamed bin Hammam also being accused of bribery and going away..

But yet the most recent reason for Qatar to not host the world cup came this weekend with Ecuador national team player and bright star, Christian Benitez died after playing his first game. While it is being reported today by some news sources like CNN that it was heart failure, how sure are we that the heat did not have an effect, this is a player who grew up at the high altitude of Quito, Ecuador and played hundreds of games there and in Mexico. Also it should be noted the quote was released from the Qatar club Al Jaish, and while not saying they are not being truthful, the fact they paid $10 million dollars just a few weeks ago for the transfer of the player, and insurance issues could have something to do with their determination.
We have seen many players in multiple sports who had congenital heart defects die or have heart attacks when playing both soccer(Marc Vivien Foe in 2003) and basketball (Reggie Lewis, Hank Gathers come to mind). I’m not a doctor, I didn’t stay at a Holiday Inn last night but the fact that the game Sunday the temperature in Doha was over 100F (41C) from 9am to 5pm. In best case the players will have great doctors, cooling fans/machines, defibrillators available for them but what about the spectators, the vendors, the workers in the stadium will they be treated as well?

The new plan proposed by genius Sepp Blatter to host the world cup in the “winter” months of November. This will upset domestic leagues all over the world including the end of the MLS season, and the start of European leagues..

Its time just to move the world cup to a country (and I am all behind my home the USA getting it) that is not incredibly hot and does not have to build the infrastructure from scratch. Lets put this this way, Qatar basically has 2 cities, Doha with a population of 340,000 and Ar Rayyan with population of 270,000. These 2 cities are about 30 miles apart, so basically the whole of the country live in suburbs of the two main cities. What are the plans for locations of the 8 stadiums needed, where are people going to stay, how to get around.. Hosting the Asian games is one thing, the FIFA World Cup is to a whole another level in terms of fans traveling and games to be player. Yes plenty of time before 2022 and this is a country so rich with natural gas/oil that the financial cost will not really be a burden.. but its geography is what the problem is.. MOVE THE WORLD CUP!!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Prices are out for 2014 FIFA Brazil World Cup Ticket Prices


I have not written anything in this blog in over a year. I figure this is a great time to start back writing as the initial origin for this blog was my 2006 trip to the FIFA World Cup in Germany. Since the ticket prices for the 2014 FIFA World Cup being held in Brazil were just released and the opening game is less than 11 months away why not start a countdown. My every intention is to travel to Brazil for that World Cup. The US Men’s National Team are currently atop the standings in the CONCACAF Final qualifying stage and looks to be a lock to be one of the 32 teams going to Brazil. I went to Brazil in January of 2012, so I already have my travel visa and a little knowledge of the country and how to get around it.. So lets start planning the trip here with hopefully more regular updates for others interested in the perspective of an American planning a trip.

I know from attending past Olympics and World Cups that tickets are expensive and there is a price premium attached compared to a similar sporting event. I found my 2006 invoice for the TST-5 (Team Specific Ticket 5 Games) that I purchased that allowed me to attend all 3 of the USA games, and then due to the USA failure to advance the next 2 games I followed the winner of the group (Italy, and eventual champion of the world). These 5 games cost a total of 402 Euros (before crazy high 25Euro delivery charge). At the exchange rate in mid 2005 when I was charged for the tickets, it was 1.30Euros for $1 USD, so the tickets in dollars cost $522 USD give or take a few dollars. Now fast forward to the announced prices for the same Cat 2, TST-5 ticket in Brazil and its listed at $869 USD for the 5 games, with the assumption your team does not play in the A2 slot, which is reserved for the opening game vs Brazil in Sao Paulo, which has a higher premium. So this is a $347 increase in ticket prices over the 8 years since the last world cup or a 66% increase. WOW this is higher than any inflation rate/stock market return around.. If FIFA was a stock, it would be worth investing in as they know how to raise their top line revenues.

Now for the Brazil 2014 World Cup a TST-5 or any Team Specific Ticket is not going to be a good idea for most fans, that is unless you have a private jet to fly around the country. The way the groups have been organized the games for your team are going to be spread around a very large country with limited if any inter-city transportation. Its simply going to be too difficult to get from City to City in the 4-5 days between games to see your National Team for all the games.

Lets look back at the 2006 and 2010 Draws for the USA. In 2006 we were in Group E, Slot 3(E3), and 2010 we were drawn into Group C, Slot 2 (C2). The distances and times in 2006 were much shorter as Germany is a compact country with First World A+ infrastructure in the form of high speed trains along with regional/discount airlines. June 12th game vs Czech Republic in Gelsenkirchen. This game was in the home of Schalke 04 team that plays in the Bundesliga. I stayed in Essen, the same city where the USA team set up shop, this was only a 10 minute ride on the rail. But other large cities in the area including Dortmund and Dusseldorf were less than 1hr away by rail.

June 17th game vs Italy in Kaiserslauten. This city K-town is close to the giant US military base at Ramstein and the area home to over 100,000 US personal and their familes. I remember I had to come here twice, the second time for the Australia vs Italy Round of 16 game, and I stayed in Mainz about 40 minutes away on high speed train. The accommodations were limited in this area but with the high speed rail it was easy to get around. But again in the 5 days between games I actually went to Amsterdam, Belgium and Luxembourg before heading back to Germany for this game.

June 22nd game vs Ghana in Nuremberg. This game was the further away from the last city, but still from the previous game, it was at most a 4hr ride on the high speed rail. In fact the longest high speed trip I took was from the far south of Germany in Munich to Hamburg in the far north. This was about 6hrs on the train. Again another reason why Germany was the ultimate host for the world cup. It had modern stadiums, great infrastructure, well organized helpers and security and easy to get around. Looking at how FIFA have awarded the rights since germany it seems no consideration is given to the fans and the difficult task of traveling to follow their national team. Brazil is huge, Russia for 2018 is huge and Qatar in 2022 well let me just say I hope it gets pulled and awarded to the USA. Even then the USA has horribly slow trains but its possible to get from one side of the country to the other in less than 72hrs by train/car/bus.

The 2010 Draw put the USA in Rustenburg, Johannesburg, and Pretoria. Rustenberg is listed as 125km from Johannesburg and about a 2hr drive. So these cities were easy to get between even within the contest of a game day. Pretoria is listed as 70km from Johannesburg again a simple day trip. The longest distance in south Africa is between the 2 main cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg, these is train service between these, along with airplane and bus service that can easily be done in less than the 5 days between games. Also anyone going to South Africa should visit these 2 main cities during the stay, see more of the country than just soccer stadiums.

So lets look at if the USA was drawn as an E3 for the 2014 Brazil cup. The games would be June 15th in Porto Alegre, June 20th in Salvador, and June 25th in Rio de Janeiro. Porto Alegre is the most south of the host cities and in June it is going to be “cold” that time of year with average temperatures of about 20C, or 68F. The distance to Salvardor is about 3,000km (2000 miles) and I don’t think any sane person would drive this who is not a local and given the condition of brazilian roads, so flying would be the next best option. Looking up a plane ticket for a trip 3 weeks from now in Mid-August 2013 I find a fare of $283 on Gol Airlines, with a stopover in Rio making the total trip 5hrs. We would have to expect that airfares will be higher and capacity limited during the World Cup. Salvador to Rio is about 1,500km, listed as an 18hr drive. There are buses that run between these cities as I know people who have taken this route before and it can be upwards of 24hrs travel time.

If the USA was drawn as a C2 the schedule would line up June 14th Belo Horizonte, June 19th Natal, June 24th Fortaleza. From Belo Horizonte to Natal is about 2,200km, or listed as a 28hr car ride. Again this is far and not something of interest to most travelers. Lets just say for those people who have not been to Brazil and think it would be like renting a car and driving from say Chicago to Miami which is about the same distance, lets just look at the cost of gasoline. In Brazil gasoline is about 2.80 Real for 1 Liter. I find on the Sixt rent a car site a week long rental of a Chevrolet Celta which is a ultra-compact but great gas mileage (5.4 Liters/100km or about 43 mpg). The gas would be 118 Liters, total cost of R332 or $150 USD. The cost of the week rental I come up with $350 or so. So at $500 this compares to the one-way airfare again found on GOL airlines for a trip 3 weeks from now.. but we can expect all these prices to rise, and I’ve never driven 2,200km in Brazil so I can’t attest to the quality of the roads but I don’t expect them to be USA Eisenhower Interstate quality. Getting from Natal to Fortaleza, now this is totally easy to do in the 5 days between games at a listed distance of less than 600km, or a time of 7hrs.

So I guess what I’ve been trying to say in the last few paragraphs is that traveling around to follow your team with a TST ticket will be difficult no matter if your team is USA, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, etc.. And you have to hope that your team does NOT get drawn in a group that plays in Cuiaba or Manaus, as these cities are in the middle of the Brazilian no-where land.

More posts to come about my planning for the trip to the 2014 World Cup