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The schedule and the ticketing - FIFA f**ks the fans yet again

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    The schedule and the ticketing - FIFA f**ks the fans yet again

    Just looking at the schedule and taking England's alone - first game in Nice, second game in Le Havre, third game back to Nice. I mean, they couldn't have done any better here at consciously fucking the fans over in terms of inconvenience, could they? Unless they'd pushed the Le Havre game on to Calais instead. Cameroon starts in Montpellier, plays its second game in Valenciennes, then goes back to Montpellier. Etc.

    Meanwhile there's outrage in the US especially at the ticketing fiasco - fans who ordered block tickets have been told there's no guarantee they'll be sitting together. How can that even be possible? There are seats in long rows, up and down, it's really easy. If it's somehow not possible, then there's surely something in the software that can indicate that when people are ordering, not once they've paid for and received their tickets.

    #2
    I'm guessing the ticketing thing is due to pricing categories. These may mean blocks at the same price are isolated from each other. If there are only x many seats left in one block, and the next order is for x + y, then y get dumbly assigned to same price block on the opposite side of the ground.

    As you say, it wouldn't take a particularly sophisticated piece of software to either not assign a whole booking to a block with insufficient space if there is another with the capacity (even if the underserved block was the preferred one to fill), or to flag up to the purchaser if there are no blocks left with enough seats to accommodate an entire booking and a split will be required.

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      #3
      I bought a pair of tickets for the semis and final in Lyon. These have come through as in the same block and row but with seat numbers ten apart. I haven't been able to find a detailed enough seating plan to check whether this is accounted for by being either side of a gangway or some other quirk, but it does rather suggest a basic screw up in the ticketing system.

      But you know, selling tickets for football matches in football stadia really is unknown territory so let's not rush to judge here.

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        #4
        Indeed, Fifa's only been organising tournaments for the best part of a century, so we should definitely hold back on any criticism. Would hate to find that my hard-fought accreditation has been mysteriously withdrawn!

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          #5
          For various reasons, not all within FIFA's control to be fair, I have cancelled my trip to Lyon and can report that the resale section of the ticketing site seems to be working fine. Although I did have to run through the process separately six times for three games due to not being able to tick a box confirming that tickets for the same match were next to each other.

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            #6
            This from The Guardian's account of the England-Scotland game:

            The modest attendance of 13,188 meant there were not so much rows as entire tiers of empty seats. It was disappointing but locals felt aggrieved at all tickets having to be purchased by credit card via Fifa’s approved website. With no option to purchase seats from the stadium box office it is perhaps no surprise so many stayed away.

            So there's that issue as well regarding ticketing. I would be more inclined to go to a local game if walk-up was possible.

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