Thing are Starting to Come Together: World Cup 2018 Russia

Thing are Starting to Come Together: World Cup 2018 Russia

The organisation committee for Russian WC2018 have released some information about ticketing, and on the whole it looks positive. The ticket prices are very similar to those of the matches in Brazil last time out. There will be Individual / Team Specific / Venue Specific ticket series, which is the same as for the past 3 or 4 World Cups. The only less-than positive news is that the sales dates for the tickets will not be announced until after the 2017 Confederations Cup, which doesn’t finish until early July in 2017. This is not necessarily a big problem, but it just condenses the period over which we will need to be on high alert for buying tickets online.

Ticket Prices ($USD)  CAT 1     CAT 2     CAT 3

Opening Match               550         390        220

Group Matches               210         165        105

Round of 16                   245         185        115

Quarters Finals               365         255        175

Semi's  Finals                 750         480        285

3rd/4th Place                 365         255        175

Final                            1100         710        455

I am still favouring the 2 or 3 location approach, but after the recent coup attempt, Turkey has dropped off my radar. I have taken a look at some places in Finland, close to the Russian boarder, where there are some very nice looking summer houses in that area.  I have also looked at Moscow given that it has 2 stadiums and 12 games in total, and as both of the Moscow stadiums are on the outer western side of the city, (Luzhniki Stadium to the SW & Spartak Stadium to the NW), this opens up a huge swathe of the Russian countryside within a few hours drive… 

So what am I thinking…?

We fly into Helsinki around 8-10th June, rent a car, and drive a couple of 100 km’s to stay somewhere close to Lappeenranta and the Russian boarder. Having a car allows us to travel around this unique & scenic part of Finland when there are no games to attend. To get to St. Petersburg we can either drive the 230 kms (3hrs+ each way), or we can catch a high speed train to St. Petersburg from Vainikkala for match-days, choosing to stay the night in the city for the

late games. If we stayed in Finland until 29th June, this would allow us to see 4 Group games, (2 afternoon, 2 evening) in St Petersburg. On or around the 29th June, we either fly or take the high speed train to Moscow, and stay through to around the 16th July, (18 nights), staying at an apartment or hotel, allowing us

to attend a maximum of 4 further games, (including the final). This approach gives us a chance to attend 8 games including the final. Alternatively, we reverse the locations, stay in Moscow first, and then head to Finland for the later stages, that increases the number of possible games to 12.

The same sort of approach could be taken by flying into Talin in Estonia, staying somewhere in the east of Estonia, and  travelling to St. Petersburg for the group stage games, before transferring to Moscow for the latter half of the tournament. The transport infrastructure is not quite so well established in Estonia, so travelling might be a bit more arduous.

Still mulling around a few idea’s so nothing is set in stone, and I am open to persuasion on any other suggestions I get. More news to come.

First Thoughts: Planning for World Cup 2018 Russia

First Thoughts: Planning for World Cup 2018 Russia

It’s time to get my thinking cap on and start the planning process for Russia 2018.

If I am honest with you, given the current political climate I was hoping that FIFA may have changed their mind about holding such a prestigious event in Russia, and that the Sepp Blatter/FIFA revelations of last year would have called into question the way the location was chosen. As I see it, they have gone too far down the preparations road to be able to change it now, so it looks like Russia is it. 

An added complication to the planning process is the fact that my partner Fiona still is hesitant about spending any time in Russia, primarily she thinks all Russian are evil and that the country is a fundamentally dangerous place to be. I don’t necessarily agree with her, but I am trying to respect her wishes. 

Personally I don't have that much of an issue with Russia as it adds yet another country to the long list of places that I would never had chosen to travel to. I doubt that the media's portrayal of Putin is particularly representative of the whole Russian population, and I am sure that the majority of the Russian people are just as friendly as those of any other country we have traveled to. I am absolutely certain that there are places of stunning beauty and abject poverty in Russia, much the same as anywhere we have been in our world cup adventures, (South Africa & Brazil are great examples)

In recent weeks, Fiona has become more flexible about stepping foot on Russian soil, but even I am not in favour of spending the full 6 weeks of the competition in a Russian city  We haven’t stayed in a single city location at a world cup since 2002 in Korea, so I have started considering a split location approach as we have done for the past 3 world cups.

Beyond Moscow, there are other cities with games that may be more attractive to visit, such as St. Petersburg, (7 games) & Sochi, (6 Games). St Petersburg is one of the greatest cities in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage site and conveniently located only 200kms from the Finnish boarder. Sochi is a resort city on the Black Sea, the location of the 2014 Winter Olympics, and a 1 hour flight/6 hour ferry trip away from Northern Turkey or even Greece. To cast a wider net, Estonia & Latvia are all border countries that I might consider, (not too dodgy) and even Belarus, (dodgier), at a push, but Poland and Ukraine, (both well dodgy) don’t score very highly on my list. 

So when everything is considered, my current favoured plan would be to have a combination of staying inside and outside Russia, and/or travelling to the games we get tickets for. This could mean spending a couple of weeks either in St. Petersburg, (or close by in Finland), a couple of weeks in Sochi, (or close by in Turkey/Greece), with the option to fly in and out of Moscow, (or any other city) for specific games. If we take this approach, it will increase the internal travel costs, and we will be playing "match ticket roulette" again, but we have had good success at that particular problem in the past.

Plenty to think about.....

Welcome to Spiglords World Cup Blog for Russia 2018

Welcome to Spiglords World Cup Blog for Russia 2018....

This is the seventh episode in the quadrennial pilgrimage where myself, (Spiglord) and my good friend Yates, plus our respective partners, siblings or friends travel halfway around the globe in search of World Cup Football. This craziness started in 1994 with a trip to the USA, and has been followed up with trips to France in 98, Korea in 2002, Germany in 2006, South Africa in 2010, and the last episode in Brazil 2014.

Whilst we have known that the next World Cup was going to be in Russia for the last 6 years, the great thing about this mad odyssey is that ultimately we do not choose the destination, and over the past 22 years we have ended up travelling to towns, cities and even countries, we would never ever have gone to of own accord. We have stayed in what I now think was a brothel in South Korea, a pigeon loft in France, a bush lodge in South Africa and a penthouse apartment in Brazil. We have eaten and drunk our way through the various cuisines of the places we have visited, and enjoyed the hospitality & friendship of acquaintances & strangers along the way. We have seen world heritage sites, impressive art, unbelievable landscapes, fantastic beaches, historic buildings, and stunning sunsets, plus over 40 games of world cup football.

Why do we do this…?

Personally, I have an enduring love of travel and adventure that has been part of my life from the very first time I stepped on to an airplane. As a teenager, my father took the whole family off to live in Italy in 1976, and I loved every single minute of my time there, always feeling at home there, never missing my old friends or ever being encumbered by a sense of missing England. From there I went back to the UK, but travel was always an itch I was always wanting to scratch, and when the chance came to leave London and head over to the USA, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and never looked back. Since then I have continued to make my way around the globe and have ended up locating myself in New Zealand, which I am glad to call my home.

Inter-weaved into this wanderlust has been a love of the ’Beautiful Game’, which was well established in me long before the travelling started, but was somehow more deeply and keenly improved by the travel, the places I have lived and the people I have met along the way. Key amongst the people I have met on my journey is ‘Yates S Williams III’, with whom I have shared this World Cup odyssey since 1994. Yates is an unusual ‘brother-in-arms’ for these trips, in

that he is an American who is not only very comfortable travelling the world, but also possesses a keen an interest in football, a most uncommon combination. I somehow think that Yates and I would be strong friends regardless of the football, as we share a common interest in food, beer, bars etc…! Looking back on over my life, I have always wanted to see what was over the horizon, or to immerse myself in to another culture or country at every opportunity, and if I could get to see a football match along the way, all the better.

So what next…?

Stay tuned as I figure out our plans for Russia 2018 and the proposed travel plans associated with this episode of Spiglords World Cup Blog.