Tickets go on Sale… What..?? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Tickets go on Sale… What..?? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Well, unbeknownst to me, and at odds with any information I have previously found on the FIFA website, or any other site on the internet come to that, the first of the ticket sales phases for World Cup 2018 Russia has started…??

The Sales Phases are organised as follows:

Sales Phase 1

-     Random Selection Lottery Period – From 14^th September to 12^th October 2017

-     First Come, First Served Period – From 14^th November to 28^th November 2017

Sales Phase 2

-     Random Selection Lottery Period – From 5^th December 2017 to 31^st January 2018

-    First Come, First Served Period – From 13^th March to 3^rd April 2018

Last Minute Sales Phase – From 18^th April to 15^th July 2018

So that means that Yates and I need to sort our ticketing strategy to make the most of the 5 available opportunities we have to buy tickets. We need a ticketing strategy as we are after tickets for 8 location-specific matches, split between St. Petersburg & Moscow, for up to 8 people. This is a problem in itself as applicants can only apply for a max of up to 7 matches, and for a maximum of up to 4 tickets per match. But we have a cunning plan…..

If ticketing works out the way it has over the past handful of World Cups, we will get some of the tickets we want in each sales phase, with the only real sticking point being getting our hands on tickets for the World Cup Final, which we have been unable to do for the past 6 World Cup Tournaments. But we will be in Moscow at the time of the Final and will try everything we can to get are sweaty little hands on those oh so elusive Finals tickets…. 

Wish us luck…!

Say Hello to the World Cup Stadiums: World Cup 2018 Russia

Say Hello to the World Cup Stadiums: World Cup 2018 Russia

Credit: Knowledge Tube (link)

Ticketing & Fan-ID Visa Travel: World Cup 2018 Russia

Ticketing & Fan-ID Visa Travel: World Cup 2018 Russia

Here is a short update regarding ticketing timeframes and the proposed FAN-ID Travel Visa Waiver details.

Now that this year’s Confederations Cup has successful completed in Russia, and Germany have once again successfully walked away with yet another trophy, it is time to keep an eye out for more detail about the ticketing process for 2018. At the back end of last week, TASS, the state approved news agency for Russia, announced that the draw for the group stage of the 2018 World Cup will take place on Friday, December 1 at the State Kremlin Palace inside the Moscow Kremlin. This is completely in line with timetable of previous world cups draws, so no surprises there. What was surprising though was that on the same day, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko announced that tickets for the 2018 FIFA World Cup will go on sale on Friday, December 1, effectively after the World Cup Draw has taken place…!!

This is a MASSIVE bombshell..! Since we started our World Cup tournament odyssey, match tickets were already on sale, and sometimes even two sales phases in, well before the Finals draw was made. In 2006 in Germany we were already buying tickets in May, well over a year before the tournament kicked off, and in 2010 in South Africa & 2014 in Brazil, we already purchased the majority of the match tickets we wanted before the World Cup Finals draw was even made.

“So what the problem with that…?”

Well, this means that anyone interested in going to the World Cup in 2018 will know exactly who is playing who for every match, and therefore applying for the games they really want to see. 

“And why is that such a problem…?”

Well, I think we have always had a bit of an advantage over those people that wanted to know the draw before ordering tickets, in that we could buy tickets for specific locations in the early sales phase when no one knew who was playing in that match, and there was, in theory, less demand. Now, if one of the matches we want to see in St. Petersburg or Moscow have the hosts, or one of the favourites playing, there will be much more demand for those tickets. I can see this causing us a possible headache in December when we want to buy tickets…!!

In other, slightly more positive news, details about the use of the mandated FAN-ID process and how they are to be used as Travel Visa’s to get in to Russia next year are beginning to seep out. Firstly, Russian media have reported that it takes only 72 hours to process an application for a FAN-ID, which is great for those of us that need one issued before we can enter into Russia. Assuming that we get some tickets in the early part of the initial sales phase, (starting December 1st 2017), then it should only be a matter of weeks after our ticket order is accepted before we can apply for our FAN-IDs,and they arrive in our mailbox, which will hopefully be months before we start our travels towards Russia in May.

Secondly, and it depends on which news source you read, the FAN-ID will be valid for entry into Russia 10 days before the tournament starts and for 10 days after, which is just about perfect for us. There is some confusion around this as I have also read that the FAN-ID will be valid for travel into Russia 10 days before, and after the date of the first/last game for which you have a ticket purchased from FIFA.com…. Whilst this is a little more restrictive in terms of timings, as we are aiming to arrive in St. Petersburg on the 6^th June and the first game we want tickets for is on the 15^th, (9 days before), and the last game we want to attend is on the 11^th July, (assuming we cannot get tickets for the Final on 15^th), and we are planning on leaving Russia on the 19^th July (8 days after), we should be okay. So it appears that we should be able to get our FAN-IDs issued well before we need them and that they will cover us for entry & exit to Russia in the time we are proposing to be there… 

It's not all bad news....

Accommodation Done: World Cup 2018 Russia

Accommodation Done: World Cup 2018 Russia

Since the last post we have nailed down our accommodation for Russia 2018, well at least I hope we have…?

As with the last World Cup in Brazil, I have been looking at AirBnB as the primary resource for accommodation in Russia, mainly because it’s more economical than hotels and apartments, and there is a better choice & selection available. The trouble with trying to book something this far out from next year’s competition, is that many owners have not considered their pricing for 2018, and the closer we get the more expensive it can become, plus there is more incentive for owners to "Bump" reservations and put their prices up. I guess this has always been a potential problem for us when booking non-hotel type accommodation, but we have just been lucky so far...

The more I thought about trying to shoe-horn in a week or 2 in Finland, or even base ourselves there for the early stages of the World Cup, the more of a logistical problem it became. With 4 games in St. Petersburg and 3 of them being evening games, meant that travelling back to Finland after the games would mean some late nights, or even having to find somewhere to stay for the evening. In the end I decided that it would be easier to get a long term rental on an apartment for almost 3 weeks in St. Petersburg and base ourselves there.

With this in mind, I started to look at splitting our time between St. Petersburg & Moscow and drew up a shortlist of suitable AirBnB accommodation for a potential group of up to 8 people in each location, and reached out to a small handful of places to see if we can get the accommodation locked down. As a backup, I also took a look at hotel type apartments that are less likely to "bump" our reservation once booked, and it allowed us the flexibility to book a different size hotel rooms to accommodate additional people that may want to join us in Russia. I shared the shortlist of about 6 potential AirBnB places with Yates and we came up with our favourites and I started the booking process.

Within a period of about 2 weeks at the end of May, I managed to book an 8 people apartment in the heart of St. Petersburg for 22 days, (7^th June to 29^th June), and a similar sized apartment in central Moscow for 20 days, (29^th June to 19^th July). Both apartments were within our proposed budget and give us flexibility in terms of accommodating various combination of potential guests during our time in Russia. Additionally, both apartments are within easy walking distance to the centre of each city, and well located for public transport for getting to the various stadiums, and I have my fingers-crossed that when the Fan-Zones are announced that we will be pretty close to those as well.  RESULT…!!

So now that the accommodation is sorted, time to starting thinking about the next hurdle to overcome, ticketing. There is still no new information coming out of FIFA about tickets, but with the Confederations Cup now underway, but I am expecting that we will get more news in the next month or so. However, we can now be a bit more specific about the 8 matches we will be targeting for tickets:

St.Petersburg & Moscow
Match	Location	Time	Teams	CAT2 $
M4	St. Petersburg	18.00	B3vB4	$       165
M17	St. Petersburg	21.00	RUSvA3	$       165
M25	St. Petersburg	15.00	E1vE3	$       165
M39	St. Petersburg	21.00	D4vD1	$       165
M51	Moscow Luzhniki	17.00	1Bv2A	$       185
M56	Moscow Spartak	21.00	1Hv2G	$       185
M62	Moscow Luzhniki	21.00	W59vW60	$       480
M64	Moscow Luzhniki	18.00	W61vW62	$       710
			Cost per person (US$)	$    2,220

If my memory is correct regarding previous World Cups, we could only buy a max of 7 sets of tickets per person, which may be a problems as we want to 8 matches. This could be further compounded by the additional identity authentication process with FAN-ID, making it significantly more risky trying to buy tickets in the name of someone not attending the matches. I have a few cunning strategies up my sleeve, but until more information is announced, there is no point in worrying about it…

In other news, as is our tradition, Fiona and I have booked our pre-World Cup Trip, where we go somewhere as part of our travel to the World Cup host country. In previous years we have indulged our love of travel and spent a couple of weeks in Tunisia, Namibia, and Chile, all of which have a decidedly ‘desert’ ambiance to them. So in order to continue the theme, for 2018 we are going to head to Alice Springs in mid-May, and spend 2 weeks driving an RV to Sydney through the ‘Red Centre’, stopping off to see Uluru and some other sights on the way. This is an adventure that Fiona and I have always wanted and now is as good a time as any..!  On the way back from the World Cup this time, our plan is to first head to Barcelona for a week to celebrate Fiona’s 50^th Birthday, and then stop off somewhere in either Asia or South America, depending on which way round the world our flights take, on our way back to Christchurch.

As you can imagine, excitement is beginning to build.

All Quiet on the Russian Front: World Cup 2018 Russia

All Quiet on the Russian Front: World Cup 2018 Russia

Well, it's all quiet on the Russian Front right now. There is minimal new information coming out of Russia about the plans for the World Cup in 2018, so there is not a lot for me to report on. I am waiting until this year’s Confederations Cup tournament to be completed before I expect to see any further information about tickets, ticket sales phases, and city fan-zone details.

Looking at the details of the Confederations Cup is usually a good pointer for the way things are going to run for the actual World Cup in 2018.  The Ticket Sales Phases for the Confederations Cup are as follows:

• VISA Pre-Sale
• Random Selection Draw
• First Come First Served
• Last Minute Sales

The above breakdown is very similar to previous World Cups so I would expect that the VISA Pre-Sale to kick off in November this year, with the Random Selection phase running from December through January 2018. The First Come/First Served phase I expect to happen in March & April, with the Last Minute phase from April thru July.

An extra step required for this World Cup will be the requirement to get a Russian issued “Fan-ID”, which they are trialling for the Confederations Cup.

The “Fan-ID” is a personalised visitor card, required by Russian legislation, that we will need in addition to our tickets. This identity card is issued for each visitor and is obligatory for all ticket owners. For foreigners, the “Fan-ID”  also gives a right to visa-free entrance to Russia as well. The “Fan-ID” may also give us free transport options on match days. To get a “Fan-ID” you first need to buy valid tickets for the world cup from the FIFA website and receive a confirmation, after which you can apply for a “Fan-ID” and either pick it up, or get it delivered in the mail.

On the planning front, the latest idea is to spend 2-3 weeks in St. Petersburg, and then 2-3 weeks in Moscow, which will allow us to see up to 8 matches including the Final, (subject to getting tickets of course). I like the idea of Staying in Finland and then travelling to the games in St. Petersburg, but in the end it would be inconvenient to get back to Finland from the evening games, meaning that would probably have ended up staying in the city on those days anyway. Fiona & I may spend a week or so in Finland before we meet up with Yates in St. Petersburg, so we won’t be missing out.

In terms of our teams qualifying for the World Cup in Russia, England continue to flatter themselves with another win to keep them the top of their group in the European qualifiers. It is always the same, England do very well in the qualification stage, but never seem to get it together in the actual competition, will this time be any different...? The USA on the other hand, have had a lousy qualification so far, but they did manage a draw against Panama to get them into 4^th place, but they will need to step-it-up if they want to be in the top 3 to get that automatic qualification place. New Zealand are on the top of group A in their qualification battle in the Oceania

group, which gives them a playoff against whoever wins Group B, and then a playoff against the 5^th best team in the South American group, which is currently Argentina…!!! If it’s not Argentina, then it could be either Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, or Peru, either way, I don’t hold out too much hope…. 

Come on you All Whites…

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.....