I have no idea how much I would spend for a quality ticket to see this year’s Champions League Final. It’s a moot point as I wouldn’t be able to travel to London for the match but it’s a fun topic to discuss.
The cheapest ticket for this Saturday’s showdown between Manchester United and Barcelona at Wembley Stadium is £150 – but touts (aka scalpers) are offering them for up to £7,000 on the black market. A quick Internet search returned hits for several websites offering tickets from £1900 to £3000.
With 55,000 season-ticket holders at United and 150,000 members at Barca, the demand for tickets for this season’s final is huge. UEFA.com indicates that “Each finalist club is entitled to take up to 25,000 tickets, which will be distributed directly to their supporters.” That leaves 36,000 tickets at UEFA’s discretion. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson criticized the ticketing structure, claiming that loyal supporters ultimately lose out as UEFA puts sponsors and dignitaries ahead of them. 25,000 tickets are for those VIPs.
The remaining 11,000 were sold via an application process, which included a £26 admin charge per ticket. It is many of these tickets that are now being offered for sale online as touts try to exploit the huge demand from both sets of fans.
On the other end of the spectrum, Champions League sponsors Opel have produced a rather clever marketing campaign which has gone viral in Spain. Opel sent a rather sketchy looking “tout” to walk the streets of the Catalan capital, near the Nou Camp, with authentic tickets for the Champions League Final.
The tout was offering a single ticket for 10 euros…watch what happens:
