All English Finals

[Smiley Culture]

It’s bollocks. It happens every single year, regardless of who is in the Final and it’s tiresome. No mention of hotels in Cardiff charging up to £1,000 a night in 2017 though, it doesn’t fit the narrative, does it?

It’ll happen next summer with the Euros, too. 

[Burning Gold]

On 10/05/2019 at 16:00, Stan said:

It is pretty shambolic all-round really. The location, the allocations, the prices of tickets, the prices of hotels and flights, the ticket resales etc. 

Would say that for any club that had to go through it as well. Totally unfair on the fans that have lived through every moment of the campaign yet only a select few that can afford it get the chance to make the (long) journeys. 

I wonder how much the clubs can actually do though - subsidise ticket prices? I doubt there's much they can do about the flights aside from sorting out away travel packages with an official partner (Liverpool use Thomas Cook I think?). 

Or UEFA could just not be cunts, increase allocations for fans over corporate lot, and be a bit more sensitive that not everyone is absolutely minted to arrange stuff like this at short notice.  

I think you're overestimating the control UEFA have over this. They don't set the prices of flights or hotels and, while I'm sure we all have our opinions on how to tackle ticket touts, they'll always find a way.

One thing UEFA can do is select the venues better. I've never been to Baku, but I'd be surprised if they have the infrastructure of some of Europe's more attractive cities. Can the airports and hotels handle the mass of people as well as the likes of Paris, London, etc.? This all affects prices. More importantly, it's an absolute disgrace to host the final in a city where there are legitimate concerns over a player's safety.

I have been to Madrid and it's shit.

Then there's the stadiums themselves. Both hold about 68,000 people. That's simply not enough, especially when they're giving away so many tickets to corporate sponsors. Of course prices for the remaining tickets are going to skyrocket. For the Champions League final, there's a bigger (better) stadium about 15 minutes away and it's ridiculous that it's not being played there.

[Stan]

15 minutes ago, Burning Gold said:

I think you're overestimating the control UEFA have over this. They don't set the prices of flights or hotels and, while I'm sure we all have our opinions on how to tackle ticket touts, they'll always find a way.

One thing UEFA can do is select the venues better. I've never been to Baku, but I'd be surprised if they have the infrastructure of some of Europe's more attractive cities. Can the airports and hotels handle the mass of people as well as the likes of Paris, London, etc.? This all affects prices. More importantly, it's an absolute disgrace to host the final in a city where there are legitimate concerns over a player's safety.

I have been to Madrid and it's shit.

Then there's the stadiums themselves. Both hold about 68,000 people. That's simply not enough, especially when they're giving away so many tickets to corporate sponsors. Of course prices for the remaining tickets are going to skyrocket. For the Champions League final, there's a bigger (better) stadium about 15 minutes away and it's ridiculous that it's not being played there.

I know UEFA don't control that particular aspect but as you say they do control the location so as a result, they're surely going to think about the knock on effect of prices for fans. 

To be fair to Baku, it has vastly improved in how it can handle big events. The fact there's an F1 race there now has really boosted the popularity of the city and it's not just some run-down city in a country. They can handle big events like this but the ticket allocation is based on how many people the airport can handle I think? Which is where UEFA could think about it more logistically and not pick a city that has a small airport... 

Definitely agree about the player safety thing though. 

[Azeem]

Baku hosted the European Games as well a few years back