By George Utley, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At midnight tonight, FIFA will release around 180,000 World Cup tickets, the last batch of admissions to go on sale before the tournament kicks off on June 12th. Tickets will be made available on a first come first served basis for all 64 matches being played in Brazil’s twelve host cities.
The seats are open to the public at the last minute thanks to the release of “buffered” tickets; held back until the construction of stadiums was completed, and capacities were confirmed. FIFA has also acknowledged that there has been short demand for the reduced mobility seats, and has made some of these available to the general public, whilst retaining a smaller allocation in every stadium.
The tournament’s organizers are hoping to avoid a repeat of the swathes of empty seats seen at several matches in South Africa 2010. FIFA were forced into an emergency fire-sale of discounted tickets, as poor distribution and stay-away ticket-holders were blamed for low attendances at various group games.
The admissions will be made available to fans in Brazil all over the world through www.FIFA.com/tickets, with prices for non-Brazilians starting at US$90. After they have sold out, football lovers will still be able to purchase unwanted tickets from FIFA’s online resale platform. The Venue Ticketing Center in Botafogo will continue selling any available tickets right up until the day of the Final on July 13th.
Starting Wednesday, June 4th fans will also be able to purchase available tickets in one of the twelve FIFA Venue Ticketing Centres, which are:
– Belo Horizonte – Boulevard Shopping : Av. dos Andradas,3.000, Santa Efigênia
– Brasília – Centro de Convenções Ulysses Guimarães: SDC Eixo Monumental – Lote 05
– Cuiabá – Shopping Pantanal – Av. Historiador Rubens de Mendonça, 3300 – Jardim Aclimação
– Curitiba – Patio Batel Shopping: Av. do Batel, 1.868 – Batel
– Fortaleza – Centro de Eventos do Ceará: Av. Washington Soares nº 999, Portão E – Edson Queiroz
– Manaus – Centro Cultural dos Povos da Amazônia: Praça Francisco Pereira da Silva, s/n°
– Natal – Shopping Cidade Jardim: Av. Eng. Roberto Freire, 2920 – Capim Macio
– Porto Alegre – Barra Shopping Sul: Av. Diário de Notícias, 300 – Cristal
– Recife – Shopping Recife: R. Padre Carapuceiro, 777, Edifício Garagem B1, Boa Viagem
– Rio de Janeiro – Casarão General Severiano: Av. Venceslau Brás, 72 – Botafogo
– Salvador – Iguatemi Shopping: Av. Tancredo Neves, 148, Estacionamento I-1
– São Paulo – Ginásio do Ibirapuera (Quadra Lateral) R. Manoel da Nóbrega, 1361, Paraíso
However “Fans don’t need to queue at the FIFA Venue Ticketing Centers – if they want tickets to the matches which are currently temporarily unavailable, all they need to do is to access FIFA.com/tickets from the first minute of Wednesday June 4th. The sale of this new lot starts at midnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, Brasília local time. Sales occur on a first come, first served basis,” explains Thierry Weil, FIFA’s Marketing Director.
Read more (in Portuguese).
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