Fifa Women's World Cup: Why tickets are only just coming back on sale
Tickets, including allocated sales, will go back on sale at 2pm on Tuesday – 100 days before the July 20 tournament kick-off.
Punters will then be able to not only purchase tickets, but also get allocated seats.
So why haven’t they been able to buy for the last month or so?
Fifa’s ticket purchase system is a novel concept for New Zealand sport.
Early bookers for All Blacks tests, for example, can usually buy a preferred seat from the outset. They know from the get-go they’ll be parking the posterior in section 3, aisle 7, seat AA17 in Eden Park’s North Stand.
Fifa’s ticketing system operates differently.
Tickets to the 2023 World Cup in New Zealand and Australia went on sale late last year, but buyers were purchasing tickets, not specific seats.
More tickets were sold in the first six weeks than for the six months before the 2019 tournament in France where 1.1 million tickets were eventually bought.
By mid-January, Fifa reported that more than 500,000 tickets were sold, with chief women’s football officer, New Zealander Sarai Bareman, claiming 2023 would be the biggest and most successful women’s World Cup yet.
Early sales reached 650,000 before Fifa took sales offline about five weeks ago to better facilitate the seating allocation process for each stadium.
It was a process planned from the outset.
“It might seem unusual for tickets to go off sale just months out from a major event, but it’s common for global events of this scale in order to allow seat allocations to take place,’’ Fifa World Cup New Zealand organising committee’s chief operating officer Jane Patterson said.
“The good news is that tickets will go back on sale from 2pm (NZT) on 11 April at the 100 days to go milestone.”
Stuff was told that there were practical reasons for suspending ticket sales during the seat allocation process.
For example, organisers expect up to 20,000 fans to follow the United States, who play their Group E games in Auckland and Wellington.
The Fifa seat allocation system ensures American fans can be seated in the same area to create an atmosphere rather than scattered throughout the stadium.
It’s not just a Team USA perk. The same courtesy will be extended to supporters from other nations. (Bareman told Stuff in January tickets had been sold to 129 countries).
The allocation process also gives organisers a much more accurate idea of spectator numbers and seating sections. They are also able to allocate seats if complimentary tickets are returned.
Before sales went offline, more than 145,000 tickets had been sold for the 29 games in New Zealand.
Fifa officials say: “That’s more that’s more than the whole of the [women’s] Rugby World Cup [in New Zealand last spring], so we’re definitely on track”.
Patterson said there had been strong interest in the New Zealand Football Ferns’ three Group A matches. Jitka Klimkova’s Ferns open the tournament on July 20 at Eden Park against Norway then meet the Philippines in Wellington on July 25 before completing the pools phase in Dunedin against Switzerland on July 30.
Patterson said tickets to see the defending champions USA were in hot demand, with all of their matches expected to sell out.
USA open against Vietnam at Eden Park on July 22 before moving to Wellington on July 27 to play the Netherlands in a repeat of the 2019 final, won 2-0 by the Americans. The defending champions’ last group game will be against Portugal at Eden Park on August 1.
Patterson suggested supporters should have a look at the 29 matches being played in Aotearoa, “so you’re ready to go come Tuesday’’.
“And buy early,’’ she advised. “We can’t guarantee tickets will be available if you leave it too close to kick-off with interest starting to build.”
The old Kiwi ‘she’ll be right, I’ll just rock up on match-day’ won’t work for this World Cup.
Venue ticket offices will not have on-site ticket sales, including on match days, meaning New Zealanders will have to download the Fifa ticketing app and buy online before they head to the stadiums.
