Puts Cardiff into Perspective

[Leezer]

From the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... al-tickets

Champions League final ticket £225, bus to Wembley £349• Manchester United sponsor sells packages for £574
• Keith Prowse offer final hospitality for more than £3,800



Premier League football fans are quite used to paying through their noses for tickets but, much to the anger of supporter groups, there was only one way for Manchester United's followers to get a seat for the Champions League final on the open market on Thursday – and it involved paying £574 for a return coach trip and dinner.

Thomas Cook Sport, one of United's sponsors, were selling packages for that sum despite a face value on the tickets of £225. It means the bus trip down the M6 to Wembley (admittedly stopping at the Michelin-starred restaurant Le Gavroche en route) costs £349 – a pretty expensive way to travel in anyone's book.

The packages, which include an alternative option of paying £499 plus the cost of a match ticket to travel by train and stay overnight in a London hotel, were on offer to all United members, whereas the vast majority of the 25,000 allocation from Uefa for the final will go into a ballot for season-ticket holders.

"It is only a small number of tickets but it's the principle," said a spokesman for the Manchester United Supporters' Trust. "To get a ticket for the Champions League final from the club you either have to be a season-ticket holder who has been to all the cup games and, preferably, all the Champions League away games. Then you take your chances in the ballot. Or you can pay a large amount for a coach trip that guarantees you a ticket."

The packages sold out in three hours, a Thomas Cook Sport spokesman said. But even the price of the costly coach trip pales alongside the hospitality offerings. Keith Prowse was offering hospitality packages for £3,190 per person plus VAT. A seat in a Wembley "Sky box" with the firm will set you back £4,290 plus VAT.

United argue that Thomas Cook are entitled to a proportion of tickets, which they put at less than 1% of the total available, as part of their sponsorship deal with the club and are free to sell them as they wish.

Uefa's president, Michel Platini, has already had to apologise for the high price of tickets to the final, which cost between £80 and £300. The cheapest of the 11,000 tickets on general sale was £150, forcing Platini to promise a review ahead of next season.

The 25,000 tickets allocated to each club are priced at £300, £225, £150 and £80. A further 11,000 were sold to the general public and 25,000 are accounted for by the Uefa "football family".

Only those United season-ticket holders who have attended all 10 home cup ties will be permitted to enter the ballot, with priority given to those who have attended Champions League away matches. If any tickets remain after successful applicants have been notified on 13 May, there will be a second ballot.

Successful Manchester United fans will each be forced to collect their tickets individually from Old Trafford under measures to prevent tickets getting into the wrong hands. The last time United reached the Champions League final, in 2009, a number of tickets went missing in the post.

[TerenureJim]

Good god those are some incredible prices.