Thousands of World Cup tickets unsold; hotels complain

[Kire]

Thousands of World Cup tickets unsold; hotels complain
May 17, 2006, 14:41 GMT

Berlin - Tens of thousands of World Cup hospitality tickets remain unsold, including many for the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica in three weeks' time, reports said Wednesday.

The newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said a total of 70,000 tickets bought by the Swiss marketing company ISE for 170 million euros (215 million dollars) had not been sold.

The World Cup Organizing Committee has urged ISE to return unsold tickets so they can be sold on the open market, averting empty rows of seats at the World Cup stadiums.

The newspaper said ISE had been left sitting on 13,000-15,000 VIP tickets for Germany's three group stage matches, beginning with the game against Costa Rica in Munich on June 9.

More: http://sport.monstersandcritics.com/worldcup2006/news/article_1164656.php/Thousands_of_World_Cup_tickets_unsold_hotels_complain

[Kellanved]

1. It's a kickback deal

ISE is affiliated with the FIFA, reports suggest that the tickets will be sold to Fifa staffers at a discount. It gets better, as those tickets are supposed to be unpersonalized; unlike normal tickets, the ISE tickets can be traded on the black market.

The whole Fifa and their exclusive deals are rather sickening, especially when one considers that FIFA is not actually paying anything.