re: Is it just me or is the World Cup going to be a gigantic flop?

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Here in Atlanta.. I'm hearing that there are still a lot of rooms available in the hotels..

that is not a good sign - I just feel like this thing is going to be a flop with a lot of empty seats

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This is easily verifiable by looking at the ticket market.

Using Atlanta as an example, how do tickets look? What's the cost for a decent ticket?

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Yes, I smell a flop in the U.S. anyway. Will be a bigger deal in Mexico and Canada

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They’re facing the same unaffordable ticket issues the US is

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People aren't traveling to America because they are scared to death to travel here.

Stop watching cnn

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If there’s one thing you can count on from Fox News they would never show scare mongering crime porn about big cities

That’s no joke. I’m in Houston and looked up tix for Germany in opening group. Came down $200 but still $400. Not a big soccer fan but paid that for WS tickets.

Try to buy a ticket then, dumb arse. Do some actual research before posting.

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groups of 5

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Groups have to be even for what should be obvious reasons

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NOLA

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Which of those do you disagree with?

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People here don’t seem to care nearly as much as the last time it was here.

Tourism to the US in general has fallen off a cliff.

Ticket prices seem unreasonably inflated by FIFA, to put it mildly.

Yes, I smell a flop in the U.S. anyway. Will be a bigger deal in Mexico and Canada.

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Both Canada and Mexico are having the same issues as the U.S. It's already been reported that ticket sales in Canada for any game not involving Canada have been very slow and hotel booking are way off. Any game in Canda and Mexico that doesn't involve the host country is struggling to sell tickets.

The problem is two fold. One, this tourney is way too spread out with too many sites. It makes it impossible for visiting international fans to really attend outside of maybe one group game and then maybe a game in the knockout stages when it gets to that point.

Two, with the lack of visiting international fans, it's locals who need to fill the stands. Honestly, I imagine the majority of the crowd at any of the World Cup group stage games are locals. International fans typically aren't going to come in large numbers until the knockout stage. But with the insane ticket prices, Americans aren't going unless they are diehard.

I'm in the same boat as many previous posters. I was excited about getting the World Cup. I honestly don't really remember much of World Cup 1994 as I was 10 at the time. But I heard the atmosphere was great.

FIFA had the opportunity to break attendance records with this tournament and turn it into a huge success, but they screwed up.

I live near Orlando and was looking at going to a match in Miami or Atlanta. But I'm not paying $500 to go to Spain vs Cape Verde in Atlanta or $300 for Morocco vs Haiti in Atlanta. I'm sure as h*ll not paying $400 to go to Saudi Arabia vs Uruguay in Miami or a ridiculous $2,500 for Colombia vs Portugal in Miami.

And remember, these are get in prices for the nose bleed seats. I can only imagine what halfway decent tickets are going for.

I'm going to still check Miami and Atlanta games to see if the prices go down like crazy closer to the games, but at this point I have no desire to go to any of the games at these prices and it's definitely impacted my excitement for the World Cup.

In terms of ratings and profit, the World Cup will be successful. But unless something big changes, I think culturally and in terms of in person attendance, this World Cup will be a flop. And it didn't have to be if FIFA had just priced their tickets at any reasonable rate.

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I get it from a logistical standpoint. It gives the U.S. an advantage to play in one time zone and stay in that time zone

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Is changing one time zone over 4 days really a disadvantage when you're 27 years old? That's grasping at straws imo.