Before the start of the World Cup, Qatar announced that it had arrested the "scalper" who reselled tickets in the World Cup for the first time. Three foreigners were arrested outside the official ticket center of Doha . The statement said that the arrested "scalpers" may face fines: for every ticket sold, the fine can be as high as 250,000 riyals (about 68,000 US dollars).
"Scalper" has always been a gray area under the World Cup ecological chain. The organizer will not crack down on it severely, but will more of a warning. In the Qatar World Cup, scalpers appeared around various stadiums. New Yellow River reporters exchanged with Mr. A and Mr. B. Since the start of the game, their biggest feeling is that "business is not easy", especially compared with the last Russian World Cup, it can be described as "ice and fire". Next comes the key games and knockout rounds, and we look forward to improving.
business is bleak! Only 3 tickets were sold in the opening match
Starting from January 2022, the Qatar World Cup has opened multiple rounds of ticket applications. In August, FIFA announced that 22 Qatar World Cup has sold about 2.45 million tickets, accounting for more than 80% of the number of tickets in the entire department, but the ticket purchase application reached more than 40 million, with a winning rate of only 5%. The last round of ticket sales began in September, when about 500,000 tickets were sold, and by the end of October, nearly 90% of the tickets were sold.
For the World Cup, which has a history of 92 years, this World Cup is held in the Middle East for the first time and is also the first time that the winter match is held in the Northern Hemisphere. It is both mysterious and fresh, attracting more than 1 million fans and tourists from other countries. This is also the reason why Mr. A and Mr. B chose to come here to vote, and they look forward to making some achievements.
A has been engaged in ticketing for many years. Four years ago, Russia was the first time he participated in the World Cup ticket conversion work, and he gained a lot and earned 40,000 to 50,000 a month. Mr. A from the Qatar World Cup and seven or eight colleagues came to Qatar. After the first round of the group stage, he called "the business was bleak."
The single tickets for the Qatar World Cup are divided into four categories, among which the fourth-class tickets are only sold to Qatar residents. The price of the opening match is 200 Qatar Riyals, which is about 392 yuan in RMB. The prices of first-class, second-class and third-class tickets in the opening game are 2250 Qatari Riyal (RMB: 4420), 1600 Qatari Riyal (RMB: 3143), and 1100 Qatari Riyal (RMB: 2161).
A mostly got paper tickets provided by sponsors, and the worst was second-class tickets, but only three were sold in the opening game, which surprised him a little. Entering the group stage, the price of official tickets has dropped. The price of Class I tickets is only 800 Qatar Rials, less than 1,600 yuan. Tickets of other grades are even lower. Mr. A thought he could "show his strength", but he still "no one cares about it."
B has a deep feeling. He also went to Russia four years ago and made a fortune. "The Russian World Cup can be sold for 200 US dollars in any game. Now it's good to sell for 100 US dollars." The bad market makes Mr. B very depressed. "I came to Doha from Thailand and rented a very cheap apartment. It only costs 2,500 yuan a month. The room is very small, there is no independent bathroom, you can't take a bath or cook, you can only go to the public bathroom. Now you can't make money, and you can only chew bread when you are hungry."
is a pity, the ideal is full and the reality is skinny. Although there are many fans watching the game, there are not many real effective customers of Mr. A and Mr. B, especially "local customers". The permanent population of Qatar is only 2.8 million, of which only 380,000 are citizens of Qatar nationality. They are either rich or noble, and most of them have hospitality tickets and will not buy scalpers.
"Most of the people who come to buy tickets are working here in other countries. Once, a Southeast Asian fan asked for a price. We agreed and sold it for $150. As a result, he put the ticket directly into his pocket. It was obvious that he didn't want to give the money, so I took it back." Mr. A said, "They also knew that we were scalpers, and sometimes they would 'threate' us. If they didn't sell tickets at a low price, they would go to the police."
What makes Mr. B helpless is the local pace of life in Doha. "The pace here is relatively slow, the public facilities are not very complete, and buses are basically not visible on the streets, so you have to walk for a long time to find a public bathroom. The most important thing is that the local residents are not that enthusiastic about football. "
New Yellow River reporter noticed that in the two games of the host Qatar, the attendance rate of the stadium was not particularly high, especially when Qatar was lagging behind, a large number of local fans left the stage one after another, and the stands seemed empty.
Last hope! Only Messi is the "box office" guarantee
html On the evening of the 126th, Argentina vs Mexico, 88,966 live fans watched the game, creating the highest attendance rate since the start of this World Cup. The ticket price of this game soared before the game, and the first-class ticket exceeded 7,000 yuan."Argentina and Messi are the "box office" guarantee of this World Cup, especially after losing to Saudi in the first game. I originally thought there was no suspense in the third game of the group stage, but everyone thought that Argentina had already qualified in advance at that time. Now, the popularity of this game is even higher. "Mr. A said.
With the increase of "life-and-death battle" and the upcoming knockout round, tickets will become "hard currency", which gave Mr. A and Mr. B hope. "This time I spent more than 30,000 yuan, and I have to make money back to go back. The attention in the next game will be getting higher and higher, and the market will gradually increase. "
Mr. A and Mr. B will continue to "stay" off the court, and some ticket transactions are completed through the Internet. According to the reporter of New Yellow River, there are currently many WeChat groups that are specially built for ticket resale. For example, C has extra tickets on hand, and he will post sales information in the group. If D wants to buy them, the two can complete them through platforms such as Xianyu, or choose on-site transactions. After the battle between Argentina and Mexico begins, in a WeChat group, the two parties finally traded at a price of 4,000 yuan. The two made an appointment to go to the ball. At the entrance of the field, "pay money with one hand and the ticket with the other hand".
suddenly collapsed! The most convenient electronic ticket disconnection
FIFA's ticketing system has been reformed at this Qatar World Cup. Except for hospitality tickets, sponsored tickets and a small number of tickets sold offline in Doha, they are paper tickets, and all other tickets sold online are in the form of electronic tickets.
Fans who purchased tickets need to download the title "FIFAWORLDCUP2022 TICKETS' client can receive their own tickets after registering and logging in with the account when purchasing tickets.
According to the ticket purchase policy, a fan can purchase up to 6 tickets per game, and up to two games can be purchased on a unified game day. But from the actual implementation point of view, each account has different email address when registering, and even if the relevant ticket buyer information is the same, it can be purchased. Therefore, it is convenient for scalpers to stock up tickets by registering a large number of accounts.
According to the New Yellow River reporter, among domestic fans, non-professional scalpers, some non-professional scalpers have applied for or rush to purchase tickets through more than 20 accounts, and each account is full of purchases. Many non-professional scalpers finally get dozens or even hundreds of tickets for each game. Of course, only a small number of popular accounts can be used for subscription, but even this way, many tickets are concentrated in some In the hands of a few people.
In addition, the methods of professional scalpers grab tickets are much more powerful than manual ticket swiping for ordinary fans. A reporter from New Yellow River saw a fan who claimed to have stocked up a large number of final tickets in a ticket information exchange group. After installing this app, as long as the ticket pool of the FIFA ticket sales website releases tickets, the first pop-up reminder will be reminded that the stockers can buy it first. This is also the big reason why many fans find that a certain game ticket has tickets when buying tickets, but they can't buy it, because others have already added the tickets to the shopping cart first. According to a professional scalper, some people abroad have used artificial intelligence technology to automatically grab tickets, and no ordinary fans can catch up in terms of speed or efficiency.
In addition to online subscription, it is convenient for scalpers to stock up on a large scale, and electronic tickets also allow scalpers to transfer tickets faster and at a low cost.The account that applies for tickets (usually called the main ticket holder) can transfer the tickets in the account (usually called the passenger ticket) at any time and anywhere except the one own ticket in the account. You only need to provide the email to register the ticket APP account to transfer them to the other party’s account and complete the transaction immediately. In the past era of paper tickets, the transfer, face-to-face transaction, or mailing of ball tickets would take a considerable time and a considerable postage cost.
But everything has two sides, and electronic tickets are no exception. The premise for the successful operation of this system is that the participants' APP can run smoothly and safely. The electronic ticket system of the Qatar World Cup fell off the chain at a critical moment. From the morning of the opening ceremony, Xinhuanghe reporters received feedback from fans that the electronic ticket system of the World Cup had collapsed, or the APP was unable to log in and could not see any of their ticket information; or after logging in, there was a blank, and more than a dozen tickets under their account were gone. It is understood that in the opening game, some fans were unable to enter the game due to problems with the ticket app, and a long line was lined up in front of the ticket center outside the court. Many fans were told that by providing electronic certificates for purchasing the tickets, they could receive a printed version of the paper ticket, but the seat area information on it was finally handwritten. On November 21, this collapse did not fundamentally improve, and many fans delayed entry. What is even more painful is the scalpers. Due to the collapse of the ticket system, many tickets that have not been delivered to the buyer cannot be sent or used. In the end, they can only be judged by the trading platform to be unable to deliver and face high fines. The collapsed electronic ticket system has made many fans who want to buy scalpers worry that they cannot use it and give up electronic tickets. Paper hospitality tickets and sponsored tickets have become the first choice.
New Yellow River reporters learned that many scalpers who were originally looking forward to making a big profit in the Qatar World Cup have sold their inventory before half of the schedule. The price of tickets for some key games that were originally high has broken the price, which is painful for scalpers, but for the majority of fans watching the game, this is a good thing.
New Yellow River Reporter: Meng Xiangyi Meng Xiangjun sent from Doha
Editor: Wang Letao Photographed by Meng Xiangyi Meng Xiangjun
(Source: New Yellow River Client)
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