Photo by ISIPhotos.com
By DAN KARELL
U.S. Soccer is making a radical change to the process by which tickets for the USA-Mexico World Cup qualifier in September are acquired, and it could mean needing a little bit of luck to secure your place at Crew Stadium for the World Cup qualifying showdown.
U.S. Soccer announced that tickets will be made available to the general public on Friday, July 19 at 10 a.m., with the ticket sales ending on July 22 at 11:59pm. Buyers will be able to request a maximum of four tickets, and after buyers have completed their ticket entries, a lottery will decide who receives tickets to the match on September 10 at Crew Stadium.
U.S. Soccer Supporters Club members do not have to take part in the random draw, and are eligible for an exclusive pre-sale, but will be limited to purchasing a maximum of four tickets. The tickets available to the U.S. Supporters Club will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. It should be noted that the U.S. Soccer Supporters Club pre-sale is not the same thing as the American Outlaws pre-sale, which is drawn from a different ticket pool.
The new procedure for handling of the public pre-sale is being implemented in order to try and prevent excessive numbers of tickets making their way into the scalper market.
U.S. Soccer also added that Visa cardholders could request tickets in a special presale between July 18 at 10am and July 19 at 2am, due to Visa being an official sponsor of U.S. Soccer.
The federation is also working with the Columbus Crew to try and add additional seating to the capacity 20,145 stadium in central Ohio.
What do you think of this news? Like the idea of U.S. Soccer using a lottery to determine who receives USA-Mexico tickets?
Share your thoughts below.
I read the Visa pre-sale to be a request, not a purchase of actual seats. Agree?
Anyone ever purchase world cup qualifying tickets during the “visa cardholder sale”? All you need it seems is a VISA card…or am I reading it wrong?
Yes, I believe so.
So, if I become a member of the AO group today, I can just buy 4 tickets immediately?
Theoretically yes. The AO sale ends on the 8th so it would all depend on how fast they send you the code and if they have any tickets still left. They are accepting all orders and refunding those who US soccer does not give them tickets for.
This really makes it difficult for me to go with my original plans. I was planning on going to the game with a group of 6-7 other people. Now it seems it will be difficult for us to all get seats with each other. Instead, we are going to be spread out in random spots throughout the stadium. Is this right? This blows…
Ives, the USSC max ticket limit used to be 8. Are you sure it is 4 for the Mexico match?
Yes. US soccer has capped it at 4 tickets for all outlets. AO, Crew STH, USSC, lotto, etc.
I LOVE IT
They did pre-sales in Seattle and Salt Lake and that ensure’s a majority American presence in the stands. From having gone to a bunch of USA – HONDURAS matches in the past because my wife is from Honduras, the Hondurans would normally out number us. With these pre-sales we get the home field advantage that every other country on the planet has!!!!
This is all the more reason to join a group like American Outlaws. We had our tickets go on “sale” Monday night. We purchase from AO and then US Soccer gives them a bulk amount of tickets. Our orders will the be filled first-come, first-serve. The unlucky ones will still get their money back.
Also, anyone caught scalping will have their tickets taken away!
Scalpers have programs that can enter lottery forms by the tens of thousands. They win most of the codes and fans who enter one or two forms have no shot. A lottery sounds like a good idea bur is actually worse for fans.
Yeah, I don’t see how this deters scalpers.
This makes me wonder if we’ll see a few, if not all of the 2017 WCQs back in bigger (football) stadiums.
Is it really a random lottery, or is that the ruse they are using for vetting buyers?
Considering there are pre-sales going on for VISA cardholders, as well as for members of U.S. Soccer Supporters Club, you wonder how many tickets make it to the public pre-sale. Having the pre-sale for the supporters is a way to vet, by ensuring more U.S. fans are getting their hands on tickets before they go to the public.
Crew STH also have a pre-sale but I assume each group has a limited number of tickets available. At least I hope they do or no tickets will make it to the public sale.
and there is also a pre-sale for crew season ticket holders a week before that.
Don’t forget about the tickets allocated to American Outlaws and Sam’s Army. It was really fun refreshing a million times to grab tickets the other night.