Three factors that decide the price of a soccer trip are access to event tickets, beds and flights.
Tickets are the big issue in small stadiums, as with the Andorra-Ireland match, or the 10,300 capacity Le Coq Arena where Estonia play Ireland in the Euro qualifiers play off this month.
Even when tickets are restricted, Irish people have been peculiarly adept at getting them. This happened at each of the biggest away days for Irish sport, the Italia ’90 quarter-final against Italy, USA ’94 at Giants Stadium against Italy, Anfield for the ’96 European play-off, Brussels for the ’98 world cup play-off, and several Heineken Cup encounters. Irish people have also worked out how to get to the more inaccessible European venues using the less obvious hubs such as Budapest and Copenhagen.
Flight capacity for away matches is an emotional issue with fans. Ryanair is repeatedly accused of jacking up prices when Ireland, Leinster or Munster are drawn away in destinations they serve. Ryanair claim that the price rises are driven purely by demand, once their cheap seats fillup the more expensive prices kick in, but in one instance of the Munster rugby team, they did cancel a pre-existing flight and marketed seats at a higher level. Ryanair are astute salespeople, they intervene to maximise their yield when a sports event is announced. They marketed an extra flight to Tallinn at Eu99 each way, rather than the usual start price of Eu20.
Traditional sports package operators are able to provide hotels, airport transfers and the elusive match tickets as well as the flight. The agency that holds the official account with each sporting organisation is safest for international events, but any experienced sports operator will be able to source tickets for events such as Heineken Cup, Premiership, or Champions League matches.
Six major tour operators specialise in this market, 747 Travel, Abbey Travel, Celtic Horizons, Dawson Travel, Joe Walsh Tours and Limerick travel (there are others). Keith Prowse are ticket specialists for sports events around the world.
Beds varies from city to city. Rule of thumb is that the average hotel size is 100 beds. Tallinn with 8,000 beds has 80 hotels, and about 120 other accommodation providers. Hotels hike up prices outrageously when a major event comes to town (Moscow for the 2008 Champions League final being the most extreme example). Restaurant and drink prices will also climb. Sports fans are the victims of the international travel game. Everywhere they turn, they are gouged.
DON’T PAY THAT MUCH. There is always another way to get where and what you want. Train services in western Europe are very efficient, bus services in eastern Europe are very cheap, 30 euro for a long journey such as the 178 miles from Riga to Tallinn or the 331 miles form Vilnius to Tallinn.
Happy Travelling
Eoghan Corry
