UCL FINAL
Champions League final fever takes over as tickets for Wembley final sell for $3,000
The 1 June final looms on the horizon with fans of both Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund desperate to see the game at the iconic Wembley Stadium.
“Looking for tickets to the Champions League final.” This is the message that dominates second-hand ticket websites with no-one wanting to miss the Wembley match on 1 June as Borussia Dortmund face Real Madrid.
The problem facing any fan interested in attending the showpiece event is availability with demand dramatically outstrpping supply and as things stand with the game less than two weeks away, a standard ticket (via Viagogo) will set any prospective fan back to the tune of at least 3,000 US dollars.
Real Madrid fans who have missed out on travelling to London may have the opportunity to watch the game on a giant screen at the club’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium and despite the fact that the club has yet to announce the event or even publish ticket prices for the session, the second hand market is already seeing tickets being displayed for an event that has yet to be locked down with prices ranging from 50 to 250 dollars.
Scarcity in flights and accommodation
For any fans lucky enough to secure a match ticket for the Wembley final, the next obstacle is getting to London where the average price of a return flight from the Spanish capital to the UK capital is roughly $800 with most current options requiring a stop-over with almost all direct flights over the weekend of the final already sold out.
Despite London traditionally offering a vast range of accommodation to suit every budget, finding a room in a central location of close to Wembley itself is another odyssey the prospective fans getting little change back from $300 per night.
Dortmund fans request 400,000 tickets!
In total 62,708 Real Madrid fans applied for the 18,982 available, things in Dortmund are on a different level as the German club received over 400,000 requests for tickets the club’s Wembley allocation, almost 16 times more than the quota of tickets (around 25,000) that UEFA has given to each finalist. This statistic is even more staggering when placed in context given that the latest population figure attributed to the German city is 587,000 inhabitants.
Flight prices from Germany are also through the roof and reach 1,300 euros but German fans have alternatives thanks to the Channel Tunnel, the underwater railway tunnel that crosses the English Channel with the journey by car from Dortmund taking less than eight hours and there are plenty of alternative options provided by numerous trail links.
The Bundesliga club are also planning on installing giant screens at the Fredenbaum-Platz, where more than 20,000 spectators can watch the live action from North London.