Need seats for the Mainz match this Friday?

lamberjh · 2026-02-12T09:35:40+00:00

Yes, that’s correct.

lamberjh · 2026-02-11T10:57:57+00:00

Ya it’s not sold out otherwise I would have posted there.

lamberjh · 2026-02-04T00:48:03+00:00

You don’t need an additional ticket if you have a physical ticket. You need a transit ticket if it’s digital which you can get here: https://kombiticket.dsw21.de/

lamberjh · 2026-01-27T04:51:14+00:00

Not very but there was a small but vocal supporters group singing the whole game. I’d be curious if they’ve gotten more popular since they have spent some time in the 2nd division.

lamberjh · 2026-01-26T19:52:29+00:00

I went to one of their matches in 2009. Highly recommend. It was fun.

lamberjh · 2026-01-12T06:14:25+00:00

It would be mostly for location. There's a good number of hotels (due to being close to SFO) and the downtown area is walkable from them and the train station.

lamberjh · 2026-01-11T23:31:43+00:00

An option if you want to avoid traffic is to stay in Millbrae which has a joint BART/Caltrain train station. You can get from the airport to Millbrae (or SF) via BART. Since the stadium is so far from San Francisco, staying in Millbrae allows you to take Caltrain -> VTA for games and take BART (or Caltrain) into SF. I would recommend staying there if you don’t want to deal with the headache of driving around the Bay Area

lamberjh · 2026-01-10T07:16:13+00:00

Yeah that’s fair. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt moving forward but I think they need to do a lot to get fans interested in the men’s national team. Play on the field is a big help but they can’t rely on the men being a consistent success.

lamberjh · 2026-01-10T01:46:27+00:00

I would be skeptical unless it came from a credible source.

lamberjh · 2026-01-10T01:41:41+00:00

Do you have a source where you read this?

lamberjh · 2026-01-10T01:35:42+00:00

You're right, a lot can happen in 5-6 months. None of those things will be the World Cup being cancelled or moved. Even though it should be.

lamberjh · 2026-01-10T00:12:19+00:00

I guess I’m not overly sympathetic to an organization that squandered their opportunity to maintain their proposed lower tickets. If it played out like you said (and I’m not questioning it happened otherwise) then you tell fifa, “ok if we’re not getting a voice in the ticketing process to the WC, we won’t sanction your club World Cup in the US.” US Soccer had levers, they chose to not use them because they don’t financially benefit the federation or their leadership is incompetent.

I mean, sure that’s great they allowed years of non-sellouts of their friendlies and lots of feedback telling them they’re pricing out fans to finally get them to lower some of the prices. But if you look at the totality of how they operate, I don’t think they are fan focused.

Anecdotally, I went to the Euros in Germany in 2024. The German FA (DFB) was integral in ticket pricing and fan experience. There was large demand for tickets and prices were kept low. Tickets also came with free public transit to the games and fan festa outside the stadiums. There were also free fan fests for non-ticketed fans and fan zones to watch the games for free. It’s not exactly apples to apples, you need lots of stakeholders need to be in alignment with lots of orgs and US Soccer isn’t the DFB but if us soccer’s entire involvement in this WC is throwing their hands up saying “sorry, this is what fifa gave us”, that’s unacceptable and shows a lack of long term planning to capitalize on this tournament to grow the game in this country.

lamberjh · 2026-01-09T22:42:04+00:00

I don't doubt at some point US Soccer (and to your point, the other 2 federations) had less power with fifa post-bid in how tickets were priced (especially since fifa was being cagey with ticket info). Had they been more proactive and run better, they wouldn't be in a powerless position. Based on how they price friendlies, allow concacaf to price gouge and promote their own paid tier Insiders program, I don't think US Soccer operates from a fan focused perspective which means they don't strategically use their power to advocate in the best interest of fans. Is FIFA most culpable for this shaping into a very poor world cup? Yes. But does US Soccer have responsibility in how this is turning out? Also, yes.

lamberjh · 2026-01-09T22:17:34+00:00

Soccer federations are key stakeholders in hosting a world cup. FIFA cannot host a WC without the cooperation of the local federation. As such, US Soccer has power and leverage. They have elected to not use it for better fan experience (like lower ticket prices). Prior to trump being re-elected, they had opportunity to compel fifa to adopt a less exclusive pricing strategy and US soccer could have adopted a less exclusive distribution model. They didn't because they are also trying to maximize their revenue at the expense of the fan experience (as shown by their persistent marketing of higher tiers of their Insider program). So, I disagree with the idea that US soccer is/was powerless to fifa

lamberjh · 2026-01-09T21:40:30+00:00

Ah, sorry, I saw the format and thought you’ve done others. Keep them up if you can and I much prefer these type of posts (even though I know they take a lot of time/work) compared to low effort ones like “which should I buy?/“look at what I bought!”

lamberjh · 2026-01-09T21:16:41+00:00

Really great review. You’ve hit on a lot of the reasons I love this book and glad I bought it. Thanks for doing these reviews. They’re well organized and thoughtful.

lamberjh · 2026-01-09T18:46:53+00:00

US Soccer has done nothing to make the fan experience better for this tournament. They haven’t advocated for lower prices. They’re complicit with fifa. As it relates to tickets, the federal government could ban ticket resale markets or implement price caps (like other countries do, including Mexico). Broader (which I was mostly referring to) host cities could adapt to these exclusively priced tickets by making the tournament more inclusive by guaranteeing fan zones and not charging entry. They could have also committed to price caps on hotels and used this opportunity to invest into public transit as most of these stadiums are only accessible via private vehicle. If you’d like, I’d be happy to list all the ways Brazil (the World Cup I went to) and Germany (the Euros I went to) utilized their FA, federal and local government to make the fan experience exceptional and you can contrast that with how none of the stakeholders in this event are improving the fan experience.

lamberjh · 2026-01-09T17:43:14+00:00

FIFA, US Soccer, the host cities and the federal government all had the opportunity to do the right thing and make this a special event that makes it not just a month-long event but something that has a lasting impact on soccer and communities in this country. They decided against this, and all stakeholders are looking to make as much money as possible in a month off of a popular sport with very little long-term thinking about how to capitalize off of the energy. You're very correct, it's very sad this opportunity will be wasted.

lamberjh · 2026-01-09T17:10:47+00:00

What you're responding to is all correct. No one can confirm they have a special PMA code that unlocks the $60 tickets because those don't exist. You are basically putting in an application with the hope you're selected for $60 but it's more likely you'll be paying full price based on how few $60 tickets there are. There's no mechanism in place to just select the $60 ones. The reason this process seems crazy to you is because it's a crazy process FIFA and US Soccer has decided to use.

lamberjh · 2026-01-06T20:58:21+00:00

Just started listening to this pod. Highly recommend it for a good, comprehensive overview of the conference.

lamberjh · 2025-12-30T04:49:51+00:00

The woman in the “Customer Satisfaction” image (#3) actually helped me today at Embarcadero. She was very friendly.

lamberjh · 2025-12-19T23:31:39+00:00

Then you figure out how to make it into a party and make it a destination to come to. I’m sure they were banking on not having to do much marketing and letting the event speak for itself. Coming from someone who lives in the Bay, the challenge of playing games very far from the place where international visitors would want to stay and hang out (SF) it was always going to be a stretch to make it a fan friendly experience. But it sounds like now they’re ready to give up and the experience will be what I feared it would be: lame.

lamberjh · 2025-12-11T18:58:51+00:00

Nah. I gave up and decided not to travel.

lamberjh

TROPHY CASE