England’s first World Cup prelim match in Florida today has been branded a ‘farce’ by disgruntled expat fans alleging ‘price-gouging’ and the wrong venue choice helped leave at least 50,000 seats empty.
Instead of a rah-rah launch in America, skipper Harry Kane’s Three Lions will be met by huge sections of the giant stadium in sweltering Tampa being entirely empty for the friendly against New Zealand.
In fact, organisers were so worried about the looming ’tumbleweed’ atmosphere they hastily switched many fans to better seats as the game approached to corral them together in the giant Raymond James venue, home to NFL side the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Meanwhile complete sections in the higher tiers of the 69,000-seater stadium were closed off as it was evident the event was not attracting the expected numbers for the clash between FIFA 4th ranked team England and opponents who are 81 places behind them.
Just hours before kick-off, tickets were still on sale for up to £225 close to the halfway line and £195 with a similar vantage point, but much farther from the pitch. The cheapest was £71.
Gary Bonnici, who moved to the United States 23 years ago, paid £260 for him and his 12-year-old son. He said: ‘They put the prices so high that many people who love the game here couldn’t afford it.
‘We had a local Brits meet-up last week and many people were saying, I’m just not paying that kind of money to see a friendly even if it is England.’
Bonnici, a 63-year-old fencing company manager originally from Cheshire and now living in Tampa, continued: ’Now they’ve had to switch people around inside the stadium.
Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, which has a capacity of 69,000 seats, is expecting at least 50,000 empty seats for England’s first World Cup prelim match after alleged ‘price-gouging’
Skipper Harry Kane’s Three lions will be met by huge sections of the giant stadium being entirely empty in sweltering Tampa
‘If they’d said $75 a ticket to get pitch side in the first tier, and then $50 to $30 as you move up, I honestly feel they could have made more money and filled a good half of the stadium.
‘The whole thing is a farce. You don’t need to price gouge genuine people who are interested in attending.’
More than 400,000 Brits are reported to live in Florida either full or part-time. Most are in the central part of the Sunshine State, particularly Orlando and Tampa, and the south around Miami. At least 20,000 full timers are within a few miles of the stadium.
Phil Peachey, who was ‘always at Wembley’ when he lived in London, said he had to give a spare ticket away because he could not sell it among his large expat community in Orlando.
‘I would have thought they’d have made everything as cheap as chips to create interest in this and have people make the effort,’ he said. ‘Now they’ve had to make the stadium look busy by shifting us around.
‘I had a spare and I’ve managed to give it away now. There was no one I knew interested in buying it.
’The Raymond James is huge. They were never going to fill it, but you might have had an expectation they would have got halfway there. Why didn’t they make it $20 for kids, or something like that?’
Another alleged blunder cited by fans was the 4pm kick-off in a completely open stadium, where there is no shade from the relentless Florida sun. Intense humidity will give the forecast 33C temperature a heat index ‘real feel’ of 40C.
British expat Gary Bonnici (left) with friend and fellow Tampa resident Rodney Marsh (right), who won nine caps for England and was a flamboyant legend at Queens Park Rangers and Manchester City in the 1970s
The England team, kitted out in all blue, were snapped boarding the plane on Monday morning
Les Leeson, 52, and his American wife paid £265 for two tickets for an upper tier and had their seats changed to lower down to be huddled closer to other fans to help the atmosphere.
‘What’s happened is embarrassing,’ he said. ‘I thought it might be bad, but I never imagined it would be this bad. Although we’ve ended up with much better seats.
‘I bought a ticket for this game because I knew I could never afford to see England play, say, Croatia where it’s easily $1,000 a seat. My wife got these seats and they started out virtually in the nose bleed section.
‘And I said to her, you know we’re probably going to fry to a crisp, but it is what it is. But I kept saying to her we’ll be able to walk down to sit where we want anyway when the game starts.
‘If a security guard stops me I’ll be like, come on mate, this isn’t a comedy. Want to look at all the empty seats?’
The shipping manager from Stourbridge, West Midlands, has been in the US for 20 years and has never seen an England game before. ‘I was getting super excited for the World Cup, but those tickets started getting out of control,’ he added.
‘For this one I thought, it would be great to see them. As for the heat, I’ve heard a lot of people say, why didn’t they have this at 8pm? Actually, that would have been beautiful.’
British expat Ross Devonport said: ‘I paid for downstairs and I’m now sitting with people who paid a lot less for upstairs. A bit annoying. They should have chosen a smaller venue.’
The New Zealand game is the first of two Florida friendlies. The next is against Costa Rica in Orlando on June 10, where the stadium’s capacity is 25,500.
Ka Ten Amin, who followed the Three Lions to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, said: ’These two England matches and the entire World Cup ticketing process have been a money-making scam. Excited to see England, disappointed at the pricing.’
Penny Turner offered an alternative view after scoring bargain tickets. She said: ‘Hot and humid is better than cold and rainy in my book, which many fans are used to. We got great tickets in the $70 range and have been upgraded to nearer the front.’
The game has been organised by England Football and Tampa Bay Sports Commission. Both were contacted by the Daily Mail for comment.
England flew into Tampa from Palm Beach hours before the match and return to their West Palm Beach training base before the Costa Rica game.
