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EURO 2012 Breaks All-time Audience Record95% EURO 2012 Tickets Sold
Kyiv, April 24, 2012. “As of today, we’ve sold over 95 percent of tickets,” stated EURO 2012 Director Martin Kallen. “Usually our target is 95 percent of the tickets sold, because it’s almost impossible to have 100 percent <...> I think we’re now at 96 or 97 percent,” Pedro Correia, head of UEFA’s ticket operations, told AFP.
Approximately 12 million bids were placed for the tickets to 31 matches of the football championship. UEFA will open additional ticket sales in May. Everyone who registered their bid for EURO 2012 tickets and didn’t win yet will receive a notification as soon as the May sale starts. Extra tickets are also available since some of the national federations did not use up their quotas.
The amount of tickets available for the matches in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv reaches 50,000, report Ukrainian News. Tickets for the matches in Poland have been sold out. Reportedly, around 60,000 tickets were sold last minute at EURO 2008. “So it’s not out of the ordinary,” said Pedro Correia.
The tickets’ cost varies between EUR 30 (basic tickets for group matches) and EUR 6,000 (first class tickets for the EURO 2012 final). Prior to EURO 2008, when tickets for the matches were in high demand as well, Michel Platini denied that the EURO championship was a moneymaking machine.
“UEFA is a non-profit-making organization, so everything is redistributed, <…> EURO is a major European competition where money is reallocated to the national federations for the development of football,” quotes Platini swissinfo.ch.
Incidentally, through March and April of 2012 Google introduced Street View option for EURO 2012 cities, creating an opportunity for virtual travel down the streets of the cities. Now football fans can take a look at the stadiums, plan sightseeing routes, and choose hotels based on much more information about a match location.
Over 60,000 beds are still available in Ukrainian EURO 2012 cities, ukraine2012.gov.ua reported in February. Earlier, Ukraine was reported to open 49 new hotels in January-June 2012. The local municipalities also plan to use student hostels and resort centers to accommodate EURO 2012 visitors.
Moreover, Ukrainians are starting a hospitality initiative of providing free accommodation to football fans.