West Ham have sold just 400 of the 3,000 away tickets allocated for the second round Europa League tie against Birkirkara FC this Thursday. Tickets were priced at £32 (€45) each for the Millennium stand within the Maltese National Stadium which has a capacity of 18,000.
The cost of direct flights up to £400 and further expenses of hotels at up to £100 per night are thought to have put many West Ham fans off making the four hour flight to the island in the med just south of Italy.
Home supporters will pay between €10 (£7) and €30 (£21) for their tickets for the match and Birkirkara will be offering free transport to their supporters from their clubhouse, the Infetti Training Centre, Duke of Connaught’s Own Band Club, Santa Helena’s Band Club, and from near Maltco outlet in the Birkirara to the national stadium on Thursday night.
The game is due to be screened LIVE by UK sports TV channel Premier Sports on Sky, Virgin, Talk Talk and online.
I might have been more surprised at the low number had you not mentioned the cost of getting there. I wonder what the equivilent price is for the following Thursday, and whether the operators thought they could make a fast buck out of a load of our lot going out there. Seems to be much the same for the next round – I had a quick look at the potential cost of flying to Inverness, and the price seemed to be going up as I looked at it!!
I bet most fans are just going to go into the home end, why are we supposed to pay more ?
It should be against UEFA rules to charge away fans more than the home fans
It doesn’t help that Thursday’s game is after the school summer holiday start. If you check prices days after the game they are a similar price
Ah, hadn’t thought of that…