Upcoming World Cup

Just wondering what is the general consensus of opinion amongst the people of Germany (weather you live near or not to any of the games)to the World Cup being held from June.

Are you looking forward to football tourists?

Do you think its a good opportunity for people to visit places in Germany that they would otherwise not do so? Or even think about visiting.

How do you feel about certain elements of football that may affect tourisum at that time?

Any fans from particular areas that you are not looking forward to visiting?

Or do you think its a waste of time and will avoid it like the plague!

When the news was anounced that the World Cup was to be held in Germany I was delighted, not only do I enjoy football and go to many games, but also a regular visitor to Germany for many years and watched a few great games at the Olympic stadium, both local and international matches.

But We have decided not to come for the World Cup. We have our reasons for this, but will enjoy it on tv, and yes I will be supporting England (Mmm I live in Scotland, but Scotland are not in it!) then I suppose it will be Germany!

I just wondered what people thought, looking forward to your replys

|||

Are you looking forward to football tourists?

No. We live in central Stuttgart and we are not looking forward to having our live%26#39;s disrupted by additional crowding on public transportation and other places, and having probably loud entertainment provided on the Schlossplatz and open bars 24 hours a day for a month. It would be nice if we could avoid it like the plague, but unfortunately we can%26#39;t. However, I%26#39;m glad that Stuttgart had dropped pursuing a possible Olympic bid this last time, that really would have been a nightmare.

|||

I live in Hamburg and I really look forward to the world cup. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to buy any tickets but I will definitely meet some friends in a pub or somewhere outside where there is a big screen to enjoy at least a little bit of the atmosphere. And I already organised that I will not have to work on the days when Germany is playing :-)

Of course, I am also a little bit nervous about how everything is going to work (especially public transportion) but I%26#39;m sure it%26#39;s going to work somehow...

|||

As a football fan, I am surely looking forward to the World Cup (I still hope - like literally millions of other Germans) to get some tickets, but likelihood to get some is very low. I think that says something about the general attitude.

It will be nice to have football fans in our cities as long as they are peaceful. Like many others, I%26#39;m looking forward to see some of the more exotic crowds (Trinidad, Australia, the African and South American Teams), but when it comes to excitement, nothing beats Germany playing England or the Netherlands.

Overall, I hope it will be good fun and it certainly is an opportunity to show the world what Germany is like in 2006 (no marching people wearing helmets to be expected as seen in the Sun ;-))

Just because I%26#39;m curious: what prevents you from coming?

|||

I am really looking forward to this world cup and to host lots of people and fans from all over the world in our country! Of course any event of this size will lead into trouble at some time and some place and some matches. But in my opinion this is nothing compared to the fun, the parties and all the people paying a visit to our country and visiting some places off the soccer ground.

I have attended a lot of international games, such as the Euro 2000 or other big games in Germany and always felt that the media exaggregates with the trouble that usually comes with huge crowds of soccer fans. You might have 50 troublemakers and 100 people that had one more pint than the should have had, but this is nothing compared to the fun and atmosphere some 50.000 other people create around the games, no matter where they%26#39;re from.

I%26#39;m sure this will be a memorable world cup, since a lot of Germans work really hard to make this one great tournament on and off the soccer ground. This is a chance you only get once in 30 years.

|||

This may be unrelated to the topic, but you all seem to know a fair amount about the world cup, so I thought I would ask anyways. So here goes, I am currently planning a trip to europe including some of germany, I was originally planning on being back home before the world cup would begin, but plans might be changing. So my question is, do you think that prices and the general busy-ness within the countries of europe excluding germany will increase during this time. I am only planning to be in europe until the first week of july, but I am concerned about cost increases. Any input would be great!

|||

%26quot;Are you looking forward to football tourists?%26quot;

No! First of all I%26#39;m not a huge football fan. I do live in Central Berlin and a lot of people are driving through our street when they want to go to the Olympia stadium and want to avoid the main streets. I guess traffic will be even worth on days were world bup matches are hold. the other thing is that the underground line which is nearest to us is also going to the Olympia stadium and will be equally busy.

I would love to go away during that time but unfortunately that is not possible.

|||

@ mnm744

Be aware that the prices for dining, drinks, taxi won%26#39;t change with the world cup. they are fixed. transportation will be cheaper during world cup, since there are special offers from regional transit and the railroad company for the WC. there%26#39;s even a flat rate of 345 euros which allows you to go anywhere anytime for all of the world cup with the german railroad with a special ticket.

the only thing that *might* be a problem is accomodation, but you can avoid that by booking in advance. i%26#39;ve checked with some reservation systems for myself and didn%26#39;t see any steep price increases, maye something around 20-30%. but accomodation is actualy way cheaper in the three to five star range in germany than it is in the us or canada. 60-80 euros will provide you with a decent clean room when booking in advance in literally any matchtown. check with common reservation systems.

it might be a good idea to avoid towns with games and stick to nice towns that don%26#39;t host any games but are still close to events. there will be wc-parties, big screen broadcasting in public places in literally any town with more than 250.000 inhabitants. for instance dusseldorf is not far away from cologne (30 min), gelsenkirchen (45 min), dortmund (60 min) or maybe mannheim which is close to frankfurt (30 min), kaiserslautern (45 min), stuttgart (35 min) and lovely heidelberg (15 min).

if you manage the accomodation, anything else will be no problem at all, and i really suggest you give it a try!