It really was a ticket to ride.
I secured it three hours before the semi-final between England and Croatia kicked off. The cost: $3,359, payable right after the game was over.
I had the flights planned to Moscow, criss-crossing through Europe. And the best available – but still seedy looking – hotel on standby. The biggest problem: negotiating with the Russian government to secure a FanID to let me into the country — a special document which allowed access without an expensive visa.
A catch-22, as I needed the ticket number before they would send me an electronic version of the FanID. And the clock was ticking before I had to leave Vancouver Thursday morning.
And the ticket itself: it was scalped and would be delivered by a mysterious Russian middle-man to my hotel once I arrived in Moscow. Where was the guarantee? Was it worth the risk? “Yes,” I decided.
But my plans were all dependent on an England win.
WATCH BELOW: England fans’ hopes dashed at bringing World Cup home after team eliminated by Croatia in semifinals
Right after England’s first goal at the five-minute mark, ticket prices on StubHub shot up over one thousand dollars, to about $4,500.
They hung around that mark until after halftime. Then Croatia scored, and the prices started dropping.
Croatia scored a second time, in extra time, and this time the prices plummeted. Fast. Clearly Brits around the world were playing the same ticket game I was playing!
Looking to repeat history
It was a game I first played in the U.K. back in 1966, when England won the World Cup for the only time in their history.
England beat Portugal on a Tuesday. I found a World Cup final ticket for that Saturday on sale in the next day’s personal column in the Times newspaper. I called and was told I could buy it.
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BUT, there was a 50 per cent markup. A ten shilling ticket (just over one Canadian dollar) was going for fifteen shillings!! A 50 per cent markup. Even then, a bargain.
(Compare that with the tickets for this World Cup — face value tickets for $550 Canadian were going for six or eight times their original value.)
I secured my 1966 ticket during a phone call to the ticket broker in London — but he had to receive my cheque before he would release it!
I put the cheque in the mail from my country town 125 miles from London on the Wednesday before Saturday’s final against West Germany. The cheque arrived next day — the Thursday — and I had my tickets by return mail on the Friday. The game was the next day!
And, you know what, it never occurred to me it wouldn’t arrive in time. Not once.
WATCH BELOW: Emotional fans celebrate Croatia’s win in World Cup semifinals
These were the days that the mail service around the world actually worked.
On the Saturday of the 1966 final, July 30, 1966, I walked five miles in the warm early morning sun to catch the closest bus (my family were away on vacation). A bus to catch a train to take me to Wembley Stadium in London.
And the game transformed my life. I was 16 and it gave me, at the time, a sense that anything in this world was possible.
And nothing can take away from that day when England came from behind to win the World Cup 4-2 against West Germany in a thrilling game which went to extra time.
Unexpected heartbreak
The 2018 final would have bookended my life had England won — 15 years old when they first won, and 67 if they did it again 52 years later.
But it wasn’t to be.
Croatia won and England’s dream — and mine — was over.
And the ticket prices in Russia after yesterday’s game? They collapsed too, by nearly 50 per cent.
But it was a ticket worth riding.
As the Beatles sang: “ I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today, yeah.”
Yeah! But it wasn’t to be.
Clive Jackson was the managing editor at Global BC for 25 years before retiring in 2015. He was a reporter for BCTV for 10 years before moving behind the scenes, and spent years before that working in newspapers in London, England.
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