The cost of being a fan

How much is a football fan likely to spend during 2018 World Cup.

FinExprtiza Analytical Service

OBJECTIVE

To calculate costs of a fan who wishes to visit two quarterfinals, one semifinal, the game for the third place and the final of the 2018 World Cup. Travel and accommodation costs will be presented separately.

USED MATERIALS

Data of the 2018 FIFA World Cup official website, data of air tickets web scraper, data of booking.com.

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER

The World Cup is to be held in Russia from 14 June till 15 July 2018. In total, 16 cities will involved.

¼ and later games are scheduled as follows:

Thus, there are several ways for a fan to visit ¼ finals and semifinals.

1 Variant.Kazan – Samara – Saint-Petersburg – Moscow

2 Variant.Nizhniy Novgorod – Samara – Saint-Petersburg – Moscow

3 Variant.Kazan – Sochi – Saint-Petersburg – Moscow

4 Variant.Nizhniy Novgorod – Sochi – Saint-Petersburg – Moscow

It is clear that a fan will visit the first ¼ game either in Kazan or in Nizhniy Novgorod. It is impossible to visit two cities on the same day.

Respectively, his next game will be either in Samara or in Sochi.

The semi-final can be visited either in Moscow or in Saint-Petersburg. However, taking into account that the third place play-off will be held in Saint-Petersburg, it does not appear reasonable to make several trips between Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Therefore, a fan is most likely to visit both a semifinal and the third place play-off in Saint-Petersburg. And then they will go to Moscow to watch the final.

Let us see which variant will be most interesting from the financial point of view.

From the financial viewpoint, the best variant for a fan who decided to visit two quarterfinals, one semifinal, the third place play-off and the final will be as follows:Kazan – Samara – Saint-Petersburg – Moscow. Travel and accommodation costs will total a little more than 24,223 rubles.

It will be a little more expensive to start visiting games from Nizhniy Novgorod – 29 108 rubles.

To visit the semifinal in Sochi will almost double travel cost since the available direct flights will not bring fans to Sochi at an appropriate time. For example, it is clear that 19 P.M. flights will make it impossible to watch the game either on July 6 or July 7. Transfer flights increase not only the time but also the cost of travel. Therefore, watching of semifinals in Sochi will increase the total amount of travel and accommodation costs up to 47 000-48 000 rubles.

We started our calculations from the venues of ¼ finals. However, one still has to travel to Kazan or Nizhniy Novgorod, and travel costs will depend on the region of Russia where a fan plans to start off. As an example, we calculated travel costs for a resident of the Far East, Siberia, Ural, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg.

The table shows that travel and accommodation costs of a resident of Vladivostok will total about 60 000 rubles (24 223 rubles is the minimum cost of traveling and accommodation between games) and 32 517 rubles is the cost of air travel to the venue of the first ¼ final. Travel and accommodation costs will amount to about 20% of total costs.

Travel and accommodation costs of a resident of Krasnoyarsk will be round 45,000 rubles, or 16 % of total costs. Residents of Ekaterinburg will spend 35,723 or 13% of total costs. Muscovites will spend 27,758, or 11% of total costs, and residents of Saint-Petersburg – 33,323 or 13% of total costs.