Canadians Will Flock To Brazil For World Cup Despite High Costs, Lack Of National Team

Despite concerns about price "gouging, problems getting visas and other more worrying reports of gang violence," Canadian soccer fans are planning to attend the FIFA World Cup this summer "in droves," according to Jeff Gray of the GLOBE & MAIL. Even without Canada's national team in the tournament, organizers said that Canadians have "bought more than 29,000 tickets to World Cup matches," which ranks the nation 11th in terms of sales. The top 10 is "full of countries with teams taking the pitch." Canadians have "bought proportionally more World Cup tickets than Americans, Germans, French or Mexicans" when taking population into account. Travelers and travel agents said that overall budgets for World Cup trips to Brazil "range from about $4,000 per person for bare-bones student-style trips, to about $15,000 for longer trips with better hotels and tickets to more desirable games." Some Brazilian hotels near FIFA World Cup venues "are charging five or 10 times their normal rates -- rates that were not cheap to begin with" -- and tickets to the games themselves, which "cost hundreds of dollars when bought from organizers, can soar into the thousands of dollars when offered by scalpers" (GLOBE & MAIL, 4/26).