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Fans march to BC Place before Canada play Switzerland in a World Cup Group B match in Vancouver on Wednesday.JACOB MALLARI/The Canadian Press
On the online marketplaces where people try to sell tickets for profit, prices for Wednesday’s World Cup game in Vancouver reached eye-watering heights as match time drew near: $3,000 each at one of the corners; $2,200 each for five at midfield; $7,800 for a package of four at another corner. The cost of just one ticket to see Canada take on Switzerland would comfortably cover return airfare to Geneva for two.
Sellers offered a litany of reasons. Reached on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, one said a family sickness meant they couldn’t attend; another was selling for a friend who had purchased long ago and couldn’t make it to Vancouver; another had more tickets than they could personally use and friends too poor to buy the rest.
But after Canada’s 6-0 win against Qatar last week, its first World Cup victory and one four decades in the making, how could someone value a game that will determine Canada’s standing beyond the group stage?
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For Moe Samarrai, it seemed at first like a good chance to recoup losses. The devoted Vancouver soccer fan posted his nosebleed ticket for the match, asking $2,000. Offers rolled in.
Mr. Samarrai, who works in sales for a tech company, had found a circuitous path to tickets for each Canada game. “It was my friend’s aunt’s husband’s cousin – her daughter’s husband,” he says with a laugh.
He and a friend bought, planning to be in Toronto for the match against Bosnia-Herzegovina. They reconsidered once they saw the price of flights and hotels. Back then – in the hoary past of early June, before Canada had secured a single World Cup point – appetite was poor, even for the opening match. They dropped the price of their $1,300 tickets to $600 before selling. The loss stung. Worse, the buyer “wasn’t a Canadian fan. It turned out to be a Bosnian guy,” Mr. Samarrai said.
Then came last Thursday, the blowout against Qatar in Vancouver. Mr. Samarrai was there. “You felt the love, you felt the unity between everybody there and what it really means to be a Canadian,” he said.
“I was at the Olympics here in 2010, and those feelings – I haven’t felt that in 16 years.”
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Even so, he listed his ticket for the Switzerland match, hoping to capitalize on the sudden surge in interest.
It didn’t take him long to pull the listing.
The cash would have been nice. But he decided it wasn’t worth forgoing a chance to relive magic.
“Unity in times like this – with fellow countrymen of all colours shapes and sizes – is priceless,” he said.