How (Not) To Buy Lokomotiv Tickets

What follows is a story of my attempts to buy tickets for the top-of-the-table showdown against Zenit on May 4.

I booked my tickets through the online reservation system on April 15. It’s actually quite the dumb system as you’re forced to collect the tickets in person. When I arrived at the ticket office, I was told that the reservation had been canceled. I was a little bit confused, because the letter with the details of the order contained a bolded sentence: “Note that the order will be canceled 5 hours before the event.” But when I came back home without the tickets, I noticed a disclaimer on the booking page informing that the reservation is held for only 5 days

Ok, fine, maybe I’m to blame. But there were others who also noticed this sentence and found it quite unusual. Kirill Butin, a fan from Kineshma, said: “I called the Supporters Office on April 16 and asked three times about this “5 days rule” and they told me that the tickets can be collected any day, including May 3.” As he lives 400 km from Moscow, he asked his friends to pick up the tickets a week later, but at the ticket office they were told the same thing I was. Luckily for him, there were some unbooked tickets left, so Kirill will be able to watch this exciting game from the stands.

But there were a lot of discouraged people like me standing by the ticket office, unhappy about the prospect of watching the game on TV with pro-Zenit commentator Gennady Orlov. Most of them are Muscovites, I guess, so at least they won’t lose any money on it. But how about the people who will come from Voronezh, Penza or Cheboksary on May 3? Many Loko supporters are still sure they will get the tickets they ordered two weeks ago, though the only tickets left are in the VIP and fan stands. The latter seats can only be sold to people with a club card.

(By the way, I tried to buy this card, because I wanted to get a discount at the Loko store, but the Supporters Office didn’t issue the cards before the games with Spartak and Zenit to avoid misuse. And I failed to get the card between these games, because… their printer broke down.)

I am sure the stadium will be full, but there are still going to be a lot of angry people who will think twice before attending a Lokomotiv match again.

So why doesn’t the club care? For them, it’s just business. The average attendance is about 11,500. Let’s assume the South Stand (fan sector - 4,000 people) is always full with an average ticket price of 375 rubles ($10.50). 375x4000x15 home games equals 22.5 million rubles, or $630,000. Even without discounts for season ticket holders, Loko ultras can’t even pay for half of right-back Renat Yanbaev’s annual salary. The other 7,000 supporters pay about 750 rubles. 750x7000x15 = 78.7 million rubles or $2.2 million, which is equal to Samedov’s annual wages, but still not enough to pay for the purchase of another right-back, such as Arseny Logashov, who is currently on loan at Rostov. I see no reason to count income from the VIP fans-let’s just hope they get better service. No, I don’t really know how much money the Russian Railways pour into Lokomotiv, but it is enough to make the club care little about the loyalty of its fans.

There is one way left to get to the stadium-buy tickets from scalpers and pay about 250% of the nominal ticket price. A center stand ticket could be purchased for 3,000 rubles (about $85). Yes, it is rather cheap compared to ticket prices in Europe. And I would pay it if it was the official price. I can even look past the incredibly bland $5 hot dogs. But I only want to pay if I’m confident that the club is at least trying to make those hot dogs tasty.

To get people to pay for tickets and come to games, the club needs to treat its supporters like they are Russian Railways’ executives. Otherwise, the stadium is going to grow more and more empty.