Upcoming Brazilian world cup is going to be the biggest soccer extravaganza in many senses, like it will not only be the most expensive for organizers but also for fans following their favorite teams in this South American State. It is a world known fact that Brazil has spent billions of dollars to decorate all the match venues, including preparing hospitality as well. As a result, traveling fans would experience an unparalleled fun whenever they follow their favored teams. According to a recent survey, it is found that hotels at Rio de Janeiro are made so expensive that fans would have to pay almost 50% more than what they would require to pay during Olympic event which is again going to be hosted in the same country. Why world cup organizers have increased the prices or what the strategy behind this is yet unknown but experts are labeling it with widespread protests in this part of the world and they are demanding that a major part of world cup revenues should be used in developing basic infrastructure for civilians post mega soccer event. FIFA, who has hired a Swiss based company MATCH Services for booking various accommodations across the match playing venues, revealed this difference in booking prices among two international sports events in Brazil.
Many are also relating this difference with the price capping being imposed by Olympic association but there is no such capping in soccer hence hotels and every other service provider is free to charge whatever he wants to. While many are taking it as a pure economical decision where demand has to be matched with supply as number of peoples traveling here for the world cup would be much more than peoples visiting here to watch Olympic Games, hence every hospitality service provider is just doing plain business. Alfredo Lopes, president of the association’s Rio de Janeiro bureau, justified it and said, “It’s normal that having the FIFA agency involved in the negotiations affects the prices. MATCH negotiated all the prices with almost 90 percent of the hotels in Rio. Now it’s just reselling the packages.
“What may play a role in the difference in prices is the magnitude of having the World Cup in a country like Brazil, where football is everything. That may attract a lot more people compared to the Olympics, and prices are always linked to supply and demand.”
So, let’s wait and see how fans can afford to stay in Brazil or just choose to return on the same day if they can’t afford to pay $460 each night as hotel rent during the event.