Copa Tickets - Facts, Frustrations, and What's To Come
Over the past several months the American Outlaws argued on behalf of fans to ensure a coordinated fan presence at the Copa America. To be blunt, CONMEBOL was unwilling to have a designated section for American supporters despite past precedent and pulled the existence of a supporters section multiple times. This was wrong and done in a timeline that disenfranchised fans while erasing past assurances.
To every current or past member of the American Outlaws, thank you. We know there are several issues with Copa America tickets, including the timing, uncertainty and unreasonable price. There would have been no access to tickets or a supporters section without you. The Copa America ticket availability, while imperfect, exists largely because of our ability to speak collectively to CONMEBOL on behalf of 20,000+ American soccer fans
We argued on your behalf all the way to the President of CONMEBOL. Each time an agreement was canceled we went one level higher. We are frustrated with both the process and the final result. But proud that when the USMNT takes the field in home games an organized section of fans will be present to cheer them on.
Read on for more information on this process as well as to answer some of the most common questions we’ve received since Wednesday’s ticket release.
Conversations Leading Up to Tickets:
- December 2023: Ticket discussions with CONMEBOL started. We were given assurances tickets would not be an issue and knew a section of tickets was being set aside for each USMNT Copa America game. Until yesterday anyone could see on any ticket site that the supporters section were not sold in any pre-sale, general sale, or available through second hand sites.
- January - March: Multiple times there were hiccups with the process of getting tickets and we worked with USSF to resolve issues with CONMEBOL. As Copa America tickets went on sale we knew the supporters sections were not being sold and respected that as a sign an agreement would be reached.
- Apr 22, 2024: Supporters’ tickets were set to go on sale, AO was provided the ticket links we share to members and scheduled an email. 5 minutes before release we were given a hard stop from CONMEBOL. The tickets we had tried to purchase were refunded and we were suddenly informed that there will be no official supporter sections (read more on that below). This came after multiple assurances of a section and AO communicating to members that they could wait for the ticket sale.
- Apr 23, 2024: AO prepared a public statement objecting to the decision and shared it with all parties. We did not send the statement to allow additional conversations facilitated by US Soccer. That unreleased statement included:
“CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American football and hosts of this summer's U.S.-based Copa America, gave a straight red card to every American soccer fan. Their actions tell us that our passion, our support, our love for our teams doesn’t mean anything to them. Only our money matters and the Copa America is a cash grab intended to line federation coffers while leaving the average fan locked out.”
- Apr 26, 2024: After radio silence from all CONMEBOL ticketing contacts, AO’s Brian Hexsel emailed all employees of CONMEBOL, the Federation president and Soccer United Marketing (SUM). This message outlined what steps the American Outlaws would take after CONMEBOL backtracked on prior assurances by selling supporter section tickets in a general sale . Within 24 hours AO was informed tickets would be provided.
Ticketing Process:
- We want to lift up that US Soccer was an integral partner in this whole process. We’re thankful for their advocacy on behalf of a supporters section, which they never wavered on, and their help with the technical end of the sales process.
- US Soccer created the sales forms/links that went out yesterday.
- Question: Why did my confirmation form list the wrong match?
- Answer: This boils down to staying within the FIFA rules around how many events can be held every year. Since these matches are not hosted by US Soccer, they can’t work with their traditional ticketing systems, hence the manual process and the form and the need to be associated with a match that was already on the schedule, this is why your confirmation email didn’t match.
- Question: What was with that 10% fee?
- Answer: Buckle up, you’re probably going to be as annoyed as we were. Yesterday, AO and US Soccer had to partner to buy all of the tickets upfront to then resell to members. At the last minute CONMEBOL decided that the seats would be subject to dynamic pricing. At this point nearly the entire stadium has gone through ticket sales, meaning the last seats are hit the hardest by the dynamic pricing…SURPRISE, more money grabs. To be clear, AO is not making any money off this fee.
At the end of the day, AO will always speak loudly to ensure our members have access to tickets to come together and support as a group and we achieved that thanks also to the power of our numbers in members like you. While the process is not what we are accustomed to and the sales process is not what our members have come to expect, we felt it was very important to get our members a section together.
We will be sharing more information soon, but we really wanted to get this information out because there have been so many questions, and rightfully so!
In-stadium & Events:
- Unfortunately, due to there being no official supporters’ section, we have been told there will be no drums, banners, tifos, capos, etc. We will still bring the noise and the ruckus, we have no doubt of that!
- We will absolutely still have events and are working on some cool partnerships now that we have tickets! Hopefully we can share more about those soon. Keep your eyes on the event pages as we release information.
May 10, 2024