Apparently Paul changed his mind and decided to join us in Basel, because when we showed up at the train station, there he was. Basel was about an hour away by train. Again, everything is just so expensive in Switzerland, and that round-trip train ticket costs over $50. However, included with tickets to the game was a free train ride to get there (in some cases, this basically eliminates the cost of the tickets). Since Carole has a train pass for all of Switzerland, she saved me the cost of the train ticket by allowing me to use her game ticket on the train. The train was full of fans going to the game. When we arrived to the main station in Basel, we saw signs to the Fan Zone one direction, while the local train to the stadium was the other direction. It was nice that I had Paul along with me, and we parted ways with the rest of the group. After a quick discussion, Paul and I decided that since we were there so early, why not just go over to the stadium, check out the scene there, and see if we can find some tickets that won't break the bank. So we made a U-turn and found them on the train. We figured we didn't have much of a chance to get tickets, since we had heard they were going for as much as €1,000. But on the train, Paul and I set our limit at 200 CHF - the face value on their tickets was 175 CHF.
When we arrived at the stadium, St. Jakob Park, we immediately saw the "Sea of Orange." We knew the Netherlands fans would outnumber the Russians, even hearing that there would be hundreds of thousands in the Fan Zone alone, but this was an impressive site to see in person. We walked around for a few minutes, checking with a couple of ticket scalpers. The first guy we came to was selling a pair for 500 CHF. We actually thought this was a pretty good sign, but still too early to pull the trigger. Those with tickets split so they could get into the game early, and Paul and I walked around checking with scalpers for about an hour. We thought had found several matches, until we realized the confusion that some people were stating their prices in Euros, and some in Swiss Francs. We even came across one Russian guy who was just trying to get his money back from tickets he bought but his friends could not join him - but he wouldn't sell them to us because he thought we would just turn around and sell them for a profit.
Finally, as it got closer to game time, prices started to drop. We found a guy willing to sell us a pair for 400 CHF. Of course, now we were worried they might be counterfeit, but we took the chance. Another problem was that I didn't have the cash for this. I hadn't planned on trying to buy tickets, so I only had about 100 CHF on me. Even though I had just met him the night before, Paul was trusting enough to lend me 100 CHF, which I paid back the next day. Just before we got out our money, I asked if he could just bring the price down to 375 CHF. Somehow he took it, saying, "25 Francs will not ruin my life." Perfect, we paid just over face value and now we had 25 CHF to split for beer money and food when we got in, still keeping to our 200 CHF limit. It was still a lot of money for a soccer game, but to me this once-and-a-lifetime experience was worth it.
We were pretty nervous to enter, for fear that we had bought fake tickets, so we ran quickly to the gate, in case we needed to turn around and find the guy. Luckily, we had no problems getting in. We were both starving since we hadn't eaten lunch or dinner, but we wanted to get to our seats to see the pre-game ceremony and national anthem. We did stop for a sausage and a beer on the way to our seats. Our 25 CHF didn't quite cover it, since they charged a 2 CHF deposit for each cheap plastic cup, which weren't even re-usable (their way of keeping the stadium clean). I was actually amazed that they sold beer in the stadium, since European football fans are crazy enough without adding extra alcohol - after finishing the beer and feeling more sober because of it, I looked closer at the cup and saw that it was labeled "Carlsberg Non-Alcoholic." Oh well, we were just happy to be in the game.
Our seats were actually very good. We were in the lower bowl and in a corner, only 7 rows up from the field.
Very cool to be that close, although it's tough to see everything going on from there. Also cool, but somewhat frightening, was that we were in a Dutch section which was surrounded on both sides by two Russian sections. Kevin, Carole, Shannon, and Dave were on the opposite side of the stadium, right in the middle of the huge Sea of Orange. They were decked out in orange themselves, but unfortunately I didn't have any orange to represent the team I was cheering for. Inside the stadium, the orange was just as impressive. Of the 38,000 in attendance (their stadiums are quite small here), probably 80% of it was orange, but I must say, the Russian fans really made a lot of noise, never shutting up the whole game. Since we were on the other side of the stadium, and just about the only two people in our section not wearing orange, if you blow up this picture that Kevin took and look closely, you can actually see Paul and I just to the left of the gate, in our white and brown shirts, respectively.
Seeing the national anthems and opening ceremony was quite a site. It amazes me how passionate these people are about their national soccer teams. In the US, we just don't have anything like this that we all bond together for and care about so much. I love how the stadium never quiets, the fans singing and chanting all game in support of their team. In addition to the pre-game photos, I also have some video clips here that I took of the national anthems, a chant by the Netherlands before the game, and of the Euro2008 theme song, "Seven Nation Army," a catchy tune by "White Stripe" that is played and sung by the entire stadium before each game.
National Anthems:
