“Of the semi-finals back at the Parc, there weren’t 50, so it’s at the stadium that you have to experience it“, says Maxime. This PSG supporter will drive from Clermont this Tuesday to attend the decisive meeting of his favorite club in the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund. He is not a subscriber, so he had to comply with the law of Ticketplace, the platform where Paris Saint-Germain subscribers sell their tickets legally at sometimes extravagant prices. Result, Auvergnat paid 450 euros to treat themselves to (perhaps) a moment of history.
“I was ready to go up to 600 euros maximum. I don’t do this often and I have the opportunity so I’m giving myself this pleasure, I haven’t asked myself too many questions. It doesn’t shock me at all, it’s the game of supply and demand, as long as everyone agrees, no problem“, continues Maxime, who had already come to the Parc des Princes this season, to watch the Parisian victory against Montpellier in November.
A ticket-transport-accommodation package at 700 euros for Thomas, 27, from Rodez
Thomas will discover the Parisian enclosure this Tuesday. Born in Paris, he has lived in Rodez, in Aveyron, for 15 years. Although he has often seen PSG away, in Toulouse or Montpellier, he never had the opportunity to go to the Park. He is therefore making the trip this Tuesday with three supporter friends: “II promised myself that the day Paris was in the Champions League semi-final, I would go to see the match at the Parc. There the opportunity was unmissable.“
The 27-year-old spent around 700 euros in total for the ticket (470 euros with the Ticketplace commission), transport and accommodation in Paris. He also had to take a day off. “It will perhaps be part of the top five of the happiest days of my life, so does this memory have any value? I don’t think so, so we close our eyes“, smiles Thomas, to whom the passion for PSG was transmitted by his father and uncles, also fervent red and blue supporters.
“I understand people who insult me because I put 400 euros into a match”
Julien has much less road to cover than Maxime and Thomas to reach his place at the Parc des Princes. This 22-year-old student lives in Ermont, in Val d’Oise. He is not a subscriber either, to his great regret, and he also heated up the credit card, once again : “Every year as soon as there are Champions League matches from the eighth onwards, I go there. In recent years it stopped there, but not this time. I paid roughly the same amount for a quarter and a half, that is to say between 400 and 470 euros. I do it out of love for PSG, but I understand the people who insult me because I spent 400 euros.“
The young man even made the count this season, he went to see around ten matches at the Parc des Princes, all competitions combined: he got 2,500 euros. “It’s impossible for me not to go see this match. Either I go there and we will be eliminated, it will be horrible, or we qualify for the final and I will experience something that will be worth all the gold in the world.“, adds Julien.
Thomas Vichard
An impact on the atmosphere at the Parc des Princes?
But many supporters have given up in the face of these exorbitant prices. This is the case for Hugo, who lives near Toulouse. He looked for tickets on Ticketplace and on a Facebook group dedicated to PSG fans: no affordable tickets. “There was nothing for less than 400 euros… I’m a work-study student, that price represents almost a quarter of my salary, so either I go see the match and then we eat pasta, or we try to live decently and watch the match with friends“, explains this son of the former Tigris Mystic.
PSG-Dortmund will also be on television for Elodie, desperate by the prices on Ticketplace. She did not intend to spend more than 120 euros to attend the meeting, but nevertheless wanted to share this moment with his son, a subscriber in the Auteuil stand. She herself was a subscriber to Auteuil rouge for 20 years. “Now it becomes a privilege to be at the Parc des Princes. Many supporters no longer have the means to go there, because at some point you have to make a choice, I put 350 euros aside to go on vacation. What’s a shame is that the tickets are selling out, so it’s not going to stop“, she says.
And his fear is to see aisles filled with spectators, and not supporters: “We are told that everyone must stand up and everything, but people who are PSG fanatics, will they have the means to take seats to set the mood? Not sure“. But even if Elodie gave up the idea of sitting in the stands, she still tries her luck in competitions which offer placesin case luck wants to smile.
