we start with the home team, the new england revolution, who can be seen at home about every 10 days for $19 paid at the door, minutes before kick off.

we then consider my overseas favorites, arsenal fc, who can be seen for a mere 169 euro ($248 as of this post) at their new posh home stadium for a premiership match.

champions league match-ups (at least the early ones) are a steal at 148 euro, a trifling $217.

if we head south from england to spain things get a little more reasonable. a fc barcelona game against primera liga foes will set one back a fair 95 euro ($139).

in the netherlands, the top dutch teams like ajax are perhaps the fairest priced in europe, with a standard game costing 55 euro ($80), and grudge matches like psv eindhoven doubling that to 109 euro ($160).

the rest of europe rounds out as follows, italy’s ac milan is about 115 euro a match ($170), scottish glasgow rangers games are 245 euro ($360), and olympic marsielle tickets are 135 euro ($198).

then again, if you go south of the us to mexico, you can catch cruz azul for a pithy 200 pesos ($19.50).

of course, these costs are not the only costs of seeing these games, and for full hotel-transportation-soccer game wonderfulness, it seems that this website will work out soccer vacations.

but the bottom line? soccer in the united states is bargain basement cheap. i mean REALLY cheap. the cheapest. and if the revolution’s defeat of atlante in route to the superliga crown tells us anything, american soccer must be better than its mexican counterpart.

once again, here are the rankings:

(by price lowest to higest)

1. new england revolution $19 usa
2. cruz azul $19.50 mex
3. ajax $80 ned
4. barcelona $139 esp
5. ac milan $170 ita
6. olympic marsielle $198 fra
7. arsenal $248 eng
8. rangers $360 sct

so i’ve decided to give myself a rough sketch of prices, i’d be looking at. just an opportunity to say, ‘huh, so that’s how much a world cup costs…’

the problem here of course, is that this world cup is africa, and not in egypt or morocco, but south africa. so there’s no easy way to get there (i don’t think a trek through africa is safe, or affordable, although it would be epic). and thus costs rise.

oh, and the dollar sucks. so add like $300 to everything.

world cup costs

• travel (nyc to capetown) — $1,750
• housing (7 nights) — $644 or $98 (hostels, 100 ZAR = $13.50 a night)
• food (mostly beer, i’d imagine) — $560 ($80 a day)
• tickets (2 for any game possible) — $278 – $400

• gear (cuz i’m obviously gonna buy stuff) — $300 (just rough budget)

• TOTAL = $3,654

variables, explanations, disclaimers

so, obviously, these are some pretty fuzzy numbers. first, most of them are estimated on the price of traveling to capetown in like, april 2009 instead of instead in 2010. air fares may go down for the world cup (more people flying) or they may go up. everything could get more expensive, or cheaper.

i had this dream that I could potentially travel across africa. you know, start in cairo, and do this f***ing epic trip down the nile, through the heart of africa, and end up capetown. apparently that is both wicked expensive and takes 4 months. it is also not easy to setup or accommodate.

there’s also the whole south africa component. tickets are available to south africans for just $20 (!!!), so maybe i can cheaper tickets. especially because i know a few south africans. the exchange rate is also really favorable, about 100 Rands (which is what SA’s call their money) to 13 bucks. so maybe south africa isn’t all bad.

then, again, there is the dollar, the crapshoot currency. like maybe i should have my money converted to euros as i save it, to make it more stable.

conclusions

if go to south africa, for the world cup in 2010, it’ll be expensive. but i knew that. so let me frame some goals on how to get there more efficiently.

my options

1. break into sports journalism, try to get someone to pay for me to go
2. try to become european, or at least get involved with their currencies
3. make a fortune (see later for digital entrepreneurial breakthrus)
4. don’t go
5. study abroad in south africa in spring 2010, chill out til world cup
6. sail over, possibly as charter crew (perhaps the least ridiculous)

you can also donate money to sponsor my trip. in which case i would love you forever. and possibly where your logo (or name or social security number) to demonstrate my appreciation.

think about it.