Skyline Drifter

Yeah broadly agree with that. I was at all three games in France 98 but it was a different era. I enjoyed it but there was no social media, I was pretty young, did on a budget bus tour and Campaniles. I only got to one game in Stuttgart v Hungary in the Euros because a long absence from away travel with a young family meant I didn't have the points to get via the SFA. We did have a great time in Stuttgart though. The World Cup with my 16 year old son in tow was a bucket list thing and I loved pretty much every minute of it. Florida was MUCH too hot for my liking but Boston was phenomenal. The only sour note to an extent the damned trains to the stadium and even then in reality the Morocco one was ok. The Haiti experience in terms of travel there and back to the stadium was pretty disastrous though. I wasn't massively disappointed by the actual games. I expected three points, we got three points. Made harder work of Haiti than I hoped but got there. Disappointed to lose such an early goal to Morocco but thereafter competed well and denied by poor officiating probably from getting a draw. Brazil performance was meek but changed nothing. In wider terms, I enjoyed the World Cup. I'm surprised how many people are saying otherwise. From an armchair point of view in terms of watching I thought the football was generally good with very few dreadful games. Kick off times didn't massively bother me though granted I was in the US for the first half for the tournament so the times were fine there and there weren't all that many middle of the night games once I got back. I don't get too animate about ticket prices. Cat 1 & 2 prices for competing nations were too big a step up from Cat 3. I'd accept that allocations of 4,000 tickets or so were too low. But the Cat 3 level pricing wasn't awful and once it goes to resale markets then it is what it is I guess. Infantino's fawning to Trump was pretty sickening (that Peace Prize nonsense is peak sycophancy), as was the US refusing to let a referee in and treating Iran's team as they did. And the shenanigans around Balogun not being suspended for a red card were scandalous. Infantino should stand to account for these things but won't. Outwith that though the US experience was tremendous. US Customs was an easy pleasant experience. Boston is a tremendous welcoming place and you're absolutely right that the bulk of Scots being based there for at least a week helped that. In contrast to expectations, there wasn't really any evidence of surge pricing on site in Ubers or local transport. Even the hotels ended up not all that unreasonable. All the Americans we met were excellent - friendly and helpful.

Gordon made some wonderful saves and contributions for Scotland but my abiding memory of him will always now be of him at 42 years old sprinting well over 100 yards to jump on Kenny McLean in the 98th minute at Hampden that night. Thankfully that eclipses the previous memory of him coming on for his "retirement" game in 2024 v Finland at 2-0 up and picking the ball out of the net twice in 15 mins for a 2-2 having given away the equaliser with a clumsy challenge for a penalty! People would have laughed that night if you'd said he'd still be playing a crucial part of things in the World Cup two years later!

I'd definitely have Gordon above McGregor and probably above Leighton. Goram was better at his best but Gordon did it for so much longer.

Uefa.com says: Stadion Stožice, Ljubljana which is their usual national stadium. Capacity only 16k. Uefa.com also says Macedonia is at: National Arena Todor Proeski, Skopje

I think you'll probably end up ok for Slovenia and you'll be absolutely fine for Macedonia. Switzerland will depend what the allocation actually is. Nobody seems to know for sure what it'll be in St Gallen. If you go to the other two (and don't miss a home game in between) then you'll be on 20 by the time the Swiss tickets go up for sale. You're probably 50/50 on that if it is only 1,000 or so and pretty likely if it's 1300+

I'd be astonished if Macedonia doesn't go to 0 points. I think both ourselves and England got allocated about 2,000 last visit and would expect the same. Don't think we'll sell that for a Nations League game, especially one that's a pain to get to and is on a Saturday in between two Hampden Tuesday games. I believe we got around 1,200 initially for Slovenia last time we were there and were allocated more later. I presume an initial allocation of 1,200 is likely again. It's a Saturday and relatively easy to get to compared to Macedonia although there's a home game at Hampden the Tuesday after. If we're pinned at 1,200 then everyone on 22 points who wants one will likely get one. I suspect it will drop 19 at least most likely though. If we get a bigger allocation up to 2,000 it'll likely drop to 0 points also. Ultimately there's about 8,000 people on 13 points or more and 30,000 others on 12 points or less. Most of that 30,000 rarely if ever go abroad. It's unusual, but not completely unheard of, for games that drop below 12 points to sell out at all. The Amsterdam friendly in 2024 that just dropped out of the points was the last one to sell out in single figures I think (7 points). In the current last 10 aways, 7 of them went to NIL. Denmark went to 18, Greece went to 18 first time and 11 points second time.

Further to this have spent 20 mins trying to track down the capacity of section B4 at Kybunpark which is the away section. Total stadium capacity for international games is only just over 17,000 as they aren't allowed to use the terracing and so convert it to seating. I've not found anything definitive regarding the capacity of B4. St Gallen's website says they increased the capacity of the away section to approx 2,000 in 2023 but I think that includes some terracing. One AI source suggests 1,300 to 1,500 seats. I guess we'll get somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 seats. Which means 24 points will guarantee a ticket pretty much (subject to movement for the Slovenia and Macedonia games before then). 22 - 23 points would be guaranteed if it IS 1,500. 21 probably gets in ok (currently 1,546 on 21 points or more). If we get 1,500 tickets I doubt it'll go below 19 points but it is the last game in a Nations League campaign on the back of an all time expensive year for TA that went to the USA so I suppose it could. If we get 1,000 tickets it won't get below 22 points IMO. The higher points people are the more likely to go anyway.

It'll not get anywhere near 11 points unless they massively increase the allocation. I'm on 22 points and I don't think I'll get in. Unless I go to Macedonia before then I'll be dropping to 20 before they go on sale. There are 1,546 people on 21 or more. There are nearly 12,000 people on 12 points or more. Even with some people spent up from the World Cup you're not getting anywhere near a sub 1,000 allocation on 12 points.

This Would be to me. I'd have asked them to move and then had a steward move them if need be. There's a world of difference between a father asking if his child (I assume you're meaning child here) can squeeze in and some random adults just deciding your seat will be theirs.

Certainly wasn't my experience. I was in the SSC sections. I saw several instances of people moving other people who were sitting in their designated seats. I was in the stadiums pretty early and sat in my designated seats but if someone had been in them they'd have been moved (although I'd have preferred a better view in Miami to be fair!). However, the ability to freely move around stadiums once inside the turnstiles certainly means it's possible you're right in some cases. I think it's more likely that the below is correct though. For the Haiti game we were next to a lady from Northern Ireland and her daughters in the SSC section, none of whom was even a member I think. In their case dad was a member, as were his brother and sister in law and they'd bought three tickets elsewhere in the ground so the six of them could go and then swapped the tickets around so the girls and their mum were in the three tickets together in with the SSC. There was probably a bit of that sort of thing going on too when families went to the game together.

I'm not really in an ideal position to compare. Due to circumstances I only got to one game in Germany and dived in and out with my son for it. We were only there two nights. And it was the Hungary one so the atmosphere was pretty flat after the game. We were in the US for a fortnight and it was fabulous. Plus it was a World Cup and that extra aspect of running into non European fans too. If you ignore the cost aspect then definitely the World Cup for me but I didn't get to experience the best of Germany and I may think a little differently if I had.

Wow, who rattled your cage? Well me obviously, but I've no idea how. No matter. I've as much right to be here as you. I'm going nowhere.

Worked it all out yesterday, just a tad over £9k! For me and my just turned 16 year old son at all three games. Although his grandparents contributed £2.5k for his trip so it ended up costing me about £6.5k. Yes it was worth it. I don't actually think I'd have gone, certainly not to all three, if I'd thought it was going to cost that much. Back in December 2025 I thought I could probably do it for £5k - £6k. Didn't initially expect to stay in Boston itself but ended up doing so which mean the budget for a 8 nights there went up by about £800. Flights were about £600 more than I initially budgeted too. Hadn't initially considered the cost of actual transport to the games which between trains in Boston and bus in Miami ended up being over $200 each. Travel insurance was much more expensive to the US than expected too. And of course my hope of spending roughly £100 per day on food and drink in the US was underestimated by about 50%! I stayed with a friend in Florida for 3 nights which saved costs too but if that hadn't been available we simply wouldn't have gone to the 3rd game so I'd have paid less. I don't in any way regret going to the Brazil game but I certainly enjoyed the two game Boston leg miles more than the Miami game. I was in France in 1998 so it's been a long time and the chance to share the experience with my son before he's too old and wants to go with his mates instead and before I'm too old to actually deal with it was too good to miss. Absolutely worth it.

Well there were 3 different price levels for three different games so that's not a simple answer. Plus the top 500 or so got them for $60 per match which was the same for every country (apart from Iran). I paid an average of £168 for each of my tickets at Cat 3 level. I think Haiti was $140, Morocco was $160 and Brazil was $220. With exchange rates and currency charges it worked out at £167 each. There were about 2,000 tickets available at those price levels. There were also 1,000 Cat 2;s and 1,000 Cat 1's which without looking up the historic prices were somewhere between £300 and £600 per games I think.

Well yes, I'm going to doubt that most of the stadium was "bandwagon jobs". I'm sure some were.