Fan Travel Stories: Loyalty Runs Deep – Tattoos, Tickets, and Traveling for Tottenham Hotspur FC
What does it mean to be a true football superfan? For Dipak Patel, it means building entire vacations around matchday, joining supporter clubs for insider ticket access, and yes—getting not one, but two Tottenham Hotspur tattoos. In this episode of Fan Travel Stories, we dive into how this Spurs diehard (and travel industry veteran) plans European trips around the Premier League calendar, scores great seats without breaking the bank, and finds time for skyline walks and food tours between matches.
From digital ticketing hacks to cultural must-dos in London and beyond, Dipak shares a fan’s playbook for turning football passion into unforgettable travel experiences.
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Episode Transcript
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Welcome back to Fan Travel Stories. A proud part of the Tickets to Travel podcast network where every ticket comes with a passport stamp and every diehard fan has a story worth flying for. I'm your host, Mario DeWine, and today we're going deep into the mind of a real football superfan. Meet Deepak Patel.
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Travel industry insider, loyal, Tottenham supporter, and man, more Euro trips around Spurs home schedule than most of us plan our entire year. This episode is about more than fandom. It's about travel behaviors, booking strategies, stadium vibes, and a little tattoo commitment or two. Deepak also shares his experience using the Go City Pass to explore stadiums and sites around London.
Including a walk to the top of the stunning Tottenham Hot Spur Stadium Pro tip. If you wanna follow his footsteps, grab your own, go City pass and use promo code TTT Pod 25 or 10% off your next Go City Adventure. Whether you're in it for the football or just wanna level up your event travel offerings, this episode is packed with insights for fans and B2B Pros alike.
Let's kick things off. This is fan travel stories, so follow us on all the socials at Tick two Travel Pod, and subscribe wherever you get your podcast because the fan travel stories on tickets to travel starts now.
Welcome to Tickets to Travel, the Business of Travel Experiences. I'm your host, Mario DeWine, and today we have a super fan of Cotton Hot Spurs, and he's a good friend of mine that we've known for a long time. 20 years mayor. I think it's been 20. Yeah, it's gotta be 20 years. Deepak Patel, welcome to the pot.
Thank you. It's great to be here. Great to see you smiling face and talk to you. Super jazzed about this. Here's the other unique piece is that you are a travel professional. So as we talk to fans and super fans and other B2B professionals in the travel ticketing and live events world, I think you have a very unique perspective because you understand how the sausage is made.
The background of contracting supply, distributing it, working with various attraction suppliers, and also maybe even sports stickers. Yeah. We met at Expedia 20 years ago in the New York City office. I was not in the hospitality space at all, but Expedia was the company that brought me to Chicago, which is.
My home. I love Chicago and I've been here 20 plus years and I love the city and I've continued to be in the hospitality space after I left Expedia at some various companies. I'm sure when we first met in the New York City offices, I had a really thick, believe it or not, I'm actually English and I used to have a really thick English accent.
I knew yourself and some of our colleagues would make fun of my accent sometimes. 'cause it was, it was a lot more, it was a much more thick, and as I like to describe it, I used to sound like Hugh Grant. But over time it's changed. Two grants pushing it, and I think we were trying to just place it right because, because you're Indian.
A British India. Yeah, British Indian. I was born and raised in England of Indian descent, so I've never spent any time in India. Just born and raised in London, and then came to the States and. I came to America when I was 13, so if, if I moved to America when I was 17, I would've kept my accent. So over time, it's slowly morphed into whatever it is now.
And even now, people don't quite understand where I'm from and they always ask me, where are you from? And my usual response is, where do you want me to be from? And honestly, most people, folk, I'm Australian. That's the number one response. People gave it out. You sound like Chicago, which I think local Chicagoans would not think that you wanna go back to England.
Nobody thinks I'm a eng. Nobody thinks I'm English either. I think that's important to note to a certain degree. Because you're from London, right? I'm London. Born and raised and talking about being a super fan and being a football fan. We're not gonna call it Stocker on this podcast here. I've had other football fans on from the US who traveled and so I'm, what I'm trying to understand is when did you start becoming a Spurs fan or why you're a Sports Spurs fan?
Yeah, so one thing that you probably know a lot of folks in England, in the uk and you have in general like football is the number one sport and where Red with that, and I'm not sure exactly when my love of football began specifically with my team, but I would say it's probably around eight or nine years old.
I remember watching TV distinctly watching some of our matches, and back then we were pretty good and we had some amazing. Players at the time, like Glen Harle. Uh, we had two folks from Argentina who just recently won the World Cup and them coming to the UK and coming to our team was such a big deal.
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Tick stock.com where tickets move smarter. If you love football, you watch our team. When we are known as a team, that's, that plays with flair and the beautiful game is what, how we describe it. And so I've always been a Spurs fan, so I'm such a hardcore fan. I've also got two Spurs tattoos as well, which I can show you, but my love of football began at a very early age.
Do you remember the first game you went to? I've only started going to matches in the, about 15 years ago. And when I started going back to England every single year, and I typically go back once a once or twice a year now, so my first Premier League match wasn't actually a Spurse match either. It was a Chelsea match least, at least it wasn't an arsenal.
It wasn't an arsal match for your audience is our biggest rival. We don't like them. They don't like us. It's understood. But my first friendly match was a Chelsea match, and I remember going with a childhood friend who had tickets and just being amazed about. A, the atmosphere and the Chelsea Stadium is also an old stadium and the seats are really close together, so you're touching your elbows with everybody else.
And I remember the match was like seven to one, seven to one in football. Match is is a very high score. So I was wondering like, is it all, all matches like this high scoring? But I remember that was my first specific Premier League match. But then I think the phone, yeah, I went to my first spur match and.
At that time we played at our old stadium called White Heart Lane. And the White Heart Lane is, it was over probably like a hundred years old. It was cranky, but the stories and the, just the fans were truly amazing and we were lucky to win that match. And I. All the chanting and the cheering was, was something I will definitely never forget.
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I will never forget that stadium, new stadium is by far the best football stadium in in Europe, but it doesn't quite have the same atmosphere as our old stadium, which was really close to the pitch, and the fans were so close together, close to each other, and the chanting, the chairing was just truly amazing.
But. Yeah, so my first match was not a squares match, but I've made up for that in the meantime. And I, I typically go on every trip to at least two squares matches. I've seen them play at other stadiums around London as well. Ironically, my first and only Premier League match was at the old White Hearts lane.
I think I mentioned this to you before. I remember very vividly them asking me like, where are you sitting? 'cause I had bought resale tickets, I believe, on StubHub. I had center of the pitch. Like second row, third row. And I remember being one very jet lagged. I was on a red eye and I said, you know what?
I'm here. I'm just gonna go buy tickets and go. I remember getting shuffled into the this one side because they wanted to separate the Sunland fans from the Spurs fans and. I gotta tell you, the hairs on my arms stood up when the chanting started because I'd only seen it either on FIFA Idio or on television.
But to actually be there and experience it, it's hard to describe. And I'm not even a Spurs fan. I'm not. It was, I could see why this is a driver for you to go. 'cause how often do you go now? So I typically go once or twice a year to Europe, and I definitely make a point of planning it around the spur schedule as well.
'cause obviously the schedules come out quite a few months in advance and so I plan it out so I can try to see at least two Spurs matches. But I am such a hardcore football fan. I try to see as many matches as possible from other teams as well. So the one thing I won't go do is see an arsenal match, but I have been to probably eight to 10 stadiums all over London and then been to.
Other cities in in, in the UK as well to see not just Spurs matches, but other teams as well. And also see matches from the other leagues, which is something I would highly recommend for the audience, is not just go to Premier League matches. Go to matches from the championship of the first division. With the onslaught of Wexham being so popular in the us you've seen how they've gone from the National League to the second division and now they're gonna be in the championship.
But the experiences at those other stadiums and smaller stadiums is not quite the same as the Premier League, but can be so much better because the atmosphere, and these are true fans that, and they're also in parts of the country that are little. The really awesome thing about football stadiums in England is that then in the US NFL stadiums, like on their own football stadiums in the UK are part of the neighborhood.
They're essentially. Across the street, you'll see rows of houses and people, they're, they're in the local neighborhoods and that's really cool. You have local bars, they just, you wanna soak up the whole experience and as we'll talk about, it's a lot easier to get tickets for those other divisions and you're not going through resellers or paying those crazy prices.
But highly recommend going to those other stadiums in other divisions. And I've seen matches all over Europe, so. In Portugal, in Spain, in Germany, Turkey was actually one of my, one of my earliest experiences at arguably one of the loudest football stadiums in the world. But I've seen matches all over Europe and I'd highly recommend that as well.
And it sometimes could be easy to get tickets to matches from other parts of the other parts of Europe as opposed to Premier League, which is a, there's always a premium to get to get some of the Premier League matches and can be quite expensive as well. But you live in Chicago. Yeah. So how do you typically plan your travel?
How do you figure out which games you have to go see versus the ones that you're just gonna go see for fun? Yeah. And then how do you plan getting there? To start? Going back to what I said since the schedule's up pretty much set for the whole year except for similar secondary competitions. So since I'm a Spurs fan, I will plan it around the Spurs schedule, where ideally I'm gonna see one of the matches at home, maybe one away or so, since I know the schedule.
I typically go in the fall or February, March time period. So I'll look at the schedule, plan it out, plan out when I want to go, and then ideally there'll also be some midweek matches as well, so I can see some other teams play. You have that information online, so that's the first thing I do. And then based on that, typically when I go is when the, yeah, it's easy to find flights and cheaper to fly there as well from Chicago.
Chicago has a lot of direct flights. I only fly United Airlines. They have, I think three or four direct flights in London every day. So based on when I'm going, I usually fly out on a Friday because your soccer experience is exactly what I do. I land and then a couple hours later I go to my first match, and then typically I've been going for either 10 days or two weeks.
So based on the schedule, timely, I'll book my flights and then around that I'll plan what are them, what other matches I'm gonna go to my hotels, and then getting the tickets. So initially the first thing is looking at the schedule. Second thing is planning the flight. Third thing will be getting the tickets.
And then from there, planning the hotels and going to whatever activities I'm planning and doing in restaurants. When you see the schedules, you're like, I'm gonna go to these three, four games, five games, whatever it is. Then you book the flights first, or do you find that because you already know that there's probably tickets available, so you'll book the flights and then book the tickets?
Yeah, I know what's good as matches. I wanna see. So you separate it by games that you strategically wanna go to. Then you book the flights. Mm-hmm. And they look at tickets. So how do you organize that? Yeah, so I think about it in the sense of a, I know I wanna go, I know what generally what time of the year I want to go.
I'll look at the schedule in terms of the specific team that Spurs are gonna play. That doesn't necessarily really matter. It, it's more of, I know if I'm going for this specific time period, they're gonna be playing two home matches or two matches in London that I can get tickets to. I'll figure out when I wanna go, and then I will look at the flights.
And typically when I go in the fall or February, March time period, United Airlines typically has three or four flights from London every single day. And they tend to be on the more reasonable side. So. Flight next. Getting tickets is the third part of the of this planning. So every team in Europe has a supporters club and you can join their supporters club and you have some benefits.
So being a member of Ally, the Spurs supporters Club. You have access to tickets if available. Medium is about 65,000 people. If they don't sell out to ticket, uh, season ticket holders, you have access to those tickets. But more importantly, there's a secondary market where folks who can't go to the match, 'cause you know they have a wedding or they're out of town or whatever, you can buy tickets directly through them, through the Spurs website.
And what's really great about that is that they can't charge two x or three x essentially. Space value. So for me, it makes sense to join the Supporters Club because you have access to those tickets. You also have access to getting a discount through the Spur store or through the online website and through other activities that the team offers as well.
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So there's a small cost for that membership, annual membership, every team has different benefits and different access to tickets. So if you're in support of Matches, the United or Liverpool. And you are planning to go to England and see their matches. I would highly recommend joining the supporters club and kind of understanding what the benefits are.
And one of those benefits might be being access, getting access to tickets, or getting access to the, the secondary tickets where folks who can't go will sell tickets to other supporter members. That game that I mentioned, I had great tickets. I, like I said, I think I got it through StubHub and when I got there, I.
I was sitting the second row with people who've had these tickets for decades, so I was buying it from one of their friends. And so I remember very vividly this woman saying, how much you pay for this ticket? I don't know. I think it was like 75 bucks. And she started laughing. She started cracking up because obviously her ticket price was probably 20 bucks or whatever it was, and she had them forever, right?
So they have these kind of generational seat license deals. With these super fans or people who've grown up supporting that particular team. And so that was an interesting thing. It also happened to me at the garden a couple times when I would go see the Knicks. I'll have great tickets, maybe a lower bowl or something, and someone will lean over and be like, how much did you pay for this?
Because there are another season ticket holder, right? It was like, how much could I have gotten for this particular game? And so I got into, that has happened to me so often. Oh yeah. That I'm like. Don't worry about it. Yeah. But every single match that happens actually. 'cause the folks on either side of you, they know that you're not the regular person who sits there.
So they'll start asking those questions. And that's happened to me not only in England but in when I see matches in other countries as well. It's interesting, back 10, 12 years ago before everything became virtual and online season ticket holders had a physical card. And so if they were selling their tickets to other folks through third party companies, reselling companies, they would have to send the card to you.
And usually it was to a hotel. 'cause that's, I was staying at a hotel and then immediately after the match I had to mail it back to them. So antiquated system in the sense of. If the mail did not come on time, last minute, you get to the hotel and you don't have this ticket yet, you're reaching out to the ticketing company to say, Hey, where's my ticket?
And so that was kind of heroining at first because you're worried about getting your tickets. Everything now is online and done digitally. But yeah, it was many a time where I was waiting for that season. That physical call that would get you access to, to that ticket. For that stadium and for that match.
Yeah. That's pretty interesting. Culturally, could you think about the Chicago Bears doing the same thing in terms of proven out their, in actuality, their fandom, right? They're super fandom by being an established hard carrying member, if that's why they call 'em clubs, right? That Yeah, you have, you can bring up your, yeah, union ID or your driver's license, United Airlines Mileage Plus card.
So much easier. So you've got your flights, you go through United, you, you're obviously a member there. You, your preferred method is to go to the Spur site. So before the, everything became digital, I would have to go through some of those third party websites. Like initially I was using StubHub and a couple other, other companies.
But the company that I highly recommend for your audience and as done me no long over the last few years is a cycle. Live football tickets.net. Again, ticket start net. And they're the most reputable company in this space and they have tickets to matches for all the major matches in Europe and the finals, et cetera, et cetera.
And so in this past trip we went, I went to six matches, two matches on my own. And then I had some friends that came over as well. So we had to go through them three or four times 'cause we were seeing non spurs matches and they were always reputable. They always say tickets available. Some on the cheaper side, some are more on the expensive side based on what particular match it was, but it was definitely by far the most reputable company in in the company.
I would recommend in today's time, if you are going to see a Premier League match, if you're seeing a match in the championship of the first division or overseas, you can buy a ticket directly from the team's website. And I've seen matches for 20, 20 pounds, essentially in the championship, or the first division at these really amazing stadiums teams that used to be in the Premier League.
Now they've dropped down, et cetera. So getting match, getting tickets for this, for the non Premier League matches, you should never have to go to a resale website, just go directly to that team's website and you should be able to get tickets because typically they don't necessarily sell out, and it is.
Very much different experience and it's a lot easier to get tickets for those matches. I am lucky enough to be able to book hotel employee rates at a couple of different brands, and that is through connections that I have being part of the industry. And quotation, yeah, being part of the industry. A specific, a very tight-knit industry, so I always bought tickets directly, those channels.
To give you an example, I will typically stay at hotels for between like 50 to 70 euros a night at certain nice hotels. I am very lucky to be able to do that. That is not how most folks book hotels. I totally understand that. I am lucky enough to do that. But if I was not doing that, I would definitely try to utilize some of the big OTAs like Expedia and booking.
Obviously Airbnb is another option as well. And if you're going with a number of folks, Airbnb might be a great option 'cause three or four folks can share an apartment together in, in one space. I'm very fortunate I recognize that and that saves me a lot of money. So for you as a super fan who's traveling.
Is it more proximity to the stadium or other things you want to do that sort of dictates whether or not you go with this, this particular property to stay at? Yeah, so typically since I have the relationships with specific hotel brands, it's gonna be more so based on where I can get that more affordable rate.
And the cool thing about London specifically, or any city in Europe, the public transportation system is so much better than the us. So getting around a particular city, uh, or big, even a big city train or bus is super accessible and super easy. So specifically for the Spur Stadium, there are really no hotels in that specific area.
So I'm typically staying in between. Three to five miles away anyway. And then taking a train, usually sometimes an Uber to the matches. Another cool thing with the relationships that I have with the hotels, there's so many locations. I will definitely look at the location and specifically where I can get that more affordable rate.
And then again, public transportation is so amazing in London. Never concerned about how far away it is. I agree. I, I miss going. I used to go to London. I don't know, once every quarter for five years, and then the pandemic happened, and then I, we stopped, so I haven't been back since. But you're right, the transportation, the two, the buses all very intuitive in London.
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Yeah. In terms of the hotels though, if that's the case, then this probably you have the match and then you're there for a few days. So what else do you like to do when you're in destination? Not just London, but anywhere else? Do you typically do the main sightseeing? I love seeing the attraction, so I will, one of the things I like to do is typically research wherever I'm traveling, whether it's on the sight side or the restaurant side.
So I will make, do activities. Usually the matches on the weekends are in the daytime, and then the weekday, they're in the evenings. So if the matches is in the, is the weekday, the match will be seven 30 or eight o'clock, so you have the whole day to explore the city, do various things. If I'm new to that city, I wanna see the top sites.
I like doing walking tours. As well. 'cause you get to explore the city and hear the history of whatever the theme of that walking tour is from that tour guide as well. And then being a foodie, I will definitely try to research restaurants. I try to find places that tourists don't go to where the locals go to.
And part of that is doing from doing some research, but then also asking folks once they get there. I think that's really key is asking folks, Hey, if you have a night out, where are you going? Going to dinner. As opposed to the top 10 list. TripAdvisor, I wanna find out where the locals go. 'cause that's where you find the best food, the most affordable food as well.
And those hidden gems that you're not necessarily gonna find on, uh, travel books or certain websites. It's a combination of things. And even with the site scene, some things are plan where you have to schedule a specific ticket, but other things I will. Again, talk to locals and understand what's cool, what's not cool, what's what should be missed, what's a tourist trap, and kind of plan my trip 50%.
Plan my trip, 50% of it. I will figure it out once I get there. Got it. And so if you were what, what's the next trip? What is, obviously we got the World Cup coming here next year, but into Europe at some point towards the end of this year, I would think. 'cause didn't the Champions League just end and there's also the FIFA.
Club World Cup this summer here as well. So what's on the agenda? So there's a few things actually. So Spurs is actually playing in the year of Woke league final next week. Oh wow. They're playing a team called Manchester United, which is probably a team that a lot of folks know. They're one of the big teams.
So we're playing the match in Spain. Unfortunately, I can't go all the way to Spain to watch the match, but I'm actually going down to New Orleans with a couple of friends of mine to watch the match. At the New Orleans Supporters Club bar for Spurs, whatever team you support usually have a bar associated with that team as well.
Whether you are in the Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Machester, the United in Chicago, they have a bar. And so Spurs has this bar in New Orleans that I've been to a couple of times during some trips, and they are the most friendly bunch of folks. They have the best thing and the chance, so I. Just because Spurs does not necessarily get into a lot of finals.
We're gonna go down there to watch the final and have a really awesome New Orleans experience. And then I have a trip, work trip to Plague in the summertime, so I'm gonna go to Budapest in Vienna and Rome. So I haven't started any planning for those cities yet, but that will be happening in the next few weeks.
And I'll, again, I'll do some research of things I need to see and then some of the things I'll plan once I get there. Then the Premier League is actually coming to Chicago in the summertime. They're playing two back-to-back matches at Soldier Fields. So there's four Premier League teams playing on that one evening.
So we bought tickets for that game. The six of us are going, and then I'm sure I'm gonna go back to England in the fall. It's a little bit too early to plan that because the schedule is not out. But as we get closer to August and September, I'll be looking at the schedule and figuring out if I'm gonna go in the fall or in the springtime of, of 2026.
So a lot of my trips are planned around football and hopefully Spurs wins a trophy, which we've not done since in about 16 years. And so that's one thing. The team that I support is not one of the quote unquote big boys. We have not won a lot of trophies, and it's a big deal to be in this final. And so I am a true, hardcore fan as opposed to supporting one of those big teams that a lot of folks like you.
You say you're a hardcore fan. When you meet a a Spurs fan in London, do they give you the same respect? Oh, I think they do, and they do. 'cause I'm knowledgeable about the team A and then I go to matches all the time. And I'm not sure if you know this or not, but I have two Spurs tattoos as well. And so once I know they're a Spurs fan and even in the US there's a lot of Spurs fans in the US and you can, you can tell because they're also the jersey that they're wearing or the jacket they're wearing.
So whenever I went into a fan, I will always show my Spurs tattoo because it's like a badge of honor, so to speak. And is it on your or? Yeah, I have two on. I can show you. Show your audience as well. Once they see that, they know that I am a hardcore football fan, though. I live in Chicago. I'm supposed to be in England.
What made you, was it, were you drinking one night and you just said, Hey, I'm gonna get a tattoo, or, this was a calculated tattoo? These were calculated tattoos. The first tattoo I got in England at a tattoo parlor where a lot of football players get their tattoos actually. So the guy who did the tattoo is a, is a lifelong Spurs fan as well.
He has tons of. A number of spur tattoos all over his body, but he does a lot of football players as well. So that was my first spur tattoo about 10 years ago, I'd say. And then in January of this year, I decided to get a second tattoo, not because of any specific reason. I was just inspired and I wanted to do it, so I did it.
And I love this second tattoo. Is this the Crest? We're audio only podcast Deepak. So is it a crest where you describe them a bit? So the first one. Huge. And then the second one is the new logo for our team as well. So these are tattoos that are gonna stand the test of time. And the quest is the RO that is on a football.
Yeah. And that's, it's essentially been like that through 145 year history. Really. The oldest teams as well. So that one crest is always gonna be there. So it's gonna stand the test of time. And so when I become, and. 85 years old, it will still look good. Hopefully. I don't know, man. You gotta talk to these marketing people.
They can rebrand at any time and then that's another tattoo you're gonna have to put on. And the cockwell I think will be fine. I think the other one is, might change, well change over time for sure. But I'm very, I love my tattoos. If I might get more, you never know. I'm never gonna get a player because players change teams all the time.
I. But yeah, I'm definitely, I love my tattoos and I think that's the badge of honor that when I show that to another Spurs fan, they know you're the real deal. I like the tattoo story. That's his. Have you ever met a crazy, who was the craziest super fan you've ever met? For the Spur, I would say his tattoo guy, because he was head to toe.
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He had so many Spurs, tattoos. And he does a lot of football plays as well, but even on his face and his neck, et cetera, so Oh really? Yeah, if you're doing that, yeah. I think you're a super fan. You are a super fan and you have to, I'm pretty sure he is older, right? So you have to imagine, I don't know, what is it like in the eighties and nineties where it was literally like gangs, right?
The hooligans. An Arsenal fan on Hulu of some kind that that could cause some trouble for sure. So you were able to take advantage of a Ghost City Stadium tour. Can you describe the experience or how it came about? Yeah, so Ghost City, your audience is, audience is a digital Sightsee Pass company with a global leader in the space.
And essentially it's one pass that gets you access to in London, over a hundred attractions and experiences. So we actually work with a number of football stadiums in London. So you could do the inside background tour of a Premier League stadium. So we work with a number of teams like West Ham and Arsenal, and we also work with a Spur Stadium.
So you could do a stadium tour. The stadium tour is really a fun thing to do, especially for this first time is for who visiting London and for going to matches. You get to see the locker rooms, learn about the history, go on the field as well see all the VIP boxes. It's a really awesome experience and with Ghost City, it's one of the activities that is an option on the past.
So this time around, since I had four friends with me, we did the stadium tour of the Spurs Stadium. Additionally, on the Spur Stadium side of things, you can do a walk to the top of the stadium, which, well, that's what I was gonna say. I noticed in the social media posts that you were like strapped into a harness.
So there's a stadium walk tool where you can essentially walk to the top of the stadium and basically look out into this, onto the field. And then as an add-on, you can also repel off the side of the stadium. I've done that a couple times and it's a really fun, fun thing to do. For those folks who like those adrenaline type activities, the view from the top of the stadium is amazing.
You get to see all of London and the downtown area and a nice sunny day. You can see for probably like 20 miles, I would say. So it's a really awesome experience's for any ages as well. There were kids that, young kids that were doing this when I, uh, was doing this tour back in February, so a lot of these.
Football games in England, we'll have stadium tours. So no matter what team you are, you can see, you can hopefully go to that stadium and, and see the ins and outs of their store, of the stadium, go to the, uh, the pitch and the changing rooms. It's a really cool experience, especially if you're a fan of whatever team it, it may be.
And luckily with Ghost City, you have access to do that with a few different teams in London. That's awesome. As this is tickets to travel, what would be your top three tips for anybody? Whether it be booking tickets or just setting up their travel to go to a European football club. Yeah. Or big game. What do you think?
So first thing is if you are supportive, a specific club, look at the schedule, plan out the trip based on the schedule and try to go during those off season months. 'cause it's gonna be a little bit cheaper for tickets for the air, the flights, and for hotels, et cetera. So if you go there in, go in August or September.
May, it's may more expensive as opposed to going in October, November and Jet February and March, et cetera. So that's the first thing. In terms of getting tickets belong, try to belong to the supporters club. That's gonna be the easiest way to get tickets. Hopefully the, they have a ticket exchange program where you can buy tickets from ticket season ticket holders who can't go to those matches, and that will be by far the easiest way and the cheapest way as well.
And then thirdly is going go to matches that are in the lower leagues, whether it's a championship or the division or second division. You'll have a different kind of experience and it's a lot cheaper as well. And you'll have some great seats. And the way that they play in those matches is a little bit different as well.
These are folks that, the fans are true fans because they're giving up their Saturdays and Sundays to watch these teams play. They're not necessarily gonna win the Premier League or the Champions League. These are true hardcore fans, and it's a different kind of experience and. Sometimes even better than going to your own matches as well.
So those are the top three things. Looking at the schedule and then trying to go with during the off season, so to speak. And then being the joining the supporters club and then fairly going to those matches. And I'm gonna add one more. One more is going to the stadium tools because I think that will offer you a different kind of experience.
And if you're not necessarily knowledgeable about that team, you learn about the history and. You get to let you become more of a super fan, hopefully by going to that stadium tour. Amazing feedback. What are your thoughts on the World Cup for next year? I've looked into getting tickets and there's also the World Club Championship taking place in the summer in Chicago, and the ticket in Stanley High.
And they're also telling you if you buy a certain amount of tickets, you have access to get World Cup tickets as well. My understanding from the FIFA for FIFA tickets, FIFA World Cup. Tickets are gonna be super expensive. It's gonna be hard to get to as well, hard to get those tickets. And you're not able necessarily, you have to buy packages essentially.
So I don't think it's gonna be something that the common fan is gonna have great appetite for because the prices are gonna be nuts. And logistically it's gonna be a challenge. Honestly, it's gonna be a lot fun. More fun to watch the game at local bars with lots of folks and have a, have an amazing atmosphere with a PAC Bar, singing songs, and.
Whether you're supporting the US or Germany or Spain, et cetera, I think that's gonna be a much more fun experience as well. Unfortunately, the FIFA World Cup is not gonna play taking place in Chicago, so I'd have to fly somewhere as well, so I can see a World Cup matches is not great, to be honest. That's what I'm getting at is that the price of the ticket is probably a deterrent in terms of, especially for the World Cup or the FIFA Club World Cup that's happening this summer.
You are a passionate fan. I'm sure there's millions of others who are just like you. What's an acceptable ticket price for something of this caliber? 'cause obviously this is not a league game, it's not a preseason game. How do you look at this? Do you think you're willing to pay no matter where you are in this stadium, another 30%, another 40%?
Like how do you justify it? Yeah, so that's a good question. If I'm traveling by myself. It's also easier to get one ticket or two tickets as opposed to three tickets or more when you're talking about Premier League matches or any kind of match in, in, in Europe, because season, season ticket holders are typically a small group of folks.
So if you're buying a bunch of tickets, it's hard to get four tickets together. You might have to split up between two and two as an example. So getting single tickets is a little bit easier. It's a little bit cheaper. But if you're getting two tickets together, it's gonna be a little bit more expensive.
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And so you have to understand what your budget is. I am, if I'm going to a non first match, I typically don't wanna pay a crazy amount for a ticket because I'm not a supporter of that team. So it's more about being able to see that match at a reasonable price that is not gonna be obscene to me. How much did you click pay to see USA versus England Pathetically.
I would put that kind of match probably up to a little bit cheap, but probably $500 I would say, I'll be honest. Okay, so that'd be your get in. So you might be up on the bleeders, but just to be there. It was the final, if England was, so it's interesting, like even though I was born in England, majority of my life has been in the uk, but when it comes to national teams, England is always gonna be number one and then the UK and then the US.
If the England was in the final, I had a chance to go to a match, I would probably pay a couple thousand dollars. I would say easily. Okay. Yeah. And you would expect to be where in the stadium, even for that amount of money? It's gonna be a No, it's not gonna be, it's gonna be a nosebleed seat because knowing England has not been in the World Cup final since 1966, so the secondary market is gonna be nuts.
Good tickets is probably gonna cost you five figures, I would suspect. If England is. Of thinking about it that way, like what would you be willing to pay for next year's World Cup if it was. So you said two grand? Yeah, I think two grand or something. Like something of that range. It's also in New York City, so then yeah, it, and then New Jersey Meadowlands.
You gotta factor that in. You could stay with family fa. Yeah. Stanley family, something like that, because hotels are gonna be insane. Of course, if I had the opportunity to go to the finalist was playing, next week is in Bilbao. If I had the opportunity to go there, I would totally do it, but unfortunately I can't.
But that would be, that would be another match I'd pay a couple thousand dollars for as well to justify. 'cause I've heard the same things that the ticket prices are outta this world, especially for the Club World Cup, and these are giant stadiums that you wanna fill. And so they're using that as a, an incentive to get people access for the World Cup.
Yeah. And so I'm just trying to see what the breaking point is for certain fans to say, Hey, you know what, I'm just gonna go to a bar. What's the point? And that's why I was asking about a percentage. Yeah. If this is, if I'm used to paying $300 for a lower bowl type of seat, I'll pay up to 150 times that.
Right? So you'll go up to a thousand or whatever it is to be in the building. So I was just trying to find a, a metric of some type that might be helpful to people who are pricing these tickets. I think it also depends on. If you're a supporter of that team or not, you are gonna pay different metrics if you are a supporter.
Yeah. So like the Club World Cup, I understand they've not been necessarily selling out all the tickets. I don't know what's gonna happen towards, they don't wanna also, they don't want have empty stadiums. You just to see what happens as we are close to the game, to the matches. And also there's a lot of matches.
It's 64 teams, there's gonna be a lot of matches that nobody is a really a true fan of those two teams. So I don't know what they're gonna do or if they're gonna be played at smaller stadiums and. The appetite is less and less when the matches are not taking place in your home city as well. If there's a club World Cup Match or fifa, FIFA match in Chicago, different story because I'd be willing to pay more because I'm not having to fly there or pay for hotels or anything like that.
So it all depends on who the teams are and the location in terms of how much I'm willing to fork out. Yeah, I mean it, it'll obviously New York, Miami, and LA will probably be more packed. Obviously they'll, I'm sure they'll think about that. In terms of placing which teams you're gonna play where Kansas City, Atlanta, those might be a little bit more difficult.
Like you could probably get to Kansas City pretty cheap, but depending on what round and if it's, I don't know, Cameroon versus Bolivia, some not top tier countries. They're probably gonna have to price them accordingly. But then it's about marketing. It's about getting it out there and giving people the awareness that it's gonna happen.
Yeah. I think with the Women's World Cup, that was in the US more recently, there was some stadiums that were not full and that in, in the World Cups, in European championships as well, like it, depending on where the matches are. And his plane, they're not, they don't necessarily sell out all the time, but hopefully, I think fifa.
Has done a really bad job of ticketing these events and the prices are keeping a lot of people out. The same thing in, in MLS as well, there's certain teams, there's a team in Chicago that plays at Soldier Field. They have challenges getting even 20,000 people to go to the match. So there's a lot of sporting events in MLS teams in the us.
Some teams, some markets do really well with MLS, like Portland and LA and Miami 'cause of mess. But there's a lot of empty stadiums where folks are getting priced up because it's taking a family of four becomes more and more expensive. And I think in today's time where people are becoming more price sensitive, what that breaking point is.
Management and ownership needs to think about that. Wow. Yeah. No, I think that would resonate for some of the professionals who, who listen. So appreciate you giving some feedback on your travels and ticket buying behavior for the Spurs, as well as just in general being a super fan. So I appreciate you being on tickets to travel feedback.
You welcome Mary. It's, it was great to see you and talk about this and something I'm passionate about. So I know there's a lot of folks that are passionate about all sports, but especially football, like football's becoming bigger and bigger, especially in the US And I'll leave you with this one, one of the Spurs things here.
Come on, you spur. When's the next tattoo? If we win this final next week, it might come sooner than later. Alright man, thanks. And that's a wrap on this fan travel stories episode. And if you're in the business of selling travel experiences, I hope you are taking notes. Deepak Patel didn't just give us stories.
From the stands. He gave us a blueprint for how modern fans travel. Here are the top takeaways for anyone working in B2B event, travel, ticketing, or distribution number one. Fans are planners. They build entire vacations around fixtures. If you're not creating travel bundles that align with the match calendar, you're missing conversions.
Number two, loyalty groups like supporters. Clubs are gold. Deepak books smarter, saves money and gets better seats, all because he's in the club. Partnerships here could unlock a powerful sales channel for all of you. Number three. Tiered access equals wider reach. Not every fan can score a final ticket, but tools like the Go City Pass make it easy to experience stadiums culture and iconic attractions without breaking the bank.
Speaking of which, if you're heading to London, don't miss the stadium tours in Skyline Walks Deepak raved about. Use promo code TTT Pod 25 at checkout on Go city.com. For 10% off your pass, that's TTT Pod 25. Your shortcut to sightseeing like a local fan. And number four, digital is now the default. Fans expect instant booking, verified resale, and smart pricing.
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Friction free tech. We'll define the next wave of travel platforms. Number five. And last but not least, authenticity builds trust. You don't need to be a super fan yourself, but if you want to market to them, you better sound like someone who's been there. Thanks for tuning into Fan Travel Stories, more insights episodes and Global Match Day inspiration await@tttpod.com because remember.
Every ticket is a ticket to travel. Until next time, I'm Mario Duane. Thanks. Scrolling is listening. Your brand needs standout audio for social media and expo. Travel media makes it happen. Ear catching radio spots, dynamic social media voiceovers, custom sound design that pops. We craft audio that stops the scroll and keeps your audience engaged, whether it's a quick promo, a.
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Welcome back to Fan Travel Stories. A proud part of the Tickets to Travel podcast network where every ticket comes with a passport stamp and every diehard fan has a story worth flying for. I'm your host, Mario DeWine, and today we're going deep into the mind of a real football superfan. Meet Deepak Patel.
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Travel industry insider, loyal, Tottenham supporter, and man, more Euro trips around Spurs home schedule than most of us plan our entire year. This episode is about more than fandom. It's about travel behaviors, booking strategies, stadium vibes, and a little tattoo commitment or two. Deepak also shares his experience using the Go City Pass to explore stadiums and sites around London.
Including a walk to the top of the stunning Tottenham Hot Spur Stadium Pro tip. If you wanna follow his footsteps, grab your own, go City pass and use promo code TTT Pod 25 or 10% off your next Go City Adventure. Whether you're in it for the football or just wanna level up your event travel offerings, this episode is packed with insights for fans and B2B Pros alike.
Let's kick things off. This is fan travel stories, so follow us on all the socials at Tick two Travel Pod, and subscribe wherever you get your podcast because the fan travel stories on tickets to travel starts now.
Welcome to Tickets to Travel, the Business of Travel Experiences. I'm your host, Mario DeWine, and today we have a super fan of Cotton Hot Spurs, and he's a good friend of mine that we've known for a long time. 20 years mayor. I think it's been 20. Yeah, it's gotta be 20 years. Deepak Patel, welcome to the pot.
Thank you. It's great to be here. Great to see you smiling face and talk to you. Super jazzed about this. Here's the other unique piece is that you are a travel professional. So as we talk to fans and super fans and other B2B professionals in the travel ticketing and live events world, I think you have a very unique perspective because you understand how the sausage is made.
The background of contracting supply, distributing it, working with various attraction suppliers, and also maybe even sports stickers. Yeah. We met at Expedia 20 years ago in the New York City office. I was not in the hospitality space at all, but Expedia was the company that brought me to Chicago, which is.
My home. I love Chicago and I've been here 20 plus years and I love the city and I've continued to be in the hospitality space after I left Expedia at some various companies. I'm sure when we first met in the New York City offices, I had a really thick, believe it or not, I'm actually English and I used to have a really thick English accent.
I knew yourself and some of our colleagues would make fun of my accent sometimes. 'cause it was, it was a lot more, it was a much more thick, and as I like to describe it, I used to sound like Hugh Grant. But over time it's changed. Two grants pushing it, and I think we were trying to just place it right because, because you're Indian.
A British India. Yeah, British Indian. I was born and raised in England of Indian descent, so I've never spent any time in India. Just born and raised in London, and then came to the States and. I came to America when I was 13, so if, if I moved to America when I was 17, I would've kept my accent. So over time, it's slowly morphed into whatever it is now.
And even now, people don't quite understand where I'm from and they always ask me, where are you from? And my usual response is, where do you want me to be from? And honestly, most people, folk, I'm Australian. That's the number one response. People gave it out. You sound like Chicago, which I think local Chicagoans would not think that you wanna go back to England.
Nobody thinks I'm a eng. Nobody thinks I'm English either. I think that's important to note to a certain degree. Because you're from London, right? I'm London. Born and raised and talking about being a super fan and being a football fan. We're not gonna call it Stocker on this podcast here. I've had other football fans on from the US who traveled and so I'm, what I'm trying to understand is when did you start becoming a Spurs fan or why you're a Sports Spurs fan?
Yeah, so one thing that you probably know a lot of folks in England, in the uk and you have in general like football is the number one sport and where Red with that, and I'm not sure exactly when my love of football began specifically with my team, but I would say it's probably around eight or nine years old.
I remember watching TV distinctly watching some of our matches, and back then we were pretty good and we had some amazing. Players at the time, like Glen Harle. Uh, we had two folks from Argentina who just recently won the World Cup and them coming to the UK and coming to our team was such a big deal.
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Tick stock.com where tickets move smarter. If you love football, you watch our team. When we are known as a team, that's, that plays with flair and the beautiful game is what, how we describe it. And so I've always been a Spurs fan, so I'm such a hardcore fan. I've also got two Spurs tattoos as well, which I can show you, but my love of football began at a very early age.
Do you remember the first game you went to? I've only started going to matches in the, about 15 years ago. And when I started going back to England every single year, and I typically go back once a once or twice a year now, so my first Premier League match wasn't actually a Spurse match either. It was a Chelsea match least, at least it wasn't an arsenal.
It wasn't an arsal match for your audience is our biggest rival. We don't like them. They don't like us. It's understood. But my first friendly match was a Chelsea match, and I remember going with a childhood friend who had tickets and just being amazed about. A, the atmosphere and the Chelsea Stadium is also an old stadium and the seats are really close together, so you're touching your elbows with everybody else.
And I remember the match was like seven to one, seven to one in football. Match is is a very high score. So I was wondering like, is it all, all matches like this high scoring? But I remember that was my first specific Premier League match. But then I think the phone, yeah, I went to my first spur match and.
At that time we played at our old stadium called White Heart Lane. And the White Heart Lane is, it was over probably like a hundred years old. It was cranky, but the stories and the, just the fans were truly amazing and we were lucky to win that match. And I. All the chanting and the cheering was, was something I will definitely never forget.
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I will never forget that stadium, new stadium is by far the best football stadium in in Europe, but it doesn't quite have the same atmosphere as our old stadium, which was really close to the pitch, and the fans were so close together, close to each other, and the chanting, the chairing was just truly amazing.
But. Yeah, so my first match was not a squares match, but I've made up for that in the meantime. And I, I typically go on every trip to at least two squares matches. I've seen them play at other stadiums around London as well. Ironically, my first and only Premier League match was at the old White Hearts lane.
I think I mentioned this to you before. I remember very vividly them asking me like, where are you sitting? 'cause I had bought resale tickets, I believe, on StubHub. I had center of the pitch. Like second row, third row. And I remember being one very jet lagged. I was on a red eye and I said, you know what?
I'm here. I'm just gonna go buy tickets and go. I remember getting shuffled into the this one side because they wanted to separate the Sunland fans from the Spurs fans and. I gotta tell you, the hairs on my arms stood up when the chanting started because I'd only seen it either on FIFA Idio or on television.
But to actually be there and experience it, it's hard to describe. And I'm not even a Spurs fan. I'm not. It was, I could see why this is a driver for you to go. 'cause how often do you go now? So I typically go once or twice a year to Europe, and I definitely make a point of planning it around the spur schedule as well.
'cause obviously the schedules come out quite a few months in advance and so I plan it out so I can try to see at least two Spurs matches. But I am such a hardcore football fan. I try to see as many matches as possible from other teams as well. So the one thing I won't go do is see an arsenal match, but I have been to probably eight to 10 stadiums all over London and then been to.
Other cities in in, in the UK as well to see not just Spurs matches, but other teams as well. And also see matches from the other leagues, which is something I would highly recommend for the audience, is not just go to Premier League matches. Go to matches from the championship of the first division. With the onslaught of Wexham being so popular in the us you've seen how they've gone from the National League to the second division and now they're gonna be in the championship.
But the experiences at those other stadiums and smaller stadiums is not quite the same as the Premier League, but can be so much better because the atmosphere, and these are true fans that, and they're also in parts of the country that are little. The really awesome thing about football stadiums in England is that then in the US NFL stadiums, like on their own football stadiums in the UK are part of the neighborhood.
They're essentially. Across the street, you'll see rows of houses and people, they're, they're in the local neighborhoods and that's really cool. You have local bars, they just, you wanna soak up the whole experience and as we'll talk about, it's a lot easier to get tickets for those other divisions and you're not going through resellers or paying those crazy prices.
But highly recommend going to those other stadiums in other divisions. And I've seen matches all over Europe, so. In Portugal, in Spain, in Germany, Turkey was actually one of my, one of my earliest experiences at arguably one of the loudest football stadiums in the world. But I've seen matches all over Europe and I'd highly recommend that as well.
And it sometimes could be easy to get tickets to matches from other parts of the other parts of Europe as opposed to Premier League, which is a, there's always a premium to get to get some of the Premier League matches and can be quite expensive as well. But you live in Chicago. Yeah. So how do you typically plan your travel?
How do you figure out which games you have to go see versus the ones that you're just gonna go see for fun? Yeah. And then how do you plan getting there? To start? Going back to what I said since the schedule's up pretty much set for the whole year except for similar secondary competitions. So since I'm a Spurs fan, I will plan it around the Spurs schedule, where ideally I'm gonna see one of the matches at home, maybe one away or so, since I know the schedule.
I typically go in the fall or February, March time period. So I'll look at the schedule, plan it out, plan out when I want to go, and then ideally there'll also be some midweek matches as well, so I can see some other teams play. You have that information online, so that's the first thing I do. And then based on that, typically when I go is when the, yeah, it's easy to find flights and cheaper to fly there as well from Chicago.
Chicago has a lot of direct flights. I only fly United Airlines. They have, I think three or four direct flights in London every day. So based on when I'm going, I usually fly out on a Friday because your soccer experience is exactly what I do. I land and then a couple hours later I go to my first match, and then typically I've been going for either 10 days or two weeks.
So based on the schedule, timely, I'll book my flights and then around that I'll plan what are them, what other matches I'm gonna go to my hotels, and then getting the tickets. So initially the first thing is looking at the schedule. Second thing is planning the flight. Third thing will be getting the tickets.
And then from there, planning the hotels and going to whatever activities I'm planning and doing in restaurants. When you see the schedules, you're like, I'm gonna go to these three, four games, five games, whatever it is. Then you book the flights first, or do you find that because you already know that there's probably tickets available, so you'll book the flights and then book the tickets?
Yeah, I know what's good as matches. I wanna see. So you separate it by games that you strategically wanna go to. Then you book the flights. Mm-hmm. And they look at tickets. So how do you organize that? Yeah, so I think about it in the sense of a, I know I wanna go, I know what generally what time of the year I want to go.
I'll look at the schedule in terms of the specific team that Spurs are gonna play. That doesn't necessarily really matter. It, it's more of, I know if I'm going for this specific time period, they're gonna be playing two home matches or two matches in London that I can get tickets to. I'll figure out when I wanna go, and then I will look at the flights.
And typically when I go in the fall or February, March time period, United Airlines typically has three or four flights from London every single day. And they tend to be on the more reasonable side. So. Flight next. Getting tickets is the third part of the of this planning. So every team in Europe has a supporters club and you can join their supporters club and you have some benefits.
So being a member of Ally, the Spurs supporters Club. You have access to tickets if available. Medium is about 65,000 people. If they don't sell out to ticket, uh, season ticket holders, you have access to those tickets. But more importantly, there's a secondary market where folks who can't go to the match, 'cause you know they have a wedding or they're out of town or whatever, you can buy tickets directly through them, through the Spurs website.
And what's really great about that is that they can't charge two x or three x essentially. Space value. So for me, it makes sense to join the Supporters Club because you have access to those tickets. You also have access to getting a discount through the Spur store or through the online website and through other activities that the team offers as well.
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So there's a small cost for that membership, annual membership, every team has different benefits and different access to tickets. So if you're in support of Matches, the United or Liverpool. And you are planning to go to England and see their matches. I would highly recommend joining the supporters club and kind of understanding what the benefits are.
And one of those benefits might be being access, getting access to tickets, or getting access to the, the secondary tickets where folks who can't go will sell tickets to other supporter members. That game that I mentioned, I had great tickets. I, like I said, I think I got it through StubHub and when I got there, I.
I was sitting the second row with people who've had these tickets for decades, so I was buying it from one of their friends. And so I remember very vividly this woman saying, how much you pay for this ticket? I don't know. I think it was like 75 bucks. And she started laughing. She started cracking up because obviously her ticket price was probably 20 bucks or whatever it was, and she had them forever, right?
So they have these kind of generational seat license deals. With these super fans or people who've grown up supporting that particular team. And so that was an interesting thing. It also happened to me at the garden a couple times when I would go see the Knicks. I'll have great tickets, maybe a lower bowl or something, and someone will lean over and be like, how much did you pay for this?
Because there are another season ticket holder, right? It was like, how much could I have gotten for this particular game? And so I got into, that has happened to me so often. Oh yeah. That I'm like. Don't worry about it. Yeah. But every single match that happens actually. 'cause the folks on either side of you, they know that you're not the regular person who sits there.
So they'll start asking those questions. And that's happened to me not only in England but in when I see matches in other countries as well. It's interesting, back 10, 12 years ago before everything became virtual and online season ticket holders had a physical card. And so if they were selling their tickets to other folks through third party companies, reselling companies, they would have to send the card to you.
And usually it was to a hotel. 'cause that's, I was staying at a hotel and then immediately after the match I had to mail it back to them. So antiquated system in the sense of. If the mail did not come on time, last minute, you get to the hotel and you don't have this ticket yet, you're reaching out to the ticketing company to say, Hey, where's my ticket?
And so that was kind of heroining at first because you're worried about getting your tickets. Everything now is online and done digitally. But yeah, it was many a time where I was waiting for that season. That physical call that would get you access to, to that ticket. For that stadium and for that match.
Yeah. That's pretty interesting. Culturally, could you think about the Chicago Bears doing the same thing in terms of proven out their, in actuality, their fandom, right? They're super fandom by being an established hard carrying member, if that's why they call 'em clubs, right? That Yeah, you have, you can bring up your, yeah, union ID or your driver's license, United Airlines Mileage Plus card.
So much easier. So you've got your flights, you go through United, you, you're obviously a member there. You, your preferred method is to go to the Spur site. So before the, everything became digital, I would have to go through some of those third party websites. Like initially I was using StubHub and a couple other, other companies.
But the company that I highly recommend for your audience and as done me no long over the last few years is a cycle. Live football tickets.net. Again, ticket start net. And they're the most reputable company in this space and they have tickets to matches for all the major matches in Europe and the finals, et cetera, et cetera.
And so in this past trip we went, I went to six matches, two matches on my own. And then I had some friends that came over as well. So we had to go through them three or four times 'cause we were seeing non spurs matches and they were always reputable. They always say tickets available. Some on the cheaper side, some are more on the expensive side based on what particular match it was, but it was definitely by far the most reputable company in in the company.
I would recommend in today's time, if you are going to see a Premier League match, if you're seeing a match in the championship of the first division or overseas, you can buy a ticket directly from the team's website. And I've seen matches for 20, 20 pounds, essentially in the championship, or the first division at these really amazing stadiums teams that used to be in the Premier League.
Now they've dropped down, et cetera. So getting match, getting tickets for this, for the non Premier League matches, you should never have to go to a resale website, just go directly to that team's website and you should be able to get tickets because typically they don't necessarily sell out, and it is.
Very much different experience and it's a lot easier to get tickets for those matches. I am lucky enough to be able to book hotel employee rates at a couple of different brands, and that is through connections that I have being part of the industry. And quotation, yeah, being part of the industry. A specific, a very tight-knit industry, so I always bought tickets directly, those channels.
To give you an example, I will typically stay at hotels for between like 50 to 70 euros a night at certain nice hotels. I am very lucky to be able to do that. That is not how most folks book hotels. I totally understand that. I am lucky enough to do that. But if I was not doing that, I would definitely try to utilize some of the big OTAs like Expedia and booking.
Obviously Airbnb is another option as well. And if you're going with a number of folks, Airbnb might be a great option 'cause three or four folks can share an apartment together in, in one space. I'm very fortunate I recognize that and that saves me a lot of money. So for you as a super fan who's traveling.
Is it more proximity to the stadium or other things you want to do that sort of dictates whether or not you go with this, this particular property to stay at? Yeah, so typically since I have the relationships with specific hotel brands, it's gonna be more so based on where I can get that more affordable rate.
And the cool thing about London specifically, or any city in Europe, the public transportation system is so much better than the us. So getting around a particular city, uh, or big, even a big city train or bus is super accessible and super easy. So specifically for the Spur Stadium, there are really no hotels in that specific area.
So I'm typically staying in between. Three to five miles away anyway. And then taking a train, usually sometimes an Uber to the matches. Another cool thing with the relationships that I have with the hotels, there's so many locations. I will definitely look at the location and specifically where I can get that more affordable rate.
And then again, public transportation is so amazing in London. Never concerned about how far away it is. I agree. I, I miss going. I used to go to London. I don't know, once every quarter for five years, and then the pandemic happened, and then I, we stopped, so I haven't been back since. But you're right, the transportation, the two, the buses all very intuitive in London.
(01:04):
Yeah. In terms of the hotels though, if that's the case, then this probably you have the match and then you're there for a few days. So what else do you like to do when you're in destination? Not just London, but anywhere else? Do you typically do the main sightseeing? I love seeing the attraction, so I will, one of the things I like to do is typically research wherever I'm traveling, whether it's on the sight side or the restaurant side.
So I will make, do activities. Usually the matches on the weekends are in the daytime, and then the weekday, they're in the evenings. So if the matches is in the, is the weekday, the match will be seven 30 or eight o'clock, so you have the whole day to explore the city, do various things. If I'm new to that city, I wanna see the top sites.
I like doing walking tours. As well. 'cause you get to explore the city and hear the history of whatever the theme of that walking tour is from that tour guide as well. And then being a foodie, I will definitely try to research restaurants. I try to find places that tourists don't go to where the locals go to.
And part of that is doing from doing some research, but then also asking folks once they get there. I think that's really key is asking folks, Hey, if you have a night out, where are you going? Going to dinner. As opposed to the top 10 list. TripAdvisor, I wanna find out where the locals go. 'cause that's where you find the best food, the most affordable food as well.
And those hidden gems that you're not necessarily gonna find on, uh, travel books or certain websites. It's a combination of things. And even with the site scene, some things are plan where you have to schedule a specific ticket, but other things I will. Again, talk to locals and understand what's cool, what's not cool, what's what should be missed, what's a tourist trap, and kind of plan my trip 50%.
Plan my trip, 50% of it. I will figure it out once I get there. Got it. And so if you were what, what's the next trip? What is, obviously we got the World Cup coming here next year, but into Europe at some point towards the end of this year, I would think. 'cause didn't the Champions League just end and there's also the FIFA.
Club World Cup this summer here as well. So what's on the agenda? So there's a few things actually. So Spurs is actually playing in the year of Woke league final next week. Oh wow. They're playing a team called Manchester United, which is probably a team that a lot of folks know. They're one of the big teams.
So we're playing the match in Spain. Unfortunately, I can't go all the way to Spain to watch the match, but I'm actually going down to New Orleans with a couple of friends of mine to watch the match. At the New Orleans Supporters Club bar for Spurs, whatever team you support usually have a bar associated with that team as well.
Whether you are in the Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Machester, the United in Chicago, they have a bar. And so Spurs has this bar in New Orleans that I've been to a couple of times during some trips, and they are the most friendly bunch of folks. They have the best thing and the chance, so I. Just because Spurs does not necessarily get into a lot of finals.
We're gonna go down there to watch the final and have a really awesome New Orleans experience. And then I have a trip, work trip to Plague in the summertime, so I'm gonna go to Budapest in Vienna and Rome. So I haven't started any planning for those cities yet, but that will be happening in the next few weeks.
And I'll, again, I'll do some research of things I need to see and then some of the things I'll plan once I get there. Then the Premier League is actually coming to Chicago in the summertime. They're playing two back-to-back matches at Soldier Fields. So there's four Premier League teams playing on that one evening.
So we bought tickets for that game. The six of us are going, and then I'm sure I'm gonna go back to England in the fall. It's a little bit too early to plan that because the schedule is not out. But as we get closer to August and September, I'll be looking at the schedule and figuring out if I'm gonna go in the fall or in the springtime of, of 2026.
So a lot of my trips are planned around football and hopefully Spurs wins a trophy, which we've not done since in about 16 years. And so that's one thing. The team that I support is not one of the quote unquote big boys. We have not won a lot of trophies, and it's a big deal to be in this final. And so I am a true, hardcore fan as opposed to supporting one of those big teams that a lot of folks like you.
You say you're a hardcore fan. When you meet a a Spurs fan in London, do they give you the same respect? Oh, I think they do, and they do. 'cause I'm knowledgeable about the team A and then I go to matches all the time. And I'm not sure if you know this or not, but I have two Spurs tattoos as well. And so once I know they're a Spurs fan and even in the US there's a lot of Spurs fans in the US and you can, you can tell because they're also the jersey that they're wearing or the jacket they're wearing.
So whenever I went into a fan, I will always show my Spurs tattoo because it's like a badge of honor, so to speak. And is it on your or? Yeah, I have two on. I can show you. Show your audience as well. Once they see that, they know that I am a hardcore football fan, though. I live in Chicago. I'm supposed to be in England.
What made you, was it, were you drinking one night and you just said, Hey, I'm gonna get a tattoo, or, this was a calculated tattoo? These were calculated tattoos. The first tattoo I got in England at a tattoo parlor where a lot of football players get their tattoos actually. So the guy who did the tattoo is a, is a lifelong Spurs fan as well.
He has tons of. A number of spur tattoos all over his body, but he does a lot of football players as well. So that was my first spur tattoo about 10 years ago, I'd say. And then in January of this year, I decided to get a second tattoo, not because of any specific reason. I was just inspired and I wanted to do it, so I did it.
And I love this second tattoo. Is this the Crest? We're audio only podcast Deepak. So is it a crest where you describe them a bit? So the first one. Huge. And then the second one is the new logo for our team as well. So these are tattoos that are gonna stand the test of time. And the quest is the RO that is on a football.
Yeah. And that's, it's essentially been like that through 145 year history. Really. The oldest teams as well. So that one crest is always gonna be there. So it's gonna stand the test of time. And so when I become, and. 85 years old, it will still look good. Hopefully. I don't know, man. You gotta talk to these marketing people.
They can rebrand at any time and then that's another tattoo you're gonna have to put on. And the cockwell I think will be fine. I think the other one is, might change, well change over time for sure. But I'm very, I love my tattoos. If I might get more, you never know. I'm never gonna get a player because players change teams all the time.
I. But yeah, I'm definitely, I love my tattoos and I think that's the badge of honor that when I show that to another Spurs fan, they know you're the real deal. I like the tattoo story. That's his. Have you ever met a crazy, who was the craziest super fan you've ever met? For the Spur, I would say his tattoo guy, because he was head to toe.
(01:25):
He had so many Spurs, tattoos. And he does a lot of football plays as well, but even on his face and his neck, et cetera, so Oh really? Yeah, if you're doing that, yeah. I think you're a super fan. You are a super fan and you have to, I'm pretty sure he is older, right? So you have to imagine, I don't know, what is it like in the eighties and nineties where it was literally like gangs, right?
The hooligans. An Arsenal fan on Hulu of some kind that that could cause some trouble for sure. So you were able to take advantage of a Ghost City Stadium tour. Can you describe the experience or how it came about? Yeah, so Ghost City, your audience is, audience is a digital Sightsee Pass company with a global leader in the space.
And essentially it's one pass that gets you access to in London, over a hundred attractions and experiences. So we actually work with a number of football stadiums in London. So you could do the inside background tour of a Premier League stadium. So we work with a number of teams like West Ham and Arsenal, and we also work with a Spur Stadium.
So you could do a stadium tour. The stadium tour is really a fun thing to do, especially for this first time is for who visiting London and for going to matches. You get to see the locker rooms, learn about the history, go on the field as well see all the VIP boxes. It's a really awesome experience and with Ghost City, it's one of the activities that is an option on the past.
So this time around, since I had four friends with me, we did the stadium tour of the Spurs Stadium. Additionally, on the Spur Stadium side of things, you can do a walk to the top of the stadium, which, well, that's what I was gonna say. I noticed in the social media posts that you were like strapped into a harness.
So there's a stadium walk tool where you can essentially walk to the top of the stadium and basically look out into this, onto the field. And then as an add-on, you can also repel off the side of the stadium. I've done that a couple times and it's a really fun, fun thing to do. For those folks who like those adrenaline type activities, the view from the top of the stadium is amazing.
You get to see all of London and the downtown area and a nice sunny day. You can see for probably like 20 miles, I would say. So it's a really awesome experience's for any ages as well. There were kids that, young kids that were doing this when I, uh, was doing this tour back in February, so a lot of these.
Football games in England, we'll have stadium tours. So no matter what team you are, you can see, you can hopefully go to that stadium and, and see the ins and outs of their store, of the stadium, go to the, uh, the pitch and the changing rooms. It's a really cool experience, especially if you're a fan of whatever team it, it may be.
And luckily with Ghost City, you have access to do that with a few different teams in London. That's awesome. As this is tickets to travel, what would be your top three tips for anybody? Whether it be booking tickets or just setting up their travel to go to a European football club. Yeah. Or big game. What do you think?
So first thing is if you are supportive, a specific club, look at the schedule, plan out the trip based on the schedule and try to go during those off season months. 'cause it's gonna be a little bit cheaper for tickets for the air, the flights, and for hotels, et cetera. So if you go there in, go in August or September.
May, it's may more expensive as opposed to going in October, November and Jet February and March, et cetera. So that's the first thing. In terms of getting tickets belong, try to belong to the supporters club. That's gonna be the easiest way to get tickets. Hopefully the, they have a ticket exchange program where you can buy tickets from ticket season ticket holders who can't go to those matches, and that will be by far the easiest way and the cheapest way as well.
And then thirdly is going go to matches that are in the lower leagues, whether it's a championship or the division or second division. You'll have a different kind of experience and it's a lot cheaper as well. And you'll have some great seats. And the way that they play in those matches is a little bit different as well.
These are folks that, the fans are true fans because they're giving up their Saturdays and Sundays to watch these teams play. They're not necessarily gonna win the Premier League or the Champions League. These are true hardcore fans, and it's a different kind of experience and. Sometimes even better than going to your own matches as well.
So those are the top three things. Looking at the schedule and then trying to go with during the off season, so to speak. And then being the joining the supporters club and then fairly going to those matches. And I'm gonna add one more. One more is going to the stadium tools because I think that will offer you a different kind of experience.
And if you're not necessarily knowledgeable about that team, you learn about the history and. You get to let you become more of a super fan, hopefully by going to that stadium tour. Amazing feedback. What are your thoughts on the World Cup for next year? I've looked into getting tickets and there's also the World Club Championship taking place in the summer in Chicago, and the ticket in Stanley High.
And they're also telling you if you buy a certain amount of tickets, you have access to get World Cup tickets as well. My understanding from the FIFA for FIFA tickets, FIFA World Cup. Tickets are gonna be super expensive. It's gonna be hard to get to as well, hard to get those tickets. And you're not able necessarily, you have to buy packages essentially.
So I don't think it's gonna be something that the common fan is gonna have great appetite for because the prices are gonna be nuts. And logistically it's gonna be a challenge. Honestly, it's gonna be a lot fun. More fun to watch the game at local bars with lots of folks and have a, have an amazing atmosphere with a PAC Bar, singing songs, and.
Whether you're supporting the US or Germany or Spain, et cetera, I think that's gonna be a much more fun experience as well. Unfortunately, the FIFA World Cup is not gonna play taking place in Chicago, so I'd have to fly somewhere as well, so I can see a World Cup matches is not great, to be honest. That's what I'm getting at is that the price of the ticket is probably a deterrent in terms of, especially for the World Cup or the FIFA Club World Cup that's happening this summer.
You are a passionate fan. I'm sure there's millions of others who are just like you. What's an acceptable ticket price for something of this caliber? 'cause obviously this is not a league game, it's not a preseason game. How do you look at this? Do you think you're willing to pay no matter where you are in this stadium, another 30%, another 40%?
Like how do you justify it? Yeah, so that's a good question. If I'm traveling by myself. It's also easier to get one ticket or two tickets as opposed to three tickets or more when you're talking about Premier League matches or any kind of match in, in, in Europe, because season, season ticket holders are typically a small group of folks.
So if you're buying a bunch of tickets, it's hard to get four tickets together. You might have to split up between two and two as an example. So getting single tickets is a little bit easier. It's a little bit cheaper. But if you're getting two tickets together, it's gonna be a little bit more expensive.
(01:46):
And so you have to understand what your budget is. I am, if I'm going to a non first match, I typically don't wanna pay a crazy amount for a ticket because I'm not a supporter of that team. So it's more about being able to see that match at a reasonable price that is not gonna be obscene to me. How much did you click pay to see USA versus England Pathetically.
I would put that kind of match probably up to a little bit cheap, but probably $500 I would say, I'll be honest. Okay, so that'd be your get in. So you might be up on the bleeders, but just to be there. It was the final, if England was, so it's interesting, like even though I was born in England, majority of my life has been in the uk, but when it comes to national teams, England is always gonna be number one and then the UK and then the US.
If the England was in the final, I had a chance to go to a match, I would probably pay a couple thousand dollars. I would say easily. Okay. Yeah. And you would expect to be where in the stadium, even for that amount of money? It's gonna be a No, it's not gonna be, it's gonna be a nosebleed seat because knowing England has not been in the World Cup final since 1966, so the secondary market is gonna be nuts.
Good tickets is probably gonna cost you five figures, I would suspect. If England is. Of thinking about it that way, like what would you be willing to pay for next year's World Cup if it was. So you said two grand? Yeah, I think two grand or something. Like something of that range. It's also in New York City, so then yeah, it, and then New Jersey Meadowlands.
You gotta factor that in. You could stay with family fa. Yeah. Stanley family, something like that, because hotels are gonna be insane. Of course, if I had the opportunity to go to the finalist was playing, next week is in Bilbao. If I had the opportunity to go there, I would totally do it, but unfortunately I can't.
But that would be, that would be another match I'd pay a couple thousand dollars for as well to justify. 'cause I've heard the same things that the ticket prices are outta this world, especially for the Club World Cup, and these are giant stadiums that you wanna fill. And so they're using that as a, an incentive to get people access for the World Cup.
Yeah. And so I'm just trying to see what the breaking point is for certain fans to say, Hey, you know what, I'm just gonna go to a bar. What's the point? And that's why I was asking about a percentage. Yeah. If this is, if I'm used to paying $300 for a lower bowl type of seat, I'll pay up to 150 times that.
Right? So you'll go up to a thousand or whatever it is to be in the building. So I was just trying to find a, a metric of some type that might be helpful to people who are pricing these tickets. I think it also depends on. If you're a supporter of that team or not, you are gonna pay different metrics if you are a supporter.
Yeah. So like the Club World Cup, I understand they've not been necessarily selling out all the tickets. I don't know what's gonna happen towards, they don't wanna also, they don't want have empty stadiums. You just to see what happens as we are close to the game, to the matches. And also there's a lot of matches.
It's 64 teams, there's gonna be a lot of matches that nobody is a really a true fan of those two teams. So I don't know what they're gonna do or if they're gonna be played at smaller stadiums and. The appetite is less and less when the matches are not taking place in your home city as well. If there's a club World Cup Match or fifa, FIFA match in Chicago, different story because I'd be willing to pay more because I'm not having to fly there or pay for hotels or anything like that.
So it all depends on who the teams are and the location in terms of how much I'm willing to fork out. Yeah, I mean it, it'll obviously New York, Miami, and LA will probably be more packed. Obviously they'll, I'm sure they'll think about that. In terms of placing which teams you're gonna play where Kansas City, Atlanta, those might be a little bit more difficult.
Like you could probably get to Kansas City pretty cheap, but depending on what round and if it's, I don't know, Cameroon versus Bolivia, some not top tier countries. They're probably gonna have to price them accordingly. But then it's about marketing. It's about getting it out there and giving people the awareness that it's gonna happen.
Yeah. I think with the Women's World Cup, that was in the US more recently, there was some stadiums that were not full and that in, in the World Cups, in European championships as well, like it, depending on where the matches are. And his plane, they're not, they don't necessarily sell out all the time, but hopefully, I think fifa.
Has done a really bad job of ticketing these events and the prices are keeping a lot of people out. The same thing in, in MLS as well, there's certain teams, there's a team in Chicago that plays at Soldier Field. They have challenges getting even 20,000 people to go to the match. So there's a lot of sporting events in MLS teams in the us.
Some teams, some markets do really well with MLS, like Portland and LA and Miami 'cause of mess. But there's a lot of empty stadiums where folks are getting priced up because it's taking a family of four becomes more and more expensive. And I think in today's time where people are becoming more price sensitive, what that breaking point is.
Management and ownership needs to think about that. Wow. Yeah. No, I think that would resonate for some of the professionals who, who listen. So appreciate you giving some feedback on your travels and ticket buying behavior for the Spurs, as well as just in general being a super fan. So I appreciate you being on tickets to travel feedback.
You welcome Mary. It's, it was great to see you and talk about this and something I'm passionate about. So I know there's a lot of folks that are passionate about all sports, but especially football, like football's becoming bigger and bigger, especially in the US And I'll leave you with this one, one of the Spurs things here.
Come on, you spur. When's the next tattoo? If we win this final next week, it might come sooner than later. Alright man, thanks. And that's a wrap on this fan travel stories episode. And if you're in the business of selling travel experiences, I hope you are taking notes. Deepak Patel didn't just give us stories.
From the stands. He gave us a blueprint for how modern fans travel. Here are the top takeaways for anyone working in B2B event, travel, ticketing, or distribution number one. Fans are planners. They build entire vacations around fixtures. If you're not creating travel bundles that align with the match calendar, you're missing conversions.
Number two, loyalty groups like supporters. Clubs are gold. Deepak books smarter, saves money and gets better seats, all because he's in the club. Partnerships here could unlock a powerful sales channel for all of you. Number three. Tiered access equals wider reach. Not every fan can score a final ticket, but tools like the Go City Pass make it easy to experience stadiums culture and iconic attractions without breaking the bank.
Speaking of which, if you're heading to London, don't miss the stadium tours in Skyline Walks Deepak raved about. Use promo code TTT Pod 25 at checkout on Go city.com. For 10% off your pass, that's TTT Pod 25. Your shortcut to sightseeing like a local fan. And number four, digital is now the default. Fans expect instant booking, verified resale, and smart pricing.
(02:07):
Friction free tech. We'll define the next wave of travel platforms. Number five. And last but not least, authenticity builds trust. You don't need to be a super fan yourself, but if you want to market to them, you better sound like someone who's been there. Thanks for tuning into Fan Travel Stories, more insights episodes and Global Match Day inspiration await@tttpod.com because remember.
Every ticket is a ticket to travel. Until next time, I'm Mario Duane. Thanks. Scrolling is listening. Your brand needs standout audio for social media and expo. Travel media makes it happen. Ear catching radio spots, dynamic social media voiceovers, custom sound design that pops. We craft audio that stops the scroll and keeps your audience engaged, whether it's a quick promo, a.
Full campaign or a killer ad. We bring the voice, music, and production magic to make it all shine. Let's make audio content that works. Visit expo travel.com for media production inquiries today.
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