Hear wha Tants say about de drama:
Well, well, well, what a ting...I calmly readin' mih papers wid mih coffee when mih eye pass over a story an' is dead I nearly dead. Yuh Tants like plenty odder Trini playin' wid de idea of scrapin' togedder some funds an'
see if I could mek de trip to germany nex year to wave mih flag fuh we bwoys in de people country. So when someting dat mention tickets ketch mih eye, I say I in tings...I wish.
Even now I still cyant believe what I did read. Is sombody dat write a letter arksin' some extremely, very pertinent questions 'bout de way tickets go be "made available" to de public in T&T. Accordin' to de letter, is one an' only one place yuh could get tickets, at Simpaul Travel. No problems dere, but when yuh yuh look good is then yuh realise dey only sellin' as part
of a 'package' for a mere $30,000 - airfare extra. Dem ent serious? But
then it get better, who yuh feel jes happen to be de owner of said Simpaul Travel? None other than dear Uncle Jack himself. At dat point I was glad it was only a demi-tasse I was sippin' because if it was a full mug of coffee, I woulda choke to death fuh sure.
Oh gorm man, is how much is too much in he books? As man he suppose to be buyin'
tickets to give away to people in T&T...is so much he done get from we, but even forgettin' dat he own de place, is real advantage dey want to take wid only sellin' tour package. What happen to de fan who could scrape up money fuh plane fare an' some spendin' money an' want to make de effort to see de Warriors play England then come back home? Is what happen to people who have relatives and friends in Germany who doh have to worry 'bout place to stay an'
only need to get dere wid a ticket or three in dey hand? When I see dis ting, I had was to check it out...and 'pon de TTFF website have it bold as ever - tickets at Simpaul, an' dey could even arrange 'financing', so tack on a nex couple thou to de $30,000+airfare. An' dey well an' truly 'proud' to rub it in yuh face too:
Simpaul Travel is the "Official Travel Package Provider"
and partner of the TTFF. This means a percentage of every
package bought from our company goes directly back into the
game, to help continue it's future growth and success.
We are not a travel agency that does football, we are a football
company that happens to work in the travel industry. Our Staff
includes some very passionate and football knowledgeable people.
I wonder jus' how big dat "percentage of every package" really is?
Fraction of 1%?
Low single digits? High single digits? I would be pleasantly suprised if it was double digits, but I ent holdin' mih breath on dat!
Accordin' to what I see on de official World Cup website, T&T suppose to
be gettin'
somewhere in de region of 3-4000 tickets fuh each of de 3 first round
games. So,
assumin' dat it have more than de 100 or so dat went to Bahrain (an'
could afford
$17,500+ at short notice) who would want to go Germany, is why dey didn'
have a
lottery/draw fuh tickets? An' dey coulda even earn some funds fuh de
sport while
dey at it. If dey do like de embassy an' dem does do fuh visay - pay
yuh money
an' yuh get one entry in de draw. De entry fee could be de cost of one
ticket,
if yuh get pick, yuh have de chance to buy fuh all three match or dey
draw again
to see which one match yuh gettin' to see live an' direct. However, if
yuh ent
get pick yuh go get yuh money back, but here is where de money makin'
does come in...
if dey put de funds dat get collected from de 'unlucky' ones in a bank
or better
yet in de Unit Trust until de World Cup done, dey could split de interest
wid de 'unluckies' an' dey go have some additional funds fuh de sport.
De onliest problem I seein' wid dis idea is de TTFF playin' up wid
people money.
If dey could get de Unit Trust or de Lottery people to handle de whole
ting, I sure
Trini ent go mind...an yuh go have plenty more than 12,000 applications
fuh tickets,
wid de cheapest tickets going fuh €35/TT$270 dey could get more than
20,000 applications.
But is when we go learn? Every day we sufferin' through de same
problems over an'
over Gov't after Gov't...when it not floodin' is because we have
drought, when dey
done blockup traffic fuh weeks fixin' de roads dey turn round an dig dem
up to lay
pipe an' is a nex few weeks of congestion follow by months of ever
widenin' an'
deepenin' potholes.
We want to be rich an' have boomin' economy, but we ent spendin' de
money where it
go do good. We want all de benefits of 'big city' life wid none of de
downsides,
an' it jes doh wuk so. Finally we goin' to de World Cup, 32 years after
we shoulda gone.