Trying to get to the World Cup at the last minute? Here’s a trick: Don’t give up.
SHARON — Standing on a deserted commuter rail platform, seven miles from Foxborough’s Boston Stadium with less than an hour to kickoff, I found it hard not to wonder: “What am I doing here?”
I was standing there because of a hare-brained scheme, one cooked up in the back of my head while frantically biking to South Station, to get to Tuesday’s World Cup match as quickly, painlessly, and ideally, as cheaply as possible.
In a perfect world, I would have had days of preparation: I would have bought my MBTA tickets to Boston Stadium months ago, arriving with plenty of time to sample the food vendors in Dewey Square. I would have joined thousands of other fans onboard the express train, perhaps uncomfortable, but buoyed by the festive atmosphere, until arriving at Foxboro Station an hour later. And at game’s end, I would have repeated the process in reverse, this time buoyed by the lingering euphoria of having just witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I did not do any of those things.
Instead, I drew up a rather unconventional method that relied on faith, knowledge of the MBTA commuter rail map, and hubris.
Keep reading at your own peril.
I had told myself that if resale prices for World Cup tickets dropped below a certain number, I’d make the purchase without a second thought. For months, I agonized as prices floated above, well above, that impossibly optimistic number. Eventually, I gave up hope of watching any game anywhere near Boston Stadium.
Then Tuesday, sitting at my desk, a notification on my phone screen flashed before my eyes: “PRICES FALLING FAST.”
Somehow, after months of hand-wringing and checking my bank account, the number on the screen dipped below my arbitrary, self-imposed waterline. From there, there was nothing else to think about — I was going to the World Cup in Foxborough.
As it turned out, the tickets were the least of my worries.
If you’re reading this, you probably have already decided whether to shell out the money for a World Cup match. And given the outrageous prices that many of the seats are going for, it’s no surprise that plenty of fans have opted to stick to their local bars or watch parties, where entry is free and the pints are under $20.
But for those with an itch that can’t be scratched without in-person tickets, last-minute resales are a lifeline.
That said, if you wait until the day of to buy World Cup tickets, the pitfalls become clear almost immediately.
In my case — having snapped up the tickets just before 3 p.m. — there was no way I’d be able to get to South Station to catch the last train to Foxboro Station. And even if I could, I was still waiting for the resale tickets to be transferred into my FIFA account; until they appeared, there would no way to buy passage onto the Foxboro train, which require a same-day match ticket.
In other cases, the problem is more cut-and-dried. Train tickets for Foxboro Station, already pricey at $80 roundtrip, may be completely sold out hours before game-time, as they were on Saturday for the Scotland vs. Haiti match.
So, even with my match tickets in hand, I had no clear way to get to Foxborough before the game started. In less than three hours.
What were my options? I might have caught a bus shuttle, but in my position, I had neither the time nor the inclination to click through the Stadium Express website. Of course, I could call a rideshare, but I’d have to pay well over $100 for the trip, with no guarantee I wouldn’t be stuck in gridlock on Route 1 and miss the first half.
Some desperate fans have used Rally OurBus, a crowd-powered charter service, though that usually requires a bit of foresight. Others have simply driven south and prayed for the best, parking at nearby businesses or SpotHero sites. LivableStreets, a Boston-based nonprofit, shared one particularly unorthodox route: parking at a supermarket off Interstate 95 and then making a 20-minute bike ride to the stadium.
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Genius? Maybe. Risky? Also maybe. Out-of-the-box? Definitely.
Unfortunately, this reporter does not own a car nor does he own a bike, so I was back at square one.
But, as it turned out, the solution was staring me square in the face. If I couldn’t get to Foxboro Station, I would get as close as I could and hope for the best.
That’s how I found myself on the 4:15 p.m. train to Providence, sitting alongside commuters wearing starched shirts and headphones. The ride bore little resemblance to the raucous experience on the Foxboro trains; it was almost as if the World Cup were happening on another planet.
When the train got to Sharon — which, according to the MBTA commuter rail map, is pretty close to Foxborough — I got off and called a rideshare to the stadium. This was the tricky part, where it could all fall apart — if no drivers would take up such a short ride, or if the price was exorbitant, or if I ended up stuck in the same traffic near the stadium.
But thankfully, I wasn’t waiting on the platform more than a few minutes. A driver pulled up with a beat-up Nissan smelling of sage. His GPS showed 22 minutes to the stadium. And less than 60 minutes to kickoff.
“Hop in,” he said. “Mind if we stop at a Cumbys on the way?”
Sure. Why not?
Twenty-five minutes later, the Gillette lighthouse was in my sights. There was still plenty of traffic before we reached the stadium. As the car slowed to a crawl, my easygoing driver suggested that maybe it would be better to walk the rest of the way.
Twenty minutes (and a little speedwalking) after that, I was in my seat. As it turned out, when everyone gets to the stadium early, the lines at the front gate are pretty short.
All’s well that ends well, right?
Not exactly.
The upside of this experimental method was clear: no eye-popping $80 roundtrip; no waiting in muggy lines for hours on end, pressed between sweaty, beer-soaked soccer fans; no riding in packed cars with broken air-conditioning, like a tin of Norwegian sardines.
But as Erling Haaland looped a late header into a tangle of Iraqi players with just a few seconds left to play, I was trying to figure out how I would get back to Sharon to catch my train back home.
Getting out of Boston Stadium, it seemed, would be harder than getting in.
After several failed attempts to call a “wait-and-save” rideshare, and several more frustrated attempts to call a “priority” rideshare, I finally managed to book a car to take me back to Sharon with what was left of my rapidly-dwindling phone battery.
The stops-and-starts of the Boston Stadium parking lot turned what had earlier been a 22-minute ride into nearly an hour, which allowed me plenty of time for introspection. Such as: Maybe I should have just bought the more expensive tickets earlier, paid the $80 roundtrip ticket, and taken the day off of work.
Who is to say?
My train pulled in to South Station at 11:30. It was more than three hours after the game ended, and nearly two hours after the first train from Foxboro Station arrived.
So for those fans who want last-minute tickets to the World Cup, or are just looking for a less-heavily trafficked way to get there, it can be done.
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But be forewarned: It’s not for the faint of heart.
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