With ticket prices soaring, students on PS 171Q’s soccer team and their parents had long given up hope of going to the World Cup this summer — until one parent tried their luck in a StubHub sweepstakes and hit the jackpot.
Soccer-obsessed Wing Yee Sang, whose son Liam plays on the PS 171Q soccer team, had grown frustrating by the sky-high prices for games at MetLife Stadium and entered every draw she could in a bid to secure affordable tickets.
Brazil celebrates after equalizing against Morocco at MetLife Stadium. Photo via Reuters
“I was really excited (about the World Cup) but when tickets went on sale, they were just so expensive, but I kept looking anyway,” Yee Sang told QNS. “I’ve been looking since last year, and the prices just kept getting higher.”
Tickets for group games at MetLife Stadium currently fetch at least $816 on secondary markets, pricing most families with kids at Astoria’s PS 171Q, many of whom reside in the Astoria Houses NYCHA complex.
Undeterred, she entered a number of draws to win coveted tickets so that she could take her son to a World Cup game, including a StubHub draw that she felt she had no chance of winning. To her surprise, the ticket exchange giant adjudged her submission to be the most compelling.
The company offered tickets to all 17 players on the school’s soccer team for Norway vs Senegal on June 22, also providing tickets for one parent or guardian per child and two school staff — a total of 36 tickets. The lucky winners will also receive transportation to and from the game, while they will experience the game from a suite at MetLife Stadium.
Brazil and Morocco took part in the first World Cup match at MetLife Stadium last week. Photo via Reuters
For children from a school where over 90% of students have economic needs, the prize meant everything.
“One of the things I had written about in my submission was just that with the high price of tickets, especially with the World Cup, it is not something that our families in the school would ever be able to afford on their own, but it’s an experience that would change them forever,” Yee Sang said.
There was one catch, however, Yee Sang and other parents could not tell their children about the prize until an NBC broadcast from the school hall, leading to an agonizing month-long period for parents as they waited for details to be finalized.
“I was so excited, but I couldn’t be excited in front of him,” Yee Sang said.
The day finally arrived two weeks ago, with the team gathering in the hall to hear from PS 171Q principal Laura Kavourias, with no idea of what was about to come.
“They thought they were going to get McDonald’s,” Kavourias told QNS. “Because, at the end of basketball season, I got the team McDonald’s, I got the cheerleaders McDonald’s, so they thought I was going to tell them they were getting food.”
Kavourias eventually made the big reveal that they would, in fact, be receiving World Cup tickets, leading to an outpouring of joy and an eruption of screaming from the soccer team, which was too much for some to handle.
“I cried three times that day,” Yee Sang said. “I was just so emotional because they were so excited. They couldn’t believe they were going to the World Cup.”
Yee Sang said her son has been buzzing with excitement since the announcement, adding that she has explained to him that he will be seeing one of the best players in the world in Erling Haaland, who plays up front for Norway.
“We’re really excited to see him in person, not just playing on the TV,” she said.
Kavourias has noted a similar excitement from students at school.
“The kids are asking me, ‘is this really happening?’ I’m like, yes, it’s really happening,” she said. “They’re asking me for information, and I don’t have all the information.”
She has also been getting a flood of emails from strangers commenting on how inspirational the story is in the wake of the NBC broadcast.
“‘People keep saying ‘great job’ or whatever,” she said. “And it’s really not me, it was Wing that did this. The only thing that I have to do with anything is the relationships I build with my parents.
“I wish I was able to do this for all of our kids, but the soccer team is a great connection and I believe it will inspire them.”
Students from PS 171Q will be traveling to MetLife Stadium next week. Photo via Reuters