By Ma\u0142gorzata Wojtunik<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, TX, June 25 (Reuters) \u2013 With barbecue smoke drifting between rows of camper vans and Argentina flags fluttering above rooftop air conditioners, World Cup supporters are discovering that the hottest ticket in Texas might not be inside \u200bthe stadium but in the campground outside.<\/p>\n
A few miles from Dallas Stadium in \u200cArlington, fans from Argentina, Germany and England have turned an RV park into a miniature World Cup village, swapping hotel lobbies for folding chairs and communal grills as soaring accommodation prices push supporters to seek cheaper ways to follow their teams.<\/p>\n
The Dallas\/Arlington KOA Holiday campground has seen demand surge during the tournament, with \u200cgeneral \u200bmanager Nona Gomez saying nearly all 159 RV sites were \u2060occupied for several high-profile matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the \u2060England game, it was pretty packed,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cFor Argentina and Austria, we had 24 sites left. We also had a lot of walk-ins from people who didn\u2019t have reservations.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Argentine fan Santiago Meneses, travelling in a motorhome with five friends was born \u200bas much out of necessity as adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices are incredibly high, both for tickets and accommodation,\u201d he said. \u201cIn previous World Cups, the costs were at least 50% lower. We thought this \u2060was a good opportunity to cut costs and \u2060have a different kind of adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The campground has become a social hub \u200bwhere strangers share beers, compare itineraries and grill late into the evening before heading to matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe \u200bget more culture than just staying in hotels because we meet so \u200cmany nice people from the U.S. and around the world,\u201d said German supporter Leroy Behrens, who is touring the southern United States with his father.<\/p>\n
The financial arithmetic is compelling. RV pitches cost roughly $57 to $76 per person per night, while hotel rooms around Arlington have climbed well \u2060into the hundreds of dollars during marquee fixtures, with rates surging even higher for the tournament\u2019s latter stages.<\/p>\n
The campground\u2019s location also helps fans avoid hefty post-match ride-share fares, with the stadium only \u2060a short drive away.<\/p>\n
Life on \u200cfour wheels comes with compromises, however. Meneses joked that the communal \u2060bathrooms become crowded at peak times, while Behrens admitted squeezing three \u200bpeople into \u200ca camper in the Texas heat was hardly luxurious.<\/p>\n
Still, neither \u200bregretted their decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe \u2060couldn\u2019t miss Messi\u2019s last World Cup, whatever the cost,\u201d said Meneses.<\/p>\n
For Behrens, however, the rising price of attending football\u2019s biggest tournament reflects a broader trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is for the fans and not for the rich people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to see that most people can\u2019t come to the stadium because it\u2019s too expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Additional reporting by Manuel Ausloos, writing by Julien Pretot in New York; \u200bEditing by Hugh Lawson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ma\u0142gorzata Wojtunik ARLINGTON, TX, June 25 (Reuters) \u2013 With barbecue smoke drifting between rows of camper vans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-350238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}