World Cup Sets Up Lottery for Tickets to Choice Games

American soccer fans will have to spin a wheel of fortune to buy tickets for the biggest games of next year’s World Cup.

Under a lottery-like plan unveiled Thursday, fans will have three weeks to mail in ticket applications for the quarterfinals, semifinals, third-place game and final, then wait three months to see if they are one of the lucky 150,000 or so to get a seat.

Prices range from $55 for cheap seats at the quarterfinals to $475 for the best seats at the title match. You have to buy two seats, but you can’t buy more.

There are about 18,750 tickets available per game, in stadiums that seat an average of 77,000. The rest of the tickets are committed for sale to soccer officials, corporate sponsors and overseas groups, according to Alan Rothenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of World Cup USA 1994.

After the Oct. 31 application deadline, computers will sort out the winners, but officials said it’s a matter of luck to see who gets seats.

“Each name goes into an electronic hat,” Rothenberg said. “You rotate it, and Vanna White pulls out the recipients. Only it will have to be an electronic Vanna White.”

Lucky buyers will be notified by Jan. 31, 1994.

For the championship in the Rose Bowl on July 17, all but 5,000 to 10,000 tickets are committed, Rothenberg said.

First- and second-round tickets sold out at record rates, but there was some good news for U.S. fans still hoping to get into the early-round games. Rothenberg said “a limited number” of tickets probably would be available once sponsors ascertain their needs, probably by late winter or early spring.