Bird’s eye view of Euro soccer action

Colin Graham

5,900 Euros for a glimpse of pitch from the ferris wheel.
Vienna finishes preparations on time.

Vienna. Football fans wan- ting a bird’s eye view of Euro 2008 games in Vienna can rent a place on the Ferris wheel made famous in the film "The Third Man", but it will not come cheap. Organiser Geo- Events still has places for all games at prices of up to 5,900 Euros for 10 people, including matches shown on a big TV screen and food. "We have sold about half,” Gerit Hainz of Geo-Events said.

The Ferris wheel in the Prater park next to the Ernst Happel Stadium, where several games - including the final - will be played, will still be turning. Passengers will be able to look down onto the pitch in the upper part of the journey.

The wheel is well-known as the location where the character of Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles, makes his "cuckoo-clock" speech mocking the Swiss in Carol Reed's 1949 film.

Both Austria and co-host Switzerland said they had completed their prepar- ations on schedule.

"The host cities have never been ready so early,” said the president of the Euro 2008 organising com- mittee, Martin Kallen.

The last major construc- tion projects have now been completed in Vienna. The Ernst Happel stadium, which will host the final, has been entirely moderni- sed and refitted to seat 51,000 people, and builders finished putting up the 460-seat media centre last month. The city’s U2 under- ground line has been extended to the stadium.

Austria plans to run 2,000 special trains during the championship to ensure that fans reach their chosen destinations in time. Those with match tickets will travel for free.

Austria expects an additional 1,1 million over- night stays during the tournament.

The co-hosts are expec- ting some two million visi- tors and estimate the cham- pionship could bring in several hundreds of mil- lions of Euros in profit.

Printausgabe vom 26.05.2008