Fans Storm World Cup Ticket Centers

It was meant as a secondary measure. The World Cup organizing committee opened ticket centers this week so that soccer fans who managed to get tickets to the event in the past few weeks or days could pick them up personally, instead of anxiously waiting for them in the mail, uncertain if they would arrive on time.

Whether it was the term "Ticket Center or just a last-gasp attempt, on Tuesday, fans stormed the outlet in Gelsenkirchen, the first of its kind to open -- and were rewarded handsomely.

Carsten Eggert, from Münster, and a friend drove to Gelsenkirchen more on a whim than anything else. When the day was over, they returned home with the coveted entry passes, including one for the Germany-Ecuador match.

"I didn't think I would get a ticket period. And then to get one for Germany. It's awesome," he told German public television ARD.

Organizers advise against going to centers

For over a year, tickets have been on sale in a complicated online procedure. Hopeful soccer fans had to rely on winning lotteries, constantly scanning the FIFA Web site for new ticket batches or bidding for returned tickets, and many remain empty-handed eight days before the games begin.

The turn of events in Gelsenkirchen has left World Cup organizers at a loss for an explanation. The sales at a brick-and-mortar location were unintentional, they said.

"It is a huge error. The ticket offices have actually been set up for people to pick up tickets that have already been purchased. The offices were only meant to be direct sales locations in rare cases. The salespeople must first check on the Internet if there are tickets available for the games. Now they are simply overstretched by the droves of people," said Jens Grittner, media spokesman for the organizing committee.

Grittner advised against going to the venues in an attempt to purchase tickets.

More and more tickets being returned

The news of Carsten Eggert's good fortune, which another organizer spokesman described as "100 percent luck" and a "total exception," unleashed a similar storming of the ticket center in Dortmund on Wednesday.

Sponsors and soccer federations have been returning tickets they had been allocated. While Eggert was standing in line on Tuesday, a large batch had just been entered into the system, and he and his friend apparently got first dibs.