More than 15 million applications have been submitted for 675,000 seats for sale in Japan. To deal with the overload, organizers here are conducting a computer lottery. Earlier attempts to sell tickets over the Internet ran into problems. And residents near the stadium here, which was completed in 1998, are a bit jittery about having tens of thousands of visitors descending on their normally serene neighborhood. To dispel fears of hooliganism, police recently held a demonstration of their security readiness.
Locals are still wary, however.
Instead of welcoming the potential business, shopkeepers near the stadium pushed for a renovation of a train station that would keep arriving fans on the other side of the tracks. But these people aren't going to be buying my carrots. So it's better for them just to go to the stadium, and then go home. Yoo contributed to this report from Seoul. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.