Landscapes
No Supported Files in Gallery
No Supported Files in Gallery
Posted via Instagram http://ift.tt/2bm4Q4G
MADRID—Want to buy a lighter for €4,650 ($6,349)?
You might if you rooted for either of Madrid’s rival soccer teams and knew that three tickets to their most anticipated match ever were being thrown in “for free.”
As Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid prepare to battle Saturday (2 p.m. ET, Fox) for the Champions League title, Europe’s elite club soccer competition, fans are paying some of the highest prices on record for a seat at the game in the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon.
It reads like a retail riddle: How can a consumer earn nearly €2,000 by spending €949 on a new television?
The deal is part of a competition that was organized by the Media World chain in Italy last month, tied to a much larger competition: the World Cup. Shoppers who bet on an Italian victory in the soccer tournament could get a 200% discount on their purchase if their home team wins.
MADRID— Xacobo Rodriguez, out of work and with an infant child, says he lives in a constant state of dread. “You always fear the day there will be a knock on the door and then you’ll be evicted from your home,” he says.
Mr. Rodriguez, 38 years old, is one of the many Spaniards who can’t pay pricey mortgages taken out before a property bubble popped in 2008. Worse, his mother, who guaranteed his loan with her own home, is also at risk. “I feel we both might sink,” he says.
When Jenaro García’s tech company Let’s Gowex SA won the top prize from Spain’s marketing association in May, the presenter hailed him as an innovator who was making wireless Internet ubiquitous, “a magician who converted Wi-Fi into water.”
Mr. García, outfitted in an Indiana Jones-style jacket, appeared before the appreciative crowd alongside Wi-Fi Man, a masked, caped superhero figure.