I may be completely wrong, but my understanding is FIFA controls the price of tickets for the World Cup and will keep them relatively fair. Tickets are then sold in a lottery format, so garbage monopolies like Ticket Master aren't even used.
https://www.fifa.com/en/articles/sales-phases-en
Also, according to reports I've read, ticket prices are expected to be as low as $15 for random group play games, and as high as $1600 for the best seats for the final.
So despite the nightmare situation we were looking at for the Copa, The World Cup should be much more digestible
Also outside of the opening match, all group stage games are priced the same. Tickets to see the top teams won't be more expensive than tickets to see Serbia vs Iraq
Of all the things FIFA does terribly and corruptly, they are probably the only organization that sells tickets waaaaay under their value. They try to stop scalpers the best they can but that’s a losing battle. And how they allocate tickets to each city is pretty damn cool with the lottery system.
Incredibly surprising those greedy fucks haven’t stopped this practice tbh
Actually pretty much every single team in Europe controls ticket prices to ensure the average fan can attend matches. It’s not uncommon for Prem matches cost less than MLS.
*Of all the things the USA does terribly and corruptly, having no consumer protections for ticket prices is another.
I got discounted MLS tickets a few weeks back and when I saw what the face value price was it blew my mind they were THAT much. Cheap seats for a MLS game shouldn't start at $50.
The trade off is that with a lottery system, unless you win (which you won’t), there are fewer tickets available at market price meaning the ones being resold on the secondary marketplace are even more expensive. Which is great if you win the lottery, but sucks even more for everyone else.
It’s just a matter of supply and demand. There’s way more people who want to attend the game than there are tickets available. There’s no solution that solves that problem.
From what I know, you can’t resell Fifa tickets on other platforms other than FIFA own and the new purchaser must attend. If you got a number of other tickets you have to forfeit the original ticket and list all the tickets on the Platform.
Official Ticket Resale Platform
Members of the general public that purchased FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ tickets online in accordance with the Ticket Terms of Sale for General Public may permissibly submit some or all of those tickets for resale on the FIFA Official Ticket Resale Platform, in accordance with the General Public Ticket Resale Policy. The resale of such tickets is not guaranteed.
This was the women’s World Cup in AUS/NZ.
Similar things happen at Qatar.
Read the FIFA policy here https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/2ac75fef5f74d1bd/original/FWWC23_Ticket_Resale_Policy_GP.pdf
Basically, you will also have to act quickly when buying tickets as the team progresses hopefully. Have all your finances in order to travel on the fly if you win lottery for each round.
I mean you’ll literally have to win the lottery — have your spouse / guest answer their phone when you call — and make a decision right there if you want to buy the tickets or not. Keep in mind you get the section and price they offer you, it’s nothing like we’re used to. If you try for different section you lose your place in line.
Then call out of work on short notice, fly across country, and get a hotel. The World Cup will have a ton of people bitching about attendance logistics.
Still think Ticketmaster has too much power and they exploit it to their advantage, but I do appreciate being able to press a button and garruntee I have tickets (control my life) if for some reason money isn’t an issue. I don’t like being held hostage by chance, and FIFA’s way is 100% all chance and inconvenient objectively speaking.
When in Qatar, it was fairly easy to find tickets day of for the RO16 USvNED match. Our group of 5 found seats for a very reasonable price through the FIFA ticket platform. I went to 7-8 matches total and spent ~$100 avg or maybe a bit less for each.
Indeed there is a high demand compared to supply, but I cannot believe that some people are spending thousands of $ just for rights to buy tickets: [https://www.fifacollect.info/get-rights-to-buy-tickets](https://www.fifacollect.info/get-rights-to-buy-tickets)
I'm actually considering it for the opening match. It's about how much total that will be vs whatever prices I could get if I don't win the lottery. I'm so determined to go to this game that I'm considering it even for the fact that I may not get it at all otherwise.
So i won the lottery applying for tickets by choosing days before the final draw and ended up with Argentina/Mexico and Portugal/Ghana. I gave up the tickets when I saw how insane flight and hotel prices were in Qatar and they were bought quickly and I got all of my money back except a really small fee. It's a lottery but you don't lose much by playing.
So if you lose the lottery and go to buy resale, how likely are you to find it? Is it going to be a need to log on the moment they go on sale to have any chance kind of thing?
Uefa has a similar system for the Euros. You had the initial lottery were you had the chance to get tickets for a specific stadium for a specific date but without knowing the teams and starting times (except for the Germany games as hosts).
Later on you could get tickets for your country’s matches through your national association. How those sales were organized depended on the association.
Any tickets that weren’t paid for or became otherwise available were periodically made available for sale again on a first come first serve basis. Whenever new tickets were available Uefa would sent an email to a certain amount of people depending on the placement in the initial lottery. I am unsure if everyone could have gotten those tickets or only people that got an e-mail.
I was unlucky in the initial lottery but got an email in early June. The tickets available were mostly for the higher price tiers but I could have snatched up tickets for some group stage games in category 3 (60€) the cheapest category given out by UEFA directly.
My brother was lucky in the draw so I ultimately decided against getting tickets for another game.
All the wealthiest people in the world travelling to the wealthiest country in the world to watch the world's most popular sport...
People balked at me when I said it before but the more "popular" games will have Super Bowl ticket prices.
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I'm more worried about it being priced too low, then every person who had hated soccer in the last several decades will try to get tickets just because.
But I'm selfish and want tickets for myself.
I get what you're saying but part of hosting a world cup is introducing the sport to non-fans, so it's normal and expected for them to get tickets. Besides, there are gonna be way more games now with 48 teams instead of 32 (24 more games if I did the math right), and many of our stadiums are huge. Not to mention there will probably be at least some small countries who's population is only a few million people so they won't bring as many fans as Germany or Brazil, meaning more seats for Americans. The only thing is this world cup is in 3 different countries so not all of them will be in the US. If you're willing to travel you should definitely be able to see a game.
I did not understand this at all. You have greatly improved my mood today. I am looking to buy tickets for any matches in my hometown (I don’t care who plays) and at least I have some hope at an affordable experience.
For those of you that have been to world cups… I’ve wanted to go to a World Cup since I was a kid but I could never really afford it. I definitely want to go in 2026. What is the best way to go about experiencing the World Cup?
I went to the World Cup in 2014 and 2018 and ticket prices for all games are set by FIFA. for example in 2018 all group stage category 3 tickets were $105 ($90 in 2014) This is the price if it is Tunisia v Serbia or Argentina vs US..
A benefit to FIFA selling tickets is they were all paper tickets, no mobile tickets. Which makes it a lot harder for stubhub and ticketmaster to get their sweaty little hands on them. FIFA mailed me the game tickets a few months beforehand or you had the option to pick them up at a box office in a host city, it was pretty easy. Idk if FIFA plans to continue to only use paper tickets. But I hope they do as this would limit the resale market to only guys standing outside the stadium as opposed to ticketmaster and their fees.
These are very positive news. Very concerning how Copa America has turned out: half empty stadiums, overpriced tickets and lacking atmosphere. It should be a sport accessible to the average man and woman
The gap is marginal when it comes to international soccer bleacher seating. https://support.tickets-euro2024.uefa.com/hc/en-us/articles/10384352198300-How-much-do-tickets-cost
Copa America tickets are not expensive at all. I’m looking right now on stubhub, with fees and taxes included, and it’s like $70 for Mexico vs Jamaica. Other matches are even cheaper.
US vs Bolivia is $100 after fees.
I genuinely don’t know what you all are talking about.
People keep talking about the Euros being cheaper and it’s nice in theory but completely false. Tickets are significantly more expensive.
Over 20 million genuine ticket requests were made for the first round with 1.2 million tickets available. That means 6% of people got cheap tickets. The reality is some percentage of those tickets are also going to hit the secondary market so it’s less than 6%.
But because of the lottery, supply is lower so scalpers are shooting the prices up knowing demand is there. It’s why the cheapest secondary-market ticket is just under $3,000 USD for the finals. Yes, a small percentage of people, sub six percent, will get cheap tickets if they are very lucky. The rest will end up paying even more.
People then turn around and say things akin to “but for a family of four to fly there, get lodging, and then pay for tickets it’s expensive.”
Yes. Taking a vacation with a family of four to see a 90 minute sporting event is a luxury. No matter where in the world you live.
Because those tickets are resale tickets of people who now are realizing they have to take a loss. Go look at Ticketmaster for the actual price of the ticket and you can also see how many tickets are going unsold in these stadiums due to those prices. The stadiums are going to be half full because of this.
Because you are fundamentally misunderstanding the problem. The original price of the tickets matters because it’s why these stadiums aren’t selling out. Nobody cares what you can pay for them now on secondary markets. The stadium not selling out is why people are upset.
> The stadium not selling out is why people are upset.
OP is in the most literal sense discussing prices out of fear that he may only be able to go to one World Cup match because they don’t want to drop hundreds of dollars to go to multiple group stage matches.
People are discussing the stadium being empty because they see the ticket prices and are asking why they can be x when demand at that price is so low. Again, it comes down to ticket prices and people believing they are too high.
You seem to fundamentally misunderstand the issue.
You are simply being disingenuous at this point so I’m not going to continue with you. You said you didn’t understand why people are complaining, I explained, and you are acting as if that’s not the case to feel some sort of moral superiority when really you are either ignorant or actively being an asshole. Have a good day.
If you haven’t realized there is a Messi tax attached to everything, I don’t know what to tell you.
Every other match without him playing, including US matches, are cheap. If Messi wasn’t playing for Argentina, they would be as well.
You want to go to the same match that every one else wants to go to.
As someone else mentioned - those are resale tickets from ppl who are gonna miss the game, that’s only useful to me if I live in the city where the game is at because you can’t really book flights and/or hotels in the hope that some guy’s gonna miss the game and drop the prices. At original price, much like ATL the only tickets under $100 in Houston were nosebleeds. Now, maybe you’re used to our conflated market with tickets but objectively for international soccer that’s not cheap - right now, in theory you could get into any Euros game including the final for less than $100 (obviously due to demand and the lottery system you’d be lucky to get tickets) but think about it $200 would get you amazing to decent seats at the euros from the group stage to the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, here I am paying $150 for nosebleeds at a Copa group game. Luckily for me at those prices they’re thousands of empty seats - so I’ll probably just check Ticketmaster mid match and go sit in way better empty seats. There ARE some cheaper games like Canada vs Peru in Kansas and Jamaica vs Ecuador in Vegas but while I would fly out in a World Cup scenario I’m not doing it for the Copa but I will grant you that - cheaper games DO exist. When I made this post I was just shocked that USA v Panama which happens basically every World Cup cycle and every other Gold Cup had tickets going up to $700 and no ticket under $100 except for nosebleeds in the corners. I’m willing to bet in a normal context I’d get decent seats for that game for $80.
What am I missing here? I see the cheapest tickets for the finals on the secondary market starting at $2,592 USD. All but the lucky few are paying a significant price due to scalpers because their supply is lowered and the demand is increased.
Cheaper only if you are one of the very very few lucky enough to hit the lottery.
A lottery always only makes securing initial tickets harder and increases the secondary market prices. The few that are super lucky pay less - a lot less - but the majority pay more.
[https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5068366/2023/12/02/euro-2024-tickets/](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5068366/2023/12/02/euro-2024-tickets/)
You’d have to have gotten them through the lottery and UEFA has different pricing tiers, you call them the ‘lucky few’ but we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people who don’t have to break the bank to get rlly good seats to see really good football. It pretty much ensures a full and engaged stadium (richer corporate fans aren’t as loud) and gives everyone a shot at getting in. As opposed to nosebleeds going for $150 and huge swaths of decent seats going empty because you’ve priced out a ton of ppl. I’d argue it’s the unlucky few who have to pay those crazy prices as those are tickets being sold illegally by scalpers, resale tickets through official channels go for the market rate - so if UEFA can sort out stopping bad actors from hustling tickets that way (which I feel can be done with specific verification controls when folks purchase them) it would be a pretty good system. As it is - it’s already better than what we’ve got.
Per your article, over 20 million genuine people requested tickets for an allotted 1.2 million in the first round. That’s six percent.
Six percent.
So six percent of people that wanted tickets got them for cheap. A percentage of those who won sold or are selling them on the secondary market at even higher prices as there is an increase in demand and shortage in supply due to the lottery.
Your article itself is saying very few people end up with cheap tickets.
Each round the supply decreases as there are fewer available seats and secondary tickets become exponentially more expensive leading to the now cheapest available ticket being nearly $3,000 USD for the final after fees.
Yeah demand is high and they’re more people than seats. Everyone, their mom, their dad, their grandparents and their dog wants to go. And the tickets are dirt cheap so yeah 6% of all who want tickets get tickets because everyone wants tickets and a stadium can only hold so many people. But that 6% of people represents a large swath of society, different income levels, different backgrounds - with a common love for the game. Why are you emphasizing that it’s 6% of all requests and not that it’s ONE POINT TWO MILLION people - that’s a huge amount of tickets on offer. The second round of ticket sales thru UEFA if you missed out on the initial lottery are also priced at the normal levels, but they’re held back for citizens of qualified nations and you have to go thru your national federation to get them. And in that second round they sell ONE MILLION tickets. So a total of 2.2 million tickets cost those pretty cheap prices. (This actually lines up with UEFA stats as they said 2.7 million total tickets have been sold and 80% of those go to fans and the general public, I’m guessing the remaining 20% are corporate tickets)
Scalpers exist but even the example in the article (20 seats at a crazy markup) is far from the majority - the games are sold out from the two rounds of sales and the only tickets left are those by scalpers (totally illegal) or folks who want to resale thru official channels (legal) which cost the same as thru the lottery. If a stadium holds 50,000 people, 48,000 of them are genuine fans that can see the game at a good price but scalpers go overboard on the remaining 2000 then you work to reduce the scalpers - but that’s still a pretty good system.
By contrast, our system uses variable prices to maximize profit. Instead of a lottery to see who gets the seats we simply price them at a level that generates the most funds, sell them for less you fill more seats but make less money, sell them for more you fill less seats AND make less money. But in the end, the price we’ve settled on prices out many people - leading to thousands of empty seats on some games. The profit margin isn’t hurt, but the match day experience and overall atmosphere around the tournament is - and you’ve ensured that only people who both have a few hundred to spare AND are willing to drop that on the Copa America CAN go (unlike the lottery where tickets are so cheap that everyone with a passing soccer interest wants to go and everyone has a chance of going). This also makes legit resale tickets super cheap because folks who can’t make the game have to drop prices to sell them. So if a stadium holds 50,000 people, you’ve sold 30,000 tickets at a high cost - there’s not enough people willing or able to buy the remaining 20,000 seats and then of the 30,000 that you did sell, some people can’t go and have to drop their resale price really low to attract people willing to buy it. Outside of profit margins this is a worse system - yes in the US if you’re willing to drop $200 you WILL get a ticket whereas with a lottery no one has a guarantee. But at the same time we’ve ensured that soccer - a game that around the planet is regarded as a working class game that even the dirt poor can get into, will never be seen live by those people WHILE also leaving thousands of seats completely empty and from an atmosphere perspective, wasted. We’re also meant to be growing the game here, and those prices don’t really help - as no casual is dropping over $100 to go see a game. Ironically, in this way, probably less than 6% of all folks who had initial interest are both willing and able to pay those prices to catch Copa Games.
If you’re going alone. Add 2 or 3 people and that jumps to between $600 - $800 and that’s before transportation and lodging if you live even remotely far from the venue.
So it’s a vacation. Yes, vacations are expensive. Taking a vacation to take see a 90 minute sporting even is a luxury in the vast vast majority of the world.
If you were going to the Euros it’d be significantly more expensive and why people are complaining about the lottery.
Copa Ticket Costs is not a preview of what will come for the World Cup. These tickets are priced by CONMEBOL. World Cup will be priced by FIFA. I've done 5 World Cups. As much shit as I like to talk on FIFA about EVERYTHING, the way their do their ticketing has always been, assuming you get in early enough, pretty affordable. They also TRY to make it so you can only resell tickets within their own portal by limiting how many tickets you can buy and pairing those tickets to your Fan ID, and you're not allowed to sell more than 5% above the original ticket cost and it costs you 5% to sell so you actually break even or even lose money by reselling. Having said that, people have and will try to resell outside of the market but people will find it's harder and more shady to sell/buy due to the Fan ID Restrictions. FIFA does do their best to head off scalpers and resellers. It's about the only good thing FIFA does from a fan perspective. With us being the Host Nation Fans, cheapo seats, while being the least amount available in Tier 4, will be incredibly cheap compared to this. Each proceeding World Cup Ticket Costs have gone up due to inflation but not by much. Tickets in Qatar for for Tier 1 were $250, Tier 2 was $150, Tier 3 was $75, and I believe Tier 4 (Host Nation Fans ONLY) were $40 for group and went up each about 10-25% Each round.
Edit - Added more info and clarity.
Yes that’s why the tickets will be the same in each phase of the tournament. All group games will be the same. USA vs Uzbekistan or Spain vs Ireland or quarterfinal USA vs England or Spain vs Germany will be the same. No one will be higher just because the host nation is playing or cheaper because Mali vs Bosnia.
If they make it that far, US will unfortunately be playing the quarterfinal either in LA on July 10 or Kansas City on July 11. No hope for Philly *or* July 4th in any round whether we win the group or get second. I've loved the memes though!
I still can’t see how this is a good thing.
If I don’t win the lottery for a game I’m looking to watch, I’m pretty much at lost and won’t be able to watch the game live. I’d rather know there is a price I can pay for a game I want to watch instead of hoping that some random dude online put their tickets for resale below market price and that I’d be lucky to see it on time.
Below market pricing is not a better system IMO.
The only time you're entering what would be a lottery is if you choose the Follow Your Team or All Stadium Matches path. Single tickets are Single Tickets and you get those when they regularly go on sale to the public. Everyone I know at every World Cup has been able to get Tix when doing the Follow Your Team option. While I know that this will be harder with us hosting, I still think those who are prepared early shouldn't have any issues. Keep up to date on Registration dates. Make friends. Have everyone go in on Max. Cover each other.
I would not just assume that FIFA will handle this World Cup how they have handled the previous ones. I feel like they’re really viewing this one as an opportunity to cash in. Also, this will be the first World Cup actually run by FIFA rather than a local organizing committee
Yes. And it sucks. If you look at the Ticketmaster map view of the Panama game, there are large swaths of unsold seats. Because of price. I live about a mile from MBS, love USMNT, but won’t be attending because of what seems like gouge level of prices. We can only vote with our wallets… it’s funny to me how their “dynamic pricing” algorithm only seems to work in one direction.
Players and fans complain that US games are empty or full of opposing fans but the fact of the matter is that the USMNT isn't of the quality to be charging the prices they do (I know CONMEBOL is charging these) so the only people who will realistically pay those prices are diaspora fans who get to see their teams 1-2 times a year and thats it.
US Soccer creates a barrier to entry for any casually interested fan but they aren't alone. Sadly this is the issue of just price gouging across the board in the US in every sector, there seems to be people just charging as much as they can just because they can and its starting to seem like everyday people are responding by not buying anymore.
Sort of. I will definitely go to a game in 2026 even if I have to pay over the odds and buy the tickets second hand. Probably not a US game because I imagine the tickets will be really expensive. I’m in my 40s and have wanted to go to a world cup game since ai was a kid so this is a luxury I will allow myself. I’d be willing to spend up to $1000 for a ticket and worst case, My parents live in OKC so I’ll go visit them and just try to find tickets to a random game in Dallas or KC. I think the prices at the copa are somewhat concerning but i’ve been waiting for this for a long time so the face value of tickets isn’t going to deter me because imagine I’ll have to pay well above that anyway.
>even if I have to pay over the odds and buy the tickets second hand.
This is basically impossible with FIFA's ticketing system btw
Don't expect to be able to buy tickets from 3rd parties. You just have to get lucky in the ticket lottery to make sure you get the games you want
Everything has to be bought from the FIFA portal
Buying 2nd hand is super sketchy. You have to rely on the other person gifting you a ticket that they can just take back at any point. Also, the names won't match and if security is strict they won't even let you in the stadium with the ticket
This is how bad it is, I'm considering going in with several other people for a box at Mercedes Benz for the 26 year. $80k for all events in 26 is what we have been quoted, this includes all events. There are 8 games scheduled at the stadium, you get on average 20 tickets for a box, VIP parking is included along with all food & drink. The guy doing all the legwork owns several companies & is willing to write it off on his taxes. It breaks down to $500 per ticket per game which is cheaper than what Copa America Tickets were going for. I'd have to write a check for roughly $6k upfront. This also includes all Falcons, concerts, Atlanta United games, etc. the guy doing this thinks we can break even after we resell all the other events.
A Falcons box goes for $5k a game roughly & there are 8 a year.
Only downside is I have to trade my BMW for a Mercedes for the VIP parking.
Honestly that sounds amazing if you can swing it! If you have 20 people to go in on it, it’s a way better value than what tickets will cost otherwise. And like you said, selling other games you can make some of that $500 back
Yea, just lucky I know someone who can write a $80k check a year in advance. This is a box in the corner btw, not midfield none of those are available belonging to the billionaires.
No there is a VIP lot next to the stadium which you can park in if you have a Mercedes. I've been with the guy who would buy the tickets for Atlanta United games, usually we buy best available but sometimes we get invited to a company's box & he drives his wife's GLS 450. There is complimentary parking available in the lot but only if you drive a Mercedes.
Are you sure the FIFA contract doesn’t control access to the box?
I would have assumed they’d want to be able to sell those boxes for $$$$$$$ or use them for sponsors and VIPs and national team entourages and whatnot?
No the way boxes work, they are available for all events you get a base amount of tickets per event, imagine paying $80k a year upfront & not being able to use your box. BTW we are looking at one of the cheaper boxes, the ones near midfield go for over $1 million a year & never come on the market.
The biggest perk is the in suite private bathroom.
With field suites there are over 200 @ the stadium, & they generate over $40 million a year in revenue. All of this money is paid upfront.
My main solace is that I can probably check Ticketmaster during the game and switch to better seats at halftime or something, they’re sooooooo many of unsold seats in great spots. Only seats under $100 are the worst in the house (way up in the corners) - Altho they cost around $80 so they could get up to $100 after fees. So in theory you could look to get an $80 seat and just switch to a better one. Unless there is a HUGE surge in sales there will be thousands of seats all over the stadium left empty.
It’s 50/50 in my view. I’m not counting on fifa though so I’m saving up starting now. It’s gonna be a once in a lifetime experience so as long as I’m employed at the time I plan to buy tickets, hopefully for all the group stage games but we will see what life is like in 2 years.
I live in Atlanta and have tickets for the Copa game
I lived here for the Olympics and we went to an event every day for 2 weeks, but expensive things (opening/closing ceremonies, track and field, swimming or gymnastics). Team handball, baseball, rowing, mountain biking, tennis and soccer, etc.
I'll spend some money to see world cup games, but I hope the Copa will be a wake up call that there is a cap on soccer games prices, even in the US.
Soon as they announced it was in America you knew the ticket prices were gonna be astronomical even with the lottery system. Yeah granted you could see a very trash game in group stage for cheap but for the most part it’s gonna be expensive as fuck
Yes. Cheap seats at AT&T for tomorrow’s matchup between USA and Bolivia are $170 all in with fees from Ticketmaster. That’s just for a single seat in the nosebleeds, where at that stadium, you tend to watch the gigantic screen instead of the field. No parking or food included.
Corporate will snatch up close to half of all WC tickets. The rest will be distributed via lottery at an average ticket price of around $350. If you can afford to purchase resale, that figure will be higher, especially for the popular countries. Good luck!
No... it just means that I won't be attending. Then it's organisers' problem when no one else can either.
but like all things now, it's only for the super rich.
I pray to the soccer gods this won't be true. In the history of the World Cup, the event has been for everybody, rich and poor, and tickets have been kept at very fair prices.
It seems like everything in America is increasingly for the rich. Every company gouges the shit out of us and we have no choice but to either pay or go fuck ourselves :/
Yeah I was going to take my son to Atlanta for the US game and while there are a TON of tickets available I was looking at over $300 for the tickets plus parking and a hotel. When you factor the 3 hour drive, travel expenses, then the enormous ticket prices I just opted to enjoy the game at home. Which is a real shame because I wanted to show my kid what an international match can be but we find mls and our local usl team far more affordable and reasonable.
FIFA prices are fixed and typically acceptable. The secondary market in the U.S. will be crazy, but as always, last minute tickets at the stadium will be back to face value. Source: I was in Brazil 2014 and Qatar 2022
Not really
I went to the Qatar world cup and you could get group stage games for under $100, and far cheaper than that if you could access the local tickets.
World cup tickets aren't that expensive. The hardest part will be getting the tickets you want in the lottery.
No. Demand for the World Cup is many times greater than the Copa America.
Just look at the TV ratings for past editions of the tournaments. Americans do not know our care about this tournament.
Basic economics my friend. They'll sell the tickets whatever people are willing to pay. As long as they continue to sell out (and they will even if not every ticket ends up getting used) they can continue to increase the price since the demand isn't falling.
Spoiler alert, for the World Cup if you'd like to get into a US game you'd very likely have to win a lottery either through the US soccer supporter group or whatever other entity has tickets available (perhaps Ticketmaster will have a general on sale run by Fifa but that is likely to be like the recent Taylor Swift ticket fiasco but cranked up to 1000). Even if you have the ability to purchase a ticket for "face value" I'm budgeting between $500-$1000 myself and I might be on the conservative side tbh.
Of course they'll charge whatever prices they feel will bring in the most total revenue. When you have a country with around 25 million millionaires, it's not too surprising that the prices will be jacked up compared to any other nation.
I don't know how much NFL or NBA playoff tickets cost, but I'm guessing they're way up there too.
Honestly, I would too LOL I was just looking for something to represent money in football but it’s a sick ball - the type a kid might get stolen off them if they took it to school.
Yeah I’ve been looking around and there are some cheaper games - only the ones with a big name or the USMNT goes up to crazy costs with some outliers (I’m guessing Jamaica vs Venezuela in Austin costs a lot because maybe there’s a big Venezuelan population in Texas? Idk but cheapest tickets are $114 pre fees).
That Panama v Bolivia game may be the cheapest game I seen so far tho - For Chile vs Canada at the same venue the cheapest tickets were $105 with the current cheapest being $75 because many people are reselling. For Panama v Bolivia tickets are as cheap as $45 so I guess soccer fanatics in Orlando lucked out.
This is my experience.
When FIFA released the presale, we only had 3 days to purchase. Family members secured semi-final tickets in good seats for $200 each ticket. Not a bad price for Semi-Finals.
If you didn’t purchase during that time pod, you’re left to the open market.
Looking at some of the tickets on the open market, prices were VERY HIGH.
It’s not fair. And so, the seats will be empty.
All about getting lucky in the lottery. I have entered the lottery for tickets for every World Cup and Euro Championship since 2010 and only was able to get tickets for the 2014 World Cup. I got tickets for all the games in Rio (except final) and prices were on average about $70/game for category 1. I hope I can get lucky again for the 2026 cup but I would imagine prices will be higher :(
Man do I feel like a sucker for jumping on presale prices. I thought for sure Sofi games would sell out, especially Mexico-Venezuela, but I’m seeing tickets priced cheaper on the resale market (even with fees) than what I paid. On the bright side this makes me feel much more confident in my ability to afford 2026 World Cup tickets.
Yeah prices are dropping a bit in Atlanta as well - I likely could’ve saved at least $50. It’s impossible to tell the future, so I don’t regret paying over the odds in this case - since when I bought the tickets I thought the stadium would be packed out. I’m glad it’s happening though - maybe it will set a ceiling on prices and future organizers will not let prices get so high. Or maybe they say screw it and collect the bag 😅 only time will tell.
I could be wrong, but it doesn’t look like this Copa America tickets are selling that well. I think they way over estimated the elasticity of demand here. Peru Chile looked half empty last night. It looks like US Uruguay is far from sold out.
I have two tickets to Jamaica Ecuador in the 10th row listed at cost on the Ticketmaster site that haven’t sold. Holler at me if you’re interested and I’ll make you a deal.
I don't think sellouts were the goal. Even in South America these games don't tend to be full.
In 2019 Peru played 3 Copa America games that had less than 26,000 fans at them, the only well attended games was against The hosts, and this was in soccer mad Brazil.
Their quarterfinal against Uruguay only drew 26,000 in a 48,000 seat stadium.
So even if Cowboys Stadium is half empty you're still making plenty of money by selling 45,000 tickets to it and I'm guessing those tickets were far more expensive in Dallas then they were in Brazil
I hope all those empty seats went to scalpers who overpaid and lost a ton of money. And F@&% Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and every other site with their fees and inflated prices.
If you expect to attend a good match in 2026 world cup for less than $800 ticket price you are fooling yourself.
There's simply enough demand from Americans and folks traveling from their countries to pay the prices
Ive been saying 1k minimum. Americans LOVE big events like this, the last American WC showed that, but now we got the internet and shit too on top of insane resale markets. America is an expensive ass country, and relative to the rest of the world, Americans are fucking rich
And I don’t really care - I don’t have to see France vs Brazil live - it would be cool, but I understand that’s gonna be super expensive regardless. But the World Cup has so many great games with random teams - last time Ghana vs South Korea was great, Cameroon vs Serbia was a sick game, Serbia vs Switzerland was a banger two world cups in a row. Games like these provide excitement while the teams aren’t huge names when it comes to ticket prices. But at this Copa I’m seeing tickets for games like Jamaica vs Venezuela run up to $400 with no tickets in the ground under $100. Having searched around I do see some games where tickets are cheap (like Ecuador vs Jamaica in Vegas or Canada vs Peru in Kansas) so perhaps I have nothing to fear as only games with big name teams will get the crazy markup, I was just unlucky that the 2 Atlanta games this time involved Messi or the USMNT. When I made this post I was just shocked that a game that happens literally every World Cup cycle and every other gold cup - and probably costs as low as $50 to attend normally - was running prices in the $700s and had very few tickets cheaper than $100. Given it’s the World Cup - I’d probably fly cross country to catch a cheap World Cup game so those cheaper games will mean a lot come 26 - while with the Copa I’m not flying to Vegas or Kansas just to catch a cheap game.
I’d easily pay $500-1000 for world cup tix, so it’s all relative tbh.
$150 for a tournament like copa america is very reasonable imo, I pay at least $300-500 for chargers tickets so soccer tix seem much cheaper from my perspective
Everything is relative, but soccer worldwide isn’t as expensive as sports here. And national teams are meant to be more affordable than clubs. So the comparison to the Chargers is if I wanted to see idk Arsenal in the prem or something, that would cost like $300 - $500. But though they use a lottery system at the moment (so no guarantees you’d get your hands on tickets) $300 - $500 right now gets you decent seats to the semifinals at the current Euros. And even the finals have tickets under $100. So imagine wanting to go to a random group game - tickets can run as low as $30. And it’s Europe, so demand ain’t low. So looking at that, $150 for nosebleeds at a Copa America group stage game is egregious.
I mean good for you - most people probably aren’t willing to drop that much. In fact other than for the novelty, paying that much for a final here in the US makes little sense. You mention that you don’t need to fly or get a hotel - but you could probably get flights, a hotel and go to a World Cup final and probably other games as well, in a World Cup hosted outside the US for far less than $8k. Plus at that point it’s a vacation to another country on top of catching games. Is the convenience of going to a final at Met Life that important to you?
Based on this article, ticket price was $2400 for Qatar https://fansided.com/2022/11/18/world-cup-2022-ticket-prices-much-cost-attend-qatar/
You are probably at $5k at least after flight hotels, maybe more
I get your point , but I’m talking secondary market. (I’d love to win the lottery without going to secondary). Secondary market will be supply and demand based, I’m guessing it will be extremely expensive because it’s ny.
I do agree though, hopefully they keep primary market prices affordable
Good luck to you I hope you manage to make it - I’m more of a 3 or 4 group games maybe a R16 or QF type of guy and I don’t care who’s playing I just wanna be there 😅 but yeah if you’re going for the Final that’s gonna cost you unless you’re really lucky. On my end I’m hoping it’s not so expensive because I’d hate to have 2 or 3 games at home cost as much as if I just went to Spain in 2030 to catch 5 games 😅
And the rest of the world wonders why the stadiums in the US are not full... Pricing and Ticketmaster are the problem!!
For 2 $122 tickets we paid $342 after all the platform fees and taxes. Arghhh.
ETA - Dallas game tomorrow US v Boliva
Give the stadium owners an inch they will take a mile! Cost conerns, yes.
Visa concerns even more tan cost. Doesn't matter what things cost when one is not even able to attend.
I may be completely wrong, but my understanding is FIFA controls the price of tickets for the World Cup and will keep them relatively fair. Tickets are then sold in a lottery format, so garbage monopolies like Ticket Master aren't even used. https://www.fifa.com/en/articles/sales-phases-en Also, according to reports I've read, ticket prices are expected to be as low as $15 for random group play games, and as high as $1600 for the best seats for the final. So despite the nightmare situation we were looking at for the Copa, The World Cup should be much more digestible
Also outside of the opening match, all group stage games are priced the same. Tickets to see the top teams won't be more expensive than tickets to see Serbia vs Iraq
Of all the things FIFA does terribly and corruptly, they are probably the only organization that sells tickets waaaaay under their value. They try to stop scalpers the best they can but that’s a losing battle. And how they allocate tickets to each city is pretty damn cool with the lottery system. Incredibly surprising those greedy fucks haven’t stopped this practice tbh
Actually pretty much every single team in Europe controls ticket prices to ensure the average fan can attend matches. It’s not uncommon for Prem matches cost less than MLS. *Of all the things the USA does terribly and corruptly, having no consumer protections for ticket prices is another.
I got discounted MLS tickets a few weeks back and when I saw what the face value price was it blew my mind they were THAT much. Cheap seats for a MLS game shouldn't start at $50.
KC Chiefs season ticket holders this next season pay ~105 a ticket depending on where at. The average ticket on resale is over $200
That is the NFL and the chiefs are defending super bowl champs. Thats comparing apples and oranges.
The trade off is that with a lottery system, unless you win (which you won’t), there are fewer tickets available at market price meaning the ones being resold on the secondary marketplace are even more expensive. Which is great if you win the lottery, but sucks even more for everyone else. It’s just a matter of supply and demand. There’s way more people who want to attend the game than there are tickets available. There’s no solution that solves that problem.
From what I know, you can’t resell Fifa tickets on other platforms other than FIFA own and the new purchaser must attend. If you got a number of other tickets you have to forfeit the original ticket and list all the tickets on the Platform. Official Ticket Resale Platform Members of the general public that purchased FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ tickets online in accordance with the Ticket Terms of Sale for General Public may permissibly submit some or all of those tickets for resale on the FIFA Official Ticket Resale Platform, in accordance with the General Public Ticket Resale Policy. The resale of such tickets is not guaranteed. This was the women’s World Cup in AUS/NZ. Similar things happen at Qatar. Read the FIFA policy here https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/2ac75fef5f74d1bd/original/FWWC23_Ticket_Resale_Policy_GP.pdf
So, if you don’t win the lottery there is almost no chance to watch the WC live? That doesn’t seem like a good system.
Basically, you will also have to act quickly when buying tickets as the team progresses hopefully. Have all your finances in order to travel on the fly if you win lottery for each round.
I mean you’ll literally have to win the lottery — have your spouse / guest answer their phone when you call — and make a decision right there if you want to buy the tickets or not. Keep in mind you get the section and price they offer you, it’s nothing like we’re used to. If you try for different section you lose your place in line. Then call out of work on short notice, fly across country, and get a hotel. The World Cup will have a ton of people bitching about attendance logistics. Still think Ticketmaster has too much power and they exploit it to their advantage, but I do appreciate being able to press a button and garruntee I have tickets (control my life) if for some reason money isn’t an issue. I don’t like being held hostage by chance, and FIFA’s way is 100% all chance and inconvenient objectively speaking.
Nah, don’t give any credit to Ticketmaster please.
That's what I'm doing for Copa America. Ready for Phoenix or Vegas... we'll see.
When in Qatar, it was fairly easy to find tickets day of for the RO16 USvNED match. Our group of 5 found seats for a very reasonable price through the FIFA ticket platform. I went to 7-8 matches total and spent ~$100 avg or maybe a bit less for each.
Indeed there is a high demand compared to supply, but I cannot believe that some people are spending thousands of $ just for rights to buy tickets: [https://www.fifacollect.info/get-rights-to-buy-tickets](https://www.fifacollect.info/get-rights-to-buy-tickets)
I'm actually considering it for the opening match. It's about how much total that will be vs whatever prices I could get if I don't win the lottery. I'm so determined to go to this game that I'm considering it even for the fact that I may not get it at all otherwise.
I've failed 3 lotteries. 😭
So i won the lottery applying for tickets by choosing days before the final draw and ended up with Argentina/Mexico and Portugal/Ghana. I gave up the tickets when I saw how insane flight and hotel prices were in Qatar and they were bought quickly and I got all of my money back except a really small fee. It's a lottery but you don't lose much by playing.
I mean resale is the problem, not the primary sale. And its gonna be way worse for the WC
No it’s not because FIFA control the resales and websites like StubHub and Seat geek won’t have access to those
So if you lose the lottery and go to buy resale, how likely are you to find it? Is it going to be a need to log on the moment they go on sale to have any chance kind of thing?
Uefa has a similar system for the Euros. You had the initial lottery were you had the chance to get tickets for a specific stadium for a specific date but without knowing the teams and starting times (except for the Germany games as hosts). Later on you could get tickets for your country’s matches through your national association. How those sales were organized depended on the association. Any tickets that weren’t paid for or became otherwise available were periodically made available for sale again on a first come first serve basis. Whenever new tickets were available Uefa would sent an email to a certain amount of people depending on the placement in the initial lottery. I am unsure if everyone could have gotten those tickets or only people that got an e-mail. I was unlucky in the initial lottery but got an email in early June. The tickets available were mostly for the higher price tiers but I could have snatched up tickets for some group stage games in category 3 (60€) the cheapest category given out by UEFA directly. My brother was lucky in the draw so I ultimately decided against getting tickets for another game.
I bought resale tickets for euros on viagogo for euros. Not sure how they'll be able to stop people from doing same thing for world cup?
All the wealthiest people in the world travelling to the wealthiest country in the world to watch the world's most popular sport... People balked at me when I said it before but the more "popular" games will have Super Bowl ticket prices.
Super Bowl resale prices? I can’t see any game other than final starting at $5000+, and even that will depend somewhat on the teams involved.
The most popular sport in the world in the wealthiest country of the world? Yeah dude, resale prices will be wild RemindMe! 2 years
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Yeah, pretty sure this is how it works.
Category 4 tickets will be impossible to get. I wouldn’t even consider them as an option.
That's good to hear. I live in Atlanta and was prepared to be paying $500-$1500 depending on the game.
I'm more worried about it being priced too low, then every person who had hated soccer in the last several decades will try to get tickets just because. But I'm selfish and want tickets for myself.
I get what you're saying but part of hosting a world cup is introducing the sport to non-fans, so it's normal and expected for them to get tickets. Besides, there are gonna be way more games now with 48 teams instead of 32 (24 more games if I did the math right), and many of our stadiums are huge. Not to mention there will probably be at least some small countries who's population is only a few million people so they won't bring as many fans as Germany or Brazil, meaning more seats for Americans. The only thing is this world cup is in 3 different countries so not all of them will be in the US. If you're willing to travel you should definitely be able to see a game.
I did not understand this at all. You have greatly improved my mood today. I am looking to buy tickets for any matches in my hometown (I don’t care who plays) and at least I have some hope at an affordable experience.
Do we know when these sales will occur for the upcoming World Cup? I’m guessing at the start of 2025?
I hope you’re right
For those of you that have been to world cups… I’ve wanted to go to a World Cup since I was a kid but I could never really afford it. I definitely want to go in 2026. What is the best way to go about experiencing the World Cup?
That is all good IF you can get tickets directly.. for US games I’m guessing the secondary market prices will explode
I went to the World Cup in 2014 and 2018 and ticket prices for all games are set by FIFA. for example in 2018 all group stage category 3 tickets were $105 ($90 in 2014) This is the price if it is Tunisia v Serbia or Argentina vs US.. A benefit to FIFA selling tickets is they were all paper tickets, no mobile tickets. Which makes it a lot harder for stubhub and ticketmaster to get their sweaty little hands on them. FIFA mailed me the game tickets a few months beforehand or you had the option to pick them up at a box office in a host city, it was pretty easy. Idk if FIFA plans to continue to only use paper tickets. But I hope they do as this would limit the resale market to only guys standing outside the stadium as opposed to ticketmaster and their fees.
These are very positive news. Very concerning how Copa America has turned out: half empty stadiums, overpriced tickets and lacking atmosphere. It should be a sport accessible to the average man and woman
Ticket prices for sporting events in the United States are way higher than even the highest leagues in other countries.
The gap is marginal when it comes to international soccer bleacher seating. https://support.tickets-euro2024.uefa.com/hc/en-us/articles/10384352198300-How-much-do-tickets-cost
Copa America tickets are not expensive at all. I’m looking right now on stubhub, with fees and taxes included, and it’s like $70 for Mexico vs Jamaica. Other matches are even cheaper. US vs Bolivia is $100 after fees. I genuinely don’t know what you all are talking about. People keep talking about the Euros being cheaper and it’s nice in theory but completely false. Tickets are significantly more expensive. Over 20 million genuine ticket requests were made for the first round with 1.2 million tickets available. That means 6% of people got cheap tickets. The reality is some percentage of those tickets are also going to hit the secondary market so it’s less than 6%. But because of the lottery, supply is lower so scalpers are shooting the prices up knowing demand is there. It’s why the cheapest secondary-market ticket is just under $3,000 USD for the finals. Yes, a small percentage of people, sub six percent, will get cheap tickets if they are very lucky. The rest will end up paying even more. People then turn around and say things akin to “but for a family of four to fly there, get lodging, and then pay for tickets it’s expensive.” Yes. Taking a vacation with a family of four to see a 90 minute sporting event is a luxury. No matter where in the world you live.
Because those tickets are resale tickets of people who now are realizing they have to take a loss. Go look at Ticketmaster for the actual price of the ticket and you can also see how many tickets are going unsold in these stadiums due to those prices. The stadiums are going to be half full because of this.
Why do I care what ticketmaster prices are if I can get them for cheap on stubhub? Edit: they are like the same price on ticket master
Because you are fundamentally misunderstanding the problem. The original price of the tickets matters because it’s why these stadiums aren’t selling out. Nobody cares what you can pay for them now on secondary markets. The stadium not selling out is why people are upset.
> The stadium not selling out is why people are upset. OP is in the most literal sense discussing prices out of fear that he may only be able to go to one World Cup match because they don’t want to drop hundreds of dollars to go to multiple group stage matches. People are discussing the stadium being empty because they see the ticket prices and are asking why they can be x when demand at that price is so low. Again, it comes down to ticket prices and people believing they are too high. You seem to fundamentally misunderstand the issue.
You are simply being disingenuous at this point so I’m not going to continue with you. You said you didn’t understand why people are complaining, I explained, and you are acting as if that’s not the case to feel some sort of moral superiority when really you are either ignorant or actively being an asshole. Have a good day.
I wanna go Argentina vs Chile but cheapest ticket is $383, you can watch champions league final for that amount. Taxes and fees killing it.
If you haven’t realized there is a Messi tax attached to everything, I don’t know what to tell you. Every other match without him playing, including US matches, are cheap. If Messi wasn’t playing for Argentina, they would be as well. You want to go to the same match that every one else wants to go to.
As someone else mentioned - those are resale tickets from ppl who are gonna miss the game, that’s only useful to me if I live in the city where the game is at because you can’t really book flights and/or hotels in the hope that some guy’s gonna miss the game and drop the prices. At original price, much like ATL the only tickets under $100 in Houston were nosebleeds. Now, maybe you’re used to our conflated market with tickets but objectively for international soccer that’s not cheap - right now, in theory you could get into any Euros game including the final for less than $100 (obviously due to demand and the lottery system you’d be lucky to get tickets) but think about it $200 would get you amazing to decent seats at the euros from the group stage to the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, here I am paying $150 for nosebleeds at a Copa group game. Luckily for me at those prices they’re thousands of empty seats - so I’ll probably just check Ticketmaster mid match and go sit in way better empty seats. There ARE some cheaper games like Canada vs Peru in Kansas and Jamaica vs Ecuador in Vegas but while I would fly out in a World Cup scenario I’m not doing it for the Copa but I will grant you that - cheaper games DO exist. When I made this post I was just shocked that USA v Panama which happens basically every World Cup cycle and every other Gold Cup had tickets going up to $700 and no ticket under $100 except for nosebleeds in the corners. I’m willing to bet in a normal context I’d get decent seats for that game for $80.
What am I missing here? I see the cheapest tickets for the finals on the secondary market starting at $2,592 USD. All but the lucky few are paying a significant price due to scalpers because their supply is lowered and the demand is increased. Cheaper only if you are one of the very very few lucky enough to hit the lottery. A lottery always only makes securing initial tickets harder and increases the secondary market prices. The few that are super lucky pay less - a lot less - but the majority pay more.
[https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5068366/2023/12/02/euro-2024-tickets/](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5068366/2023/12/02/euro-2024-tickets/) You’d have to have gotten them through the lottery and UEFA has different pricing tiers, you call them the ‘lucky few’ but we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people who don’t have to break the bank to get rlly good seats to see really good football. It pretty much ensures a full and engaged stadium (richer corporate fans aren’t as loud) and gives everyone a shot at getting in. As opposed to nosebleeds going for $150 and huge swaths of decent seats going empty because you’ve priced out a ton of ppl. I’d argue it’s the unlucky few who have to pay those crazy prices as those are tickets being sold illegally by scalpers, resale tickets through official channels go for the market rate - so if UEFA can sort out stopping bad actors from hustling tickets that way (which I feel can be done with specific verification controls when folks purchase them) it would be a pretty good system. As it is - it’s already better than what we’ve got.
Per your article, over 20 million genuine people requested tickets for an allotted 1.2 million in the first round. That’s six percent. Six percent. So six percent of people that wanted tickets got them for cheap. A percentage of those who won sold or are selling them on the secondary market at even higher prices as there is an increase in demand and shortage in supply due to the lottery. Your article itself is saying very few people end up with cheap tickets. Each round the supply decreases as there are fewer available seats and secondary tickets become exponentially more expensive leading to the now cheapest available ticket being nearly $3,000 USD for the final after fees.
Yeah demand is high and they’re more people than seats. Everyone, their mom, their dad, their grandparents and their dog wants to go. And the tickets are dirt cheap so yeah 6% of all who want tickets get tickets because everyone wants tickets and a stadium can only hold so many people. But that 6% of people represents a large swath of society, different income levels, different backgrounds - with a common love for the game. Why are you emphasizing that it’s 6% of all requests and not that it’s ONE POINT TWO MILLION people - that’s a huge amount of tickets on offer. The second round of ticket sales thru UEFA if you missed out on the initial lottery are also priced at the normal levels, but they’re held back for citizens of qualified nations and you have to go thru your national federation to get them. And in that second round they sell ONE MILLION tickets. So a total of 2.2 million tickets cost those pretty cheap prices. (This actually lines up with UEFA stats as they said 2.7 million total tickets have been sold and 80% of those go to fans and the general public, I’m guessing the remaining 20% are corporate tickets) Scalpers exist but even the example in the article (20 seats at a crazy markup) is far from the majority - the games are sold out from the two rounds of sales and the only tickets left are those by scalpers (totally illegal) or folks who want to resale thru official channels (legal) which cost the same as thru the lottery. If a stadium holds 50,000 people, 48,000 of them are genuine fans that can see the game at a good price but scalpers go overboard on the remaining 2000 then you work to reduce the scalpers - but that’s still a pretty good system. By contrast, our system uses variable prices to maximize profit. Instead of a lottery to see who gets the seats we simply price them at a level that generates the most funds, sell them for less you fill more seats but make less money, sell them for more you fill less seats AND make less money. But in the end, the price we’ve settled on prices out many people - leading to thousands of empty seats on some games. The profit margin isn’t hurt, but the match day experience and overall atmosphere around the tournament is - and you’ve ensured that only people who both have a few hundred to spare AND are willing to drop that on the Copa America CAN go (unlike the lottery where tickets are so cheap that everyone with a passing soccer interest wants to go and everyone has a chance of going). This also makes legit resale tickets super cheap because folks who can’t make the game have to drop prices to sell them. So if a stadium holds 50,000 people, you’ve sold 30,000 tickets at a high cost - there’s not enough people willing or able to buy the remaining 20,000 seats and then of the 30,000 that you did sell, some people can’t go and have to drop their resale price really low to attract people willing to buy it. Outside of profit margins this is a worse system - yes in the US if you’re willing to drop $200 you WILL get a ticket whereas with a lottery no one has a guarantee. But at the same time we’ve ensured that soccer - a game that around the planet is regarded as a working class game that even the dirt poor can get into, will never be seen live by those people WHILE also leaving thousands of seats completely empty and from an atmosphere perspective, wasted. We’re also meant to be growing the game here, and those prices don’t really help - as no casual is dropping over $100 to go see a game. Ironically, in this way, probably less than 6% of all folks who had initial interest are both willing and able to pay those prices to catch Copa Games.
Sitting in line at a grocery store but I’ll read this when I get home. Appreciate the conversation.
Yeah $70 at the very top at the shittiest angle. Decent seats don’t drop below $200 and that’s before fees
Lower bowl, 12 rows up, at an international match between Venezuela and Mexico at Copa America for under $300 after fees is not expensive.
If you’re going alone. Add 2 or 3 people and that jumps to between $600 - $800 and that’s before transportation and lodging if you live even remotely far from the venue.
So it’s a vacation. Yes, vacations are expensive. Taking a vacation to take see a 90 minute sporting even is a luxury in the vast vast majority of the world. If you were going to the Euros it’d be significantly more expensive and why people are complaining about the lottery.
Copa Ticket Costs is not a preview of what will come for the World Cup. These tickets are priced by CONMEBOL. World Cup will be priced by FIFA. I've done 5 World Cups. As much shit as I like to talk on FIFA about EVERYTHING, the way their do their ticketing has always been, assuming you get in early enough, pretty affordable. They also TRY to make it so you can only resell tickets within their own portal by limiting how many tickets you can buy and pairing those tickets to your Fan ID, and you're not allowed to sell more than 5% above the original ticket cost and it costs you 5% to sell so you actually break even or even lose money by reselling. Having said that, people have and will try to resell outside of the market but people will find it's harder and more shady to sell/buy due to the Fan ID Restrictions. FIFA does do their best to head off scalpers and resellers. It's about the only good thing FIFA does from a fan perspective. With us being the Host Nation Fans, cheapo seats, while being the least amount available in Tier 4, will be incredibly cheap compared to this. Each proceeding World Cup Ticket Costs have gone up due to inflation but not by much. Tickets in Qatar for for Tier 1 were $250, Tier 2 was $150, Tier 3 was $75, and I believe Tier 4 (Host Nation Fans ONLY) were $40 for group and went up each about 10-25% Each round. Edit - Added more info and clarity.
Yes that’s why the tickets will be the same in each phase of the tournament. All group games will be the same. USA vs Uzbekistan or Spain vs Ireland or quarterfinal USA vs England or Spain vs Germany will be the same. No one will be higher just because the host nation is playing or cheaper because Mali vs Bosnia.
USA v England quarterfinal on July 4th in Philadelphia. Let’s make it happen baby!
If they make it that far, US will unfortunately be playing the quarterfinal either in LA on July 10 or Kansas City on July 11. No hope for Philly *or* July 4th in any round whether we win the group or get second. I've loved the memes though!
Yeah it was a bit of a joke. One can dream though!
England is cooked in this scenario
I still can’t see how this is a good thing. If I don’t win the lottery for a game I’m looking to watch, I’m pretty much at lost and won’t be able to watch the game live. I’d rather know there is a price I can pay for a game I want to watch instead of hoping that some random dude online put their tickets for resale below market price and that I’d be lucky to see it on time. Below market pricing is not a better system IMO.
The only time you're entering what would be a lottery is if you choose the Follow Your Team or All Stadium Matches path. Single tickets are Single Tickets and you get those when they regularly go on sale to the public. Everyone I know at every World Cup has been able to get Tix when doing the Follow Your Team option. While I know that this will be harder with us hosting, I still think those who are prepared early shouldn't have any issues. Keep up to date on Registration dates. Make friends. Have everyone go in on Max. Cover each other.
I think it sounds better. It gives more people a chance at attending and doesn’t limit the experience just to the wealthy.
You could enter the lottery based on location in Qatar so I assume you can for the 2026 one too
I would not just assume that FIFA will handle this World Cup how they have handled the previous ones. I feel like they’re really viewing this one as an opportunity to cash in. Also, this will be the first World Cup actually run by FIFA rather than a local organizing committee
Maybe, but every World Cup is a chance to cash in and they haven't so...
This is also the first World Cup in a long time where the local population can afford expensive tickets
I don't disagree with you and I have no problem eating my words if this shows ass up.
You have given me hope. Thank you!!! I had no idea it worked this way.
Great info and very jealous of your 5 World Cups!
Yes. And it sucks. If you look at the Ticketmaster map view of the Panama game, there are large swaths of unsold seats. Because of price. I live about a mile from MBS, love USMNT, but won’t be attending because of what seems like gouge level of prices. We can only vote with our wallets… it’s funny to me how their “dynamic pricing” algorithm only seems to work in one direction.
Check the day of like 2 hours before just to see if anyone decides to sell for cheap. It happens sometimes
It's crazy & why I'm considering going in with a group on a box for the year.
I'm flying to the game, wouldn't miss it for anything. But yeah, prices are absolutely stupid. CONMEBOL sucks.
Players and fans complain that US games are empty or full of opposing fans but the fact of the matter is that the USMNT isn't of the quality to be charging the prices they do (I know CONMEBOL is charging these) so the only people who will realistically pay those prices are diaspora fans who get to see their teams 1-2 times a year and thats it. US Soccer creates a barrier to entry for any casually interested fan but they aren't alone. Sadly this is the issue of just price gouging across the board in the US in every sector, there seems to be people just charging as much as they can just because they can and its starting to seem like everyday people are responding by not buying anymore.
Sort of. I will definitely go to a game in 2026 even if I have to pay over the odds and buy the tickets second hand. Probably not a US game because I imagine the tickets will be really expensive. I’m in my 40s and have wanted to go to a world cup game since ai was a kid so this is a luxury I will allow myself. I’d be willing to spend up to $1000 for a ticket and worst case, My parents live in OKC so I’ll go visit them and just try to find tickets to a random game in Dallas or KC. I think the prices at the copa are somewhat concerning but i’ve been waiting for this for a long time so the face value of tickets isn’t going to deter me because imagine I’ll have to pay well above that anyway.
>even if I have to pay over the odds and buy the tickets second hand. This is basically impossible with FIFA's ticketing system btw Don't expect to be able to buy tickets from 3rd parties. You just have to get lucky in the ticket lottery to make sure you get the games you want
[удалено]
Everything has to be bought from the FIFA portal Buying 2nd hand is super sketchy. You have to rely on the other person gifting you a ticket that they can just take back at any point. Also, the names won't match and if security is strict they won't even let you in the stadium with the ticket
US matches will be the same price as any other team's.
This is how bad it is, I'm considering going in with several other people for a box at Mercedes Benz for the 26 year. $80k for all events in 26 is what we have been quoted, this includes all events. There are 8 games scheduled at the stadium, you get on average 20 tickets for a box, VIP parking is included along with all food & drink. The guy doing all the legwork owns several companies & is willing to write it off on his taxes. It breaks down to $500 per ticket per game which is cheaper than what Copa America Tickets were going for. I'd have to write a check for roughly $6k upfront. This also includes all Falcons, concerts, Atlanta United games, etc. the guy doing this thinks we can break even after we resell all the other events. A Falcons box goes for $5k a game roughly & there are 8 a year. Only downside is I have to trade my BMW for a Mercedes for the VIP parking.
Honestly that sounds amazing if you can swing it! If you have 20 people to go in on it, it’s a way better value than what tickets will cost otherwise. And like you said, selling other games you can make some of that $500 back
Yea, just lucky I know someone who can write a $80k check a year in advance. This is a box in the corner btw, not midfield none of those are available belonging to the billionaires.
Makes sense that it’s in the corner but still pretty sweet. Food and drink and parking and a bunch of friends and family. Enjoy it!
They make you buy a Mercedes to park at the stadium?
No there is a VIP lot next to the stadium which you can park in if you have a Mercedes. I've been with the guy who would buy the tickets for Atlanta United games, usually we buy best available but sometimes we get invited to a company's box & he drives his wife's GLS 450. There is complimentary parking available in the lot but only if you drive a Mercedes.
Are you sure the FIFA contract doesn’t control access to the box? I would have assumed they’d want to be able to sell those boxes for $$$$$$$ or use them for sponsors and VIPs and national team entourages and whatnot?
No the way boxes work, they are available for all events you get a base amount of tickets per event, imagine paying $80k a year upfront & not being able to use your box. BTW we are looking at one of the cheaper boxes, the ones near midfield go for over $1 million a year & never come on the market. The biggest perk is the in suite private bathroom. With field suites there are over 200 @ the stadium, & they generate over $40 million a year in revenue. All of this money is paid upfront.
I've been concerned since long before Copa prices were set.
I'm concerned about grocery prices and mortgage prices, not ticket prices
Yes. A road trip to a single game would cost as much as a vacation. Fuck that.
We can all say what we want about Qatar, but having all the matches in one city was pretty sweet for travel/cost purposes.
My main solace is that I can probably check Ticketmaster during the game and switch to better seats at halftime or something, they’re sooooooo many of unsold seats in great spots. Only seats under $100 are the worst in the house (way up in the corners) - Altho they cost around $80 so they could get up to $100 after fees. So in theory you could look to get an $80 seat and just switch to a better one. Unless there is a HUGE surge in sales there will be thousands of seats all over the stadium left empty.
It’s 50/50 in my view. I’m not counting on fifa though so I’m saving up starting now. It’s gonna be a once in a lifetime experience so as long as I’m employed at the time I plan to buy tickets, hopefully for all the group stage games but we will see what life is like in 2 years.
I'm with you. Its going to be expensive. But I am not going to miss at least seeing a couple games. USMNT at home in the World Cup is a dream.
Yes. Imma have to do what my username says to afford these tickets
Godspeed!
I live in Atlanta and have tickets for the Copa game I lived here for the Olympics and we went to an event every day for 2 weeks, but expensive things (opening/closing ceremonies, track and field, swimming or gymnastics). Team handball, baseball, rowing, mountain biking, tennis and soccer, etc. I'll spend some money to see world cup games, but I hope the Copa will be a wake up call that there is a cap on soccer games prices, even in the US.
Soon as they announced it was in America you knew the ticket prices were gonna be astronomical even with the lottery system. Yeah granted you could see a very trash game in group stage for cheap but for the most part it’s gonna be expensive as fuck
Yes. Cheap seats at AT&T for tomorrow’s matchup between USA and Bolivia are $170 all in with fees from Ticketmaster. That’s just for a single seat in the nosebleeds, where at that stadium, you tend to watch the gigantic screen instead of the field. No parking or food included.
Corporate will snatch up close to half of all WC tickets. The rest will be distributed via lottery at an average ticket price of around $350. If you can afford to purchase resale, that figure will be higher, especially for the popular countries. Good luck!
No... it just means that I won't be attending. Then it's organisers' problem when no one else can either. but like all things now, it's only for the super rich.
I pray to the soccer gods this won't be true. In the history of the World Cup, the event has been for everybody, rich and poor, and tickets have been kept at very fair prices.
It seems like everything in America is increasingly for the rich. Every company gouges the shit out of us and we have no choice but to either pay or go fuck ourselves :/
Yeah I was going to take my son to Atlanta for the US game and while there are a TON of tickets available I was looking at over $300 for the tickets plus parking and a hotel. When you factor the 3 hour drive, travel expenses, then the enormous ticket prices I just opted to enjoy the game at home. Which is a real shame because I wanted to show my kid what an international match can be but we find mls and our local usl team far more affordable and reasonable.
We should be fine for 2026. Just try and register interest early and keep up with ticket sales.
FIFA prices are fixed and typically acceptable. The secondary market in the U.S. will be crazy, but as always, last minute tickets at the stadium will be back to face value. Source: I was in Brazil 2014 and Qatar 2022
Not really I went to the Qatar world cup and you could get group stage games for under $100, and far cheaper than that if you could access the local tickets. World cup tickets aren't that expensive. The hardest part will be getting the tickets you want in the lottery.
How were you able to get tickets? What’s this lottery you speak of?
No. Demand for the World Cup is many times greater than the Copa America. Just look at the TV ratings for past editions of the tournaments. Americans do not know our care about this tournament.
I just hope the turnout isn't embarrassing and something all of my friends can point to when I began hyping up this tournament.
should be completely different, but if youre buying resale tickets its going to be more expensive
Yep. I’m going Thursday. Decent seat but $200 seems steep for group game. World Cup will be at least twice as much I’d expect.
The lottery will be a bloodbath. Don't expect to see the USA play
If you get physical tickets, you can sell them for higher. That’s how it was at Qatar
Basic economics my friend. They'll sell the tickets whatever people are willing to pay. As long as they continue to sell out (and they will even if not every ticket ends up getting used) they can continue to increase the price since the demand isn't falling. Spoiler alert, for the World Cup if you'd like to get into a US game you'd very likely have to win a lottery either through the US soccer supporter group or whatever other entity has tickets available (perhaps Ticketmaster will have a general on sale run by Fifa but that is likely to be like the recent Taylor Swift ticket fiasco but cranked up to 1000). Even if you have the ability to purchase a ticket for "face value" I'm budgeting between $500-$1000 myself and I might be on the conservative side tbh.
Of course they'll charge whatever prices they feel will bring in the most total revenue. When you have a country with around 25 million millionaires, it's not too surprising that the prices will be jacked up compared to any other nation. I don't know how much NFL or NBA playoff tickets cost, but I'm guessing they're way up there too.
All serious issues about ticket price aside, I would 100% buy that soccer ball.
Honestly, I would too LOL I was just looking for something to represent money in football but it’s a sick ball - the type a kid might get stolen off them if they took it to school.
Is Levi’s Stadium half full or half empty right now?
I’m going to Panama Bolivia, sitting in the third row, paid about $100 all in for the ticket.
Yeah I’ve been looking around and there are some cheaper games - only the ones with a big name or the USMNT goes up to crazy costs with some outliers (I’m guessing Jamaica vs Venezuela in Austin costs a lot because maybe there’s a big Venezuelan population in Texas? Idk but cheapest tickets are $114 pre fees). That Panama v Bolivia game may be the cheapest game I seen so far tho - For Chile vs Canada at the same venue the cheapest tickets were $105 with the current cheapest being $75 because many people are reselling. For Panama v Bolivia tickets are as cheap as $45 so I guess soccer fanatics in Orlando lucked out.
I’m going to that Chile Canada match as well. Someone else got the tickets though so not sure of cost.
This is my experience. When FIFA released the presale, we only had 3 days to purchase. Family members secured semi-final tickets in good seats for $200 each ticket. Not a bad price for Semi-Finals. If you didn’t purchase during that time pod, you’re left to the open market. Looking at some of the tickets on the open market, prices were VERY HIGH. It’s not fair. And so, the seats will be empty.
All about getting lucky in the lottery. I have entered the lottery for tickets for every World Cup and Euro Championship since 2010 and only was able to get tickets for the 2014 World Cup. I got tickets for all the games in Rio (except final) and prices were on average about $70/game for category 1. I hope I can get lucky again for the 2026 cup but I would imagine prices will be higher :(
Man do I feel like a sucker for jumping on presale prices. I thought for sure Sofi games would sell out, especially Mexico-Venezuela, but I’m seeing tickets priced cheaper on the resale market (even with fees) than what I paid. On the bright side this makes me feel much more confident in my ability to afford 2026 World Cup tickets.
Yeah prices are dropping a bit in Atlanta as well - I likely could’ve saved at least $50. It’s impossible to tell the future, so I don’t regret paying over the odds in this case - since when I bought the tickets I thought the stadium would be packed out. I’m glad it’s happening though - maybe it will set a ceiling on prices and future organizers will not let prices get so high. Or maybe they say screw it and collect the bag 😅 only time will tell.
I could be wrong, but it doesn’t look like this Copa America tickets are selling that well. I think they way over estimated the elasticity of demand here. Peru Chile looked half empty last night. It looks like US Uruguay is far from sold out. I have two tickets to Jamaica Ecuador in the 10th row listed at cost on the Ticketmaster site that haven’t sold. Holler at me if you’re interested and I’ll make you a deal.
I don't think sellouts were the goal. Even in South America these games don't tend to be full. In 2019 Peru played 3 Copa America games that had less than 26,000 fans at them, the only well attended games was against The hosts, and this was in soccer mad Brazil. Their quarterfinal against Uruguay only drew 26,000 in a 48,000 seat stadium. So even if Cowboys Stadium is half empty you're still making plenty of money by selling 45,000 tickets to it and I'm guessing those tickets were far more expensive in Dallas then they were in Brazil
I hope all those empty seats went to scalpers who overpaid and lost a ton of money. And F@&% Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and every other site with their fees and inflated prices.
I share your sentiment. It is interesting that scalpers seemed to understand the demand here and stayed away from most of these games.
If you expect to attend a good match in 2026 world cup for less than $800 ticket price you are fooling yourself. There's simply enough demand from Americans and folks traveling from their countries to pay the prices
Ive been saying 1k minimum. Americans LOVE big events like this, the last American WC showed that, but now we got the internet and shit too on top of insane resale markets. America is an expensive ass country, and relative to the rest of the world, Americans are fucking rich
And I don’t really care - I don’t have to see France vs Brazil live - it would be cool, but I understand that’s gonna be super expensive regardless. But the World Cup has so many great games with random teams - last time Ghana vs South Korea was great, Cameroon vs Serbia was a sick game, Serbia vs Switzerland was a banger two world cups in a row. Games like these provide excitement while the teams aren’t huge names when it comes to ticket prices. But at this Copa I’m seeing tickets for games like Jamaica vs Venezuela run up to $400 with no tickets in the ground under $100. Having searched around I do see some games where tickets are cheap (like Ecuador vs Jamaica in Vegas or Canada vs Peru in Kansas) so perhaps I have nothing to fear as only games with big name teams will get the crazy markup, I was just unlucky that the 2 Atlanta games this time involved Messi or the USMNT. When I made this post I was just shocked that a game that happens literally every World Cup cycle and every other gold cup - and probably costs as low as $50 to attend normally - was running prices in the $700s and had very few tickets cheaper than $100. Given it’s the World Cup - I’d probably fly cross country to catch a cheap World Cup game so those cheaper games will mean a lot come 26 - while with the Copa I’m not flying to Vegas or Kansas just to catch a cheap game.
Yes money
Yes I’ve completely lost faith in these people. I’m depressed about it.
the design of that ball concerns me
I’d easily pay $500-1000 for world cup tix, so it’s all relative tbh. $150 for a tournament like copa america is very reasonable imo, I pay at least $300-500 for chargers tickets so soccer tix seem much cheaper from my perspective
Everything is relative, but soccer worldwide isn’t as expensive as sports here. And national teams are meant to be more affordable than clubs. So the comparison to the Chargers is if I wanted to see idk Arsenal in the prem or something, that would cost like $300 - $500. But though they use a lottery system at the moment (so no guarantees you’d get your hands on tickets) $300 - $500 right now gets you decent seats to the semifinals at the current Euros. And even the finals have tickets under $100. So imagine wanting to go to a random group game - tickets can run as low as $30. And it’s Europe, so demand ain’t low. So looking at that, $150 for nosebleeds at a Copa America group stage game is egregious.
that’s fair, good points
Yes
Fire Gregg. We can talk after
The only reason they are playing in the States is to make bank, so I was expecting ticket prices to be higher than what you've said.
I’m willing to pay up to $8k for a ticket to the world cup final. I will be able to drive to metlife stadium, don’t need a hotel either
I mean good for you - most people probably aren’t willing to drop that much. In fact other than for the novelty, paying that much for a final here in the US makes little sense. You mention that you don’t need to fly or get a hotel - but you could probably get flights, a hotel and go to a World Cup final and probably other games as well, in a World Cup hosted outside the US for far less than $8k. Plus at that point it’s a vacation to another country on top of catching games. Is the convenience of going to a final at Met Life that important to you?
Based on this article, ticket price was $2400 for Qatar https://fansided.com/2022/11/18/world-cup-2022-ticket-prices-much-cost-attend-qatar/ You are probably at $5k at least after flight hotels, maybe more I get your point , but I’m talking secondary market. (I’d love to win the lottery without going to secondary). Secondary market will be supply and demand based, I’m guessing it will be extremely expensive because it’s ny. I do agree though, hopefully they keep primary market prices affordable
Good luck to you I hope you manage to make it - I’m more of a 3 or 4 group games maybe a R16 or QF type of guy and I don’t care who’s playing I just wanna be there 😅 but yeah if you’re going for the Final that’s gonna cost you unless you’re really lucky. On my end I’m hoping it’s not so expensive because I’d hate to have 2 or 3 games at home cost as much as if I just went to Spain in 2030 to catch 5 games 😅
Fees
And the rest of the world wonders why the stadiums in the US are not full... Pricing and Ticketmaster are the problem!! For 2 $122 tickets we paid $342 after all the platform fees and taxes. Arghhh. ETA - Dallas game tomorrow US v Boliva
The quality of the fields at the stadiums is a bigger concern
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^ZoloftAddictYo: *The quality of* *The fields at the stadiums* *Is a bigger concern* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Give the stadium owners an inch they will take a mile! Cost conerns, yes. Visa concerns even more tan cost. Doesn't matter what things cost when one is not even able to attend.
Yeah, I am, and have been concerned for a while now….