It's not really a secret that FIFA is greedy. Pretty much everything they do is about money. That was one of the primary reasons for expanding the World Cup. And Gianni Infantino has promised that every game will be sold out and will be like "104 Super Bowls." But FIFA's having trouble selling to some of the games. Because they've made their greed transparent during the entire ticketing process.
To say the World Cup ticketing process has been a "hot mess" would be extremely generous. It's been an utter disaster. And the criticism directed at FIFA--for everything from the price of tickets to the long waits in the queue to the website constantly crashing--is more than warranted! It easily could've been 104 sellouts. If it's not, FIFA only has themselves to blame.
When tickets first went on sale, FIFA promoted that tickets would be available for "as low as" $60. Well, as it turns out, there were only a handful of $60 tickets for each game...in the top rows of the four corners of the stadium. Needless to say, those were gobbled up quickly...and immediately put up for resale at many times the face value. Tickets that were actually available to the masses cost far more than that. Which people have noticed and called FIFA out about.
Supporters' groups, the most loyal fans in all of soccer, have been particularly angered about the ticket prices. I saw an article saying how much it would cost a fan to attend all eight games if their team made the final, and the amount was staggering! The cheapest tickets alone would be more than $1,000, before taking flights and hotels into account. The ticket prices were so outrageous that it prompted UEFA to announce that tickets for Euro 2028 will be affordable. It also prompted FIFA to make more $60 tickets available specifically for supporters, but it was too little, too late, and demand still far outpaced supply.
The entire process has been frustrating and incredibly user unfriendly from the start. The problems started at the very beginning. Instead of having a presale opportunity for fans in the host cities (or even the three host countries as a whole), they only had ticket lotteries for the entire world at the same time. As you can imagine, that made it virtually impossible for most people who wanted to go to the games to get tickets directly.
Since most of the tickets were scooped up before they were even made available to the general public, the only real option for many fans is the resale market. But it's not like the prices on there are any better. If anything, the resale prices are worse because the seller can set whatever price they want. So, of course they're gonna make a profit if they can!
And don't think people haven't noticed that FIFA has its own resale site so fans can do it directly thru them...and where they can tack on additional fees to both the buyer and seller. I went on the FIFA resale site the other day just to see which games were available and what the prices looked like. The prices ranged from ridiculous to utterly insane. Tickets to the final were listed for $2.3 million! What normal person can afford that?
They at least know people will pay that exorbitant price to attend a World Cup Final in person. FIFA's slow ticket sales for other games are entirely because they're priced too high. One of the games where tickets aren't selling as fast as they would want is the USA's opener against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium. That's also the third-highest-priced ticket to any game in the tournament, behind only the Final and one semifinal. So, it's not that people don't want to go. It's that they can't afford to. FIFA thought they could get away with charging anything and people would pay it. They're now finding out that isn't the case.
After trying and failing in every lottery, I got in the queue right away at 11:00 am on April 1, which is when the "Last-Minute Sales Phase" (which was open to anyone on a first-come, first-served basis) began. It took me more than four hours to finally get in, and, by then, there were only two games at MetLife Stadium that had tickets available. I fortunately was able to get one to Norway-Senegal...for $465! That was the cheapest ticket available! (Although, I justified it to myself because [A] it's the World Cup and [B] that's still only a little more than half of what I paid to go to the World Series.)
My original plan was to go to the World Cup with my brother-in-law and nephew. And there were actually three tickets left in the same section for that game when I finally got into the site. But, once again, cost because an issue. We simply couldn't justify paying $1500 for three tickets. Especially when that's considered "cheap" and wouldn't have included a flight or hotel. That's just to get into the stadium!
Then there's the transportation cost, which has drawn plenty of its own criticism in multiple World Cup host cities. In places like Philadelphia and Houston, it'll cost the regular price to take mass transit to the World Cup games. In Seattle, the stadium is literally in the middle of downtown, so they're not doing anything special. But that's not the case everywhere. In Boston and New York, especially, rates will be significantly higher to take the train or bus to the World Cup--even though parking will be so limited (and costly) that mass transit is the only way for a significant number of spectators to get there.
For the games in Foxboro, it'll cost $80 for a round-trip ticket from Boston. That's the same cost as a bus ticket for the roughly 15-minute ride from the Port Authority to MetLife Stadium. Which is nothing compared to a train ticket from Penn Station. A round-trip ticket from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium is normally $12.50. For the World Cup, it's $150! That's 11 times the normal cost! Which fans will have no choice but to pay since it will be one of their only options for actually getting there.
NJ Transit insists it isn't price gauging. After a big back-and-forth with FIFA, they insist that the price hikes are necessary for World Cup ticket holders because of the extra expense that they'll incur by having to run extra trains, and they don't want to pass that cost on to their regular travelers. But, let's call a spade a spade. They're doing it because they know they can get away with it and nobody can do anything about it. It's definitely price gouging.
I'm sure some of their justification rings true, but that's also the case for the other cities hosting the World Cup who've elected to either make their price hikes either more reasonable or not raise their prices at all. NJ Transit saw an opportunity to make some money off the World Cup and took advantage of it. Yes, they will use some of it to cover those additional operating costs. But don't act like the only way to do that is by charging people 11 times the normal price for a 15-minute train ride. Because no reasonable person believes that.
Between the ticket and transportation prices, then, is it any surprise that some people have decided it's not worth it and are choosing to watch the games on TV instead? Hotels in the host cities expected to see a World Cup boon. They haven't seen it. Because a hotel would be another cost at a World Cup that is already far too expensive for most fans. (I'm paying over $600 just to go to one game, and I don't have to travel to/from the city or stay in a hotel. So, that's actually cheap.)
Things didn't have to be this way, but this is the direction it ended up happening. Soccer is the most accessible game in the world. All you need to play it is a ball and enough room to run around. The World Cup should be a celebration of the game for everybody. Too bad those celebrations will be limited to the World Cup Fan Festivals and viewing parties in the 16 host cities. Because the games themselves are so expensive that the common fan has basically been priced out from attending in person. Which is a shame. Because they easily could've had their 104 sellouts by making the world's most accessible sport actually accessible. But they're not. Instead, the stadiums will be full only with the people who can afford it.
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