With under 40 days to go until the World Cup, tournament organisers continue to struggle with ticket sales as seats remain available for most group-stage games, albeit at exorbitant prices.
Home fans can find tickets for tournament cohost United States’ (USA) opener against Paraguay, with prices starting at $1,120 and going as high as $4,105, with many tickets priced around $2,000 for the June 12 match in Los Angeles. Seats in the hospitality package groupings go as high as $6,050 per seat. Tickets are still available on FIFA’s official website through its “last-minute sales” section.
Football fans are already outraged by exorbitant match prices – the most expensive ticket for the final costs nearly $11,000 – since the first phase of ticket sales in December. Late last month, FIFA announced yet another “last-minute ticket phase” with tickets for all 104 matches available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The stagnant sales contradict FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s assertion in January that demand for tickets for this year’s tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico would be the equivalent of “1,000 years of World Cups at once”.
Experts attribute dynamic pricing and greed as key factors, with fans saying they have been “priced out” by FIFA. While many in the US are accustomed to the pricing model commonly adopted at the Super Bowl, fans from around the world are not used to dynamic pricing and legal profiting from ticket resales, sports executive Peter Moore told Al Jazeera in a recent interview. “FIFA taking a 30 percent cut of dynamic pricing is outrageous,” the former Liverpool chief executive said. “FIFA is taking advantage of the unique commercial opportunities in the US, dynamic pricing and the secondary market being legal here, to make money. Infantino has said [he expects] FIFA revenues from the World Cup to exceed] $11bn. Why not make it more reasonable and accessible and make, maybe, $8bn?”
Last month, four seats for the World Cup final were listed at just under $2m each on FIFA’s official resale site.
A total of seven group-stage games still have general sale tickets available for $380, including Austria vs Jordan, New Zealand vs Egypt, Jordan vs Algeria, Cape Verde vs Saudi Arabia, Algeria vs Austria, Congo DR vs Uzbekistan and Curacao vs Ivory Coast. The USA vs Paraguay opener is the most expensive group game, followed by Argentina vs Austria ($2,925), Ecuador vs Germany ($2,550), Uruguay vs Spain ($2,520) and England vs Croatia ($2,505). According to FIFA’s website, a total of 17 group-stage games are sold out, including the tournament opener between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City on June 11. Seven games staged in Mexico are sold out, including the cohosts’ two other matches against South Korea in Guadalajara and the Czech Republic in Mexico City. Turkiye vs USA in Los Angeles, Brazil vs Morocco in New York/New Jersey and Scotland vs Brazil in Miami are among other sold-out games.