FIFA raised its top ticket price for the World Cup final to $10,990 during the glitch-hampered reopening of sales this week after the 48-team field for this year's tournament was finalized. When FIFA sold tickets after the tournament draw in December, the price was $8,680, the AP reports. Category 2 tickets for the July 19 game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, were $7,380, up from $5,575, and category 3 cost $5,785, an increase from $4,185. Tickets were listed for 17 of the 72 group-stage matches by Wednesday night and none of the knockout stage games.
Soccer's governing body is using dynamic pricing for the tournament, which will be played in 11 US cities, plus three in Mexico and two in Canada. Only $2,735 tickets, the highest-priced seats, were available by Wednesday evening for the US opener on June 12 against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and the price was unchanged from December. No tickets were listed for the Americans' June 19 game against Australia in Seattle or their June 25 match against Turkey in Inglewood. Only $2,985 seats were available by evening for the tournament opener between Mexico and South Africa on June 11 in Mexico City, up from $2,355 in December. And only $2,240 tickets were available for Canada's first game on June 12 against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto, an increase from $2,170.
FIFA did not announce which games and price categories were available, leaving potential ticket buyers to search for themselves on a FIFA ticketing site that often took hours to enter. The selection appeared to be limited and expensive, per USA Today. FIFA also said that not all remaining tickets were being put on sale for the 104 games to be played in the US, Mexico, and Canada from June 11 to July 19 and that additional tickets will be released on a rolling basis. FIFA claimed in January that demand for tickets was high. It was unclear if many of those requests were for seats in the lowest-price categories. Fan groups have objected to the the soaring prices for resold tickets, and one filed a formal complaint to the European Commission last month.
- USA Today has a first-person account of what it's like to try to buy tickets here.
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