I was scrolling through the ticket prices earlier this evening for the FIFA World Cup hosted by the USA between June 1 and July 19th. I have no interest in attending but it is fascinating to see what is going on. I know how expensive World Cups are as I have attended three Rugby World Cups in the past.
You do not know what expensive is until you start hunting for tickets and this evening I clicked on 3 stadiums hosting various games and the prices are rather eye watering.
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The above is the Scotland vs Brazil match being played on June 24th at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The same venue where the Miami Grand Prix was being held using the car parks and outlying roads. Prices vary between $1661 and $11659 and the cheaper the seat the worse the viewing because you will most likely need binoculars to see any action. Some will say it is all about experiencing the atmosphere and in this case you are better off in some bar or at home.
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Scrolling through the various World Cup fixtures between the "poorer" nations being South American and African countries the average ticket price is around the $1K price. As soon as a European team is involved then the prices tend to sky rocket due to fans willing to pay.
The second semi final is already close to being 3 x more expensive than the first semi final being played the day before this particular match. Fans have already worked out a route to the semi finals and final and certain team fans have more money to spend than other poorer countries. I would stab at a guess this is hosting a possible European favorite and why the high prices.
Sunday July 19th World Cup Final between two teams we do not know yet the prices are already that crazy. Who knows how much they will be closer to the time with desperate fans wanting to attend so these current day bargain prices are between $8600 and $58.2K each. We will revisit this in June and see how much these prices have changed by then.
I would hate to know what it would cost fans to attend a quarter final, semi final and final along with flights, accommodation , food and spending money. A 3 week trip would be hard to see change from $50K depending on where you stay and how good the stadium seats are. Flight prices would have in some cases doubled due to demand over this 6 week period along with hotel bookings making the most all fueled by fans needing accommodation. When you have 80 000 fans attending they have to all stay and eat somewhere so nothing is priced normally.
When I went to my last Rugby World Cup back in 2015 I was paying $1K for seats then and I know the last 2023 Rugby World Cup in Paris seats were selling for $4K-$11K each. For these events you have to be first in line or you get screwed over by the various ticket agencies or ticketing touts.
We will hear of horror stories of the public buying counterfeit tickets or someone paying in excess of $100k for a ticket later this year which is the madness of any World Cup with football being the craziest of them all.