First-round match ticket: $280 to $43,000.
Stadium daily parking pass: $150 to $600.
Public transportation to venues: $100 or more in some cities.
In-person 2026 FIFA World Cup experience: Priceless, or somewhere between a mortgage payment and a year or two of college, depending on who you ask.
Americans and international soccer fans alike suffered serious sticker shock over the cost of attending the biggest sporting event on the globe this summer, and that’s before calculating airfare and accommodations.
This year’s event features 48 teams and 104 matches in 16 host cities across the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
Out of Reach
Joyanne Howell of Toronto tried to plan a vacation with her son around the 2026 World Cup. She hoped to see the opening match in Mexico City on June 11, and then catch a group play match in Monterrey featuring Japan or South Africa. The trip would have cost at least $15,000, with event tickets the largest expense.“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to attend the World Cup,” Howell told The Epoch Times. “The corporate greed is at an all-time high, and it’s ruining what used to be a wonderful event. I’m not interested in supporting FIFA in this.”
On top of the sky-high ticket prices, Howell added, there’s the new match format—which adds several subpar squads to the games, increasing the number of teams from 32 to 48—and current global instability.
“It just doesn’t seem worth it to invest in this World Cup,” she said.
Dean Foti, a coaching director for a regional youth soccer organization in upstate New York, said complaints about unreasonable World Cup ticket prices were especially spirited among coaches and families who had hoped to visit a venue this summer.
“Unfortunately, the common fan has been priced out of attending,” he told The Epoch Times.
He said many folks also didn’t like FIFA’s initial lottery, in which tickets were sold by venue and date even though the matchups were unknown at the time.
Dynamic Pricing
FIFA, a nonprofit serving as professional soccer’s world governing body, entered into individual agreements with host cities and venues to rent the stadiums. It set the initial prices of tickets, which have been sold in phases to adjust to market demand.
The organization maintains that most of the revenue from ticket sales, television broadcasting rights, and licensed merchandise sales covers the cost of organizing and governing more than 200 leagues, competitions, and programs across six continents.
A glance at the StubHub website shows high prices and fluctuation: a nosebleed seat at the Qatar versus Switzerland match on June 13 in Santa Clara, California, for $280; a front-row seat near center circle for the United States against Australia on June 19 in Seattle for $43,900; tickets for the July 14 semi-final in Arlington, Texas, starting at $2,064.
For the U.S. squad’s other two group play matches, SeatGeek lists the June 12 game against Paraguay at $1,500 and against Turkey on June 25 at $1,366. Both games will be held in Los Angeles.
An American Concept
Keith Pagello, founder of Kentucky-based analytics company TicketData, said FIFA adopted this method of ticket sales from the major American professional sports leagues, which command sky-high prices for playoff games.The global soccer organization, he added, is still advertising last-minute sales, in which a limited number of tickets for mediocre seats are released for $1,100 or more “to portray the image of scarcity.”
“I’ve never seen so many last-minute sales,” Pagello told The Epoch Times. “But they’re certainly not softening their price at this point.”
He said the most outrageous prices listed by resellers right now, such as $43,000 for front row at the United States versus Australia, were not set by FIFA.
“Anybody can ask any price for any ticket,” he said.
It may be too soon to determine whether FIFA and resellers can command such high prices, or if they’ll drop closer to the event.
“The big question is, how many tickets do they still have left?” Pagello said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if 10,000 seats still sit in FIFA’s pocket for many of the games.”
Pagello’s data, much of which are publicly available on his website, indicate that after fans from the host nations, it’s fans from Brazil and Argentina who are buying the most tickets, based on prices to see those two national squads play.
Government Pushback
Federal lawmakers also took offense to the high admission prices. In a March 10 letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, 69 members of Congress said, “The extreme high demand for World Cup tickets should not be a green light for price gouging at the expense of the people who make the World Cup the most watched sporting event in the world.”
The lawmakers said the federal government will spend $625 million to reimburse municipal law enforcement agencies, and each U.S. host city will spend about $150 million on infrastructure improvements, transportation, and security preparations. Locals who are fortunate enough to afford tickets have already paid taxes for these services.
Moreover, because FIFA prohibits local sponsorships, host cities are collectively facing a $250 million shortfall for this event. They may have to charge admission to World Cup Fan Fests, which have traditionally been free.
“We urge FIFA to take immediate corrective action to address the harms caused by its use of dynamic pricing, which has transformed the world’s largest sporting event into an exclusionary, profit-driven enterprise at the direct expense of fans, host communities, and public taxpayers,” the letter said.
Ticket prices aren’t the only high cost steaming elected leaders. On April 17, New Jersey Transit announced that round-trip rail tickets from Manhattan to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, will be $150. The New York/New Jersey World Cup host committee will also offer a round-trip shuttle bus, with tickets costing $80 each.
That announcement prompted an angry response from New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill. She blamed FIFA, saying the organization put “zero dollars for transportation to the World Cup—zero.”
It will cost New Jersey Transit about $48 million to transport more than 40,000 fans to and from the venue, while FIFA is expected to pocket $11 billion from World Cup 2026, Sherrill said in an April 17 statement.
“We are committed to ensuring costs are shared fairly,” she said. “As I have said repeatedly, FIFA should cover the cost of transporting its fans. If it won’t, we will not be subsidizing World Cup ticket holders on the backs of New Jerseyans who rely on New Jersey Transit every day.”
Still the Beautiful Game
Andre Ribeiro Pacheco da Silva, a Brazilian national who works in Portugal, planned to attend a game in North America this summer. The high price of admission was the immediate deal breaker.“I was willing to work around the other expenses,” da Silva told The Epoch Times. “As a [soccer] fan, it’s naturally something you want to experience at least once.
“Flights and accommodations were very expensive, but those are things you can sometimes adjust or plan around. The tickets, on the other hand, felt like a fixed barrier—and a very expensive one.”
Still, da Silva is excited to watch matches on television and celebrate the unique atmosphere the World Cup creates every four years by bringing together nations and cultures that love soccer.
He’ll root for Brazil, of course, but he also enjoys the immense talent of the favored Portuguese and its many heroes—Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, and of course, the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo.
“I think what makes this World Cup even more interesting is how global it feels,” he said. “You end up following more than just your own team.”
