An In Depth look into FIFA World Cup ticket prices

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]The countdown is on. A little more than 2 weeks until the first match of the FIFA World Cup is played in Philadelphia. Ivory Coast and Ecuador square off on June 14th at Lincoln Financial Field. And I checked ticket prices for that one before this newscast. On SeatGeek, it starts at $803.

[00:00:20]On FIFA's official site, the best available price, $1,850.

[00:00:26]Okay, how about Curaçao versus Ivory Coast? Two small nations. The population of the entire country of Curaçao is less than the population of Pittsburgh.

[00:00:36]Lowest price for this one on SeatGeek, $264.

[00:00:41]On FIFA's official site, it's $650.

[00:00:45]This is all in the group stage. If you want to wait for the final, which is happening in our area July 19th at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, tickets for that one tripled in a week. Best available tickets start at $32,970.

[00:01:03]Hope you've been saving up for that one.

[00:01:05]It's unclear at this point why they tripled. Tonight, we're going in-depth on how FIFA says it is setting prices for this World Cup and what it means for people in our area. As a host city, are Philadelphians getting priced out of this entire experience? FIFA is using what's called a dynamic pricing model for this World Cup. The idea is that prices for tickets rise with more demand. Prices are not fixed. It's a model actually used by some airlines and concerts, but there are questions about how this is working for this World Cup.

[00:01:40]I talked to a senior reporter with The Athletic who covers soccer, Paul Tenorio. He told me that other soccer tournaments have tried this model.

[00:01:48]Initial prices start high, but then they come down if the demand is low. But Tenorio says the tactic might be backfiring in this case and actually hurting FIFA's opportunity to introduce soccer to new fans. Here's how he explained this dynamic pricing model.

[00:02:06]>> This is something that we've seen in American sports and for concert goers are certainly aware of it, but it does make for an incredibly frustrating experience for the fans because no one wants to pay way high prices early on and then see those prices drop down. You also have to risk, am I willing to wait and see if the prices drop to be able to attend the game and I think because of what happened at the Club World Cup and because of what happened at the Copa America when CONMEBOL used the dynamic pricing as well in 2024, fans feel a little bit jaded and so they are sitting back and waiting and watching and seeing if the prices will drop and for that reason, the US opener on June 12th at SoFi Stadium, which is supposed to be one of the biggest games of the tournament and one of the most celebrated moments for this American team, it's not sold out yet because the price is still remain high and fans are saying, "Ah, we've seen this before.

[00:03:00]We'll wait it out and see those prices drop closer to the game."

[00:03:04]>> The last World Cup 4 years ago, they did not use this though, correct?

[00:03:09]>> Yeah, these prices are drastically different than what we saw in Qatar and in the World Cups before that. You know, it was interesting in Qatar because all of the games were in Doha. You could get there easily via buses and public transportation and tickets were cheap.

[00:03:22]>> So, I want to be clear about this.

[00:03:24]What's your understanding in terms of your reporting about the demand at this point? Are stands going to be full and if they're not, why wouldn't they bring the prices down?

[00:03:35]>> Well, I think you're going to see that the stadiums completely full when Mexico's playing and when the US is playing and when Argentina's playing and when Colombia's playing. Some of the bigger teams are going to have those enormous demands no matter what the prices are and we've seen that in the past during Copa America with Argentina and Colombia, The atmospheres that they created at those games. I guess I shouldn't jump to conclusions and say the US will be filled cuz the opener is not yet sold out.

[00:04:00]But I do think you're going to see empty seats. It's a 48 team tournament that's been expanded. You have countries like Curacao in this tournament, Cape Verde, two of the smallest nations to ever play in a World Cup. Yes, there are going to be empty seats and the hope is that with this dynamic pricing model, you'll see ticket prices drop and people will do what it can at the last minute to fill those stadiums up. But you have a lot of fans who aren't going to be looking for tickets anymore because of their experience in all of these long wait times, these enormous prices. I do think you're going to see some empty stadiums especially in the group stage. Now, once we get to the knockouts, maybe it'll look different. But every empty seat for me in a stadium, whether it's group stage or not, is a missed opportunity.

[00:04:41]>> Especially in Philadelphia, right? This is a city where we have a number of group stage matches. I I don't know if you've been specifically looking at Philly. I know you're looking at the whole country, but what's your understanding of of how that's going to play out here in this city?

[00:04:57]>> Yeah, of course. I mean, look, you're going to have people that come to celebrate. I think for example, I think Haiti's playing a game in in Philadelphia. And I've I've spent some time with some Haitian fans talking about how excited they are to go to these different cities and be around their national team. The pride that that all of these countries, immigrants who have come here, moved here, a chance to touch home, to see their country play in a World Cup. You're going to have those positive experiences, too. I don't want to miss that. But of course, there are going to be these these games, these opportunities to reach fans in what is an incredibly rich soccer environment in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia area. I mean, many of the US players on this team come from Philadelphia or have some ties to Philadelphia, including Christian Pulisic. You know, this is one of the more rich areas in terms of the history of the game. And I think it is going to be disappointing in some to some degree to see a stadium that could have been filled had things been more accessible from the jump maybe not be sold out.