Red Card - Grifters Gonna Grift
Tickets for the World Cup, which will be held here in North America, originally went on sale in September 2025. FIFA released a schedule of what the pricing would be for each round of the tournament. FIFA boasted that ticket prices would start at $60 per match for the group stage. What wasn’t immediately clear was that FIFA would also use dynamic pricing, which is a fancy way of saying, if demand increases, so will the ticket price. So, forget about spending only $60 per ticket in the group stage. I know that I sure won’t be.
A few weeks ago, FIFA announced that it was going to back away from dynamic pricing and honor the original $60 price point for group matches. If you were one of the one’s that believed that, then you’ll believe anything. What they actually have done is released only a few hundred tickets at that price point and it’s reportedly, not even for all venues. In a statement to Sky Sports prior to the World Cup draw in early December, FIFA said, "FIFA can confirm ringfenced allocations are being set aside for specific fan categories, as has been the case at previous FIFA World Cups. These allocations will be set at a fixed price for the duration of the next ticket sales phase.
"The ringfenced allocations include tickets reserved for supporters of the Participating Member Associations (PMAs), who will be allocated 8% of the tickets for each match in which they take part, including all conditional knockout stage matches."
My experience with trying to obtain tickets has not been pleasant. FIFA released tickets in three phases. One in September as mentioned that was the VISA pre-sale. The second was at the end of October and the final window took place one week after the World Cup draw. In the first two windows, you were buying tickets at venues without knowing what matches you would be getting. The final window, you had a chance to enter a random draw to get tickets to specific matches. I chose the final window because I didn’t want to get stuck with a match I had no interest in attending. And maybe shame on me, because it’s not a guarantee that I will get the allocation I requested. In fact, none of the windows guarantees you the ticket allocation you request. The whole thing has been ridiculous.
FIFA did introduce a secondary market where you can resell your tickets. Here is the grift from FIFA. They charge the seller 15% AND they are charging the buyer 15%. Seems appropriate that the most corrupt organization will try to make money any way they can. I mean, they allegedly took bribes for the Russia and Qatar World Cups so that those nations can host the biggest spectacle in the world. You want more grifting? Around the time the FIFA World Cup draw took place, U.S. prosecutors announced they would be dismissing charges of former Fox executive Hernan Lopez, in a corruption case related to TV rights for international soccer tournaments. That must be how the President received that first ever FIFA Peace Prize, huh?
Sites like StubHub and Seat Geek also have tickets on sale, and while the ticket prices have cooled a bit since the draw, good luck finding a reasonable price on those sites. The U.S. will play their first match versus Paraguay at SoFi in Los Angeles. StubHub does have tickets, but you’ll be paying $1,300 minimum for a ticket. The less desirable the match, the less you’ll pay. But even then, a match like Jordan v Austria will cost you no less than $280. Oh, and don’t forget the fees on top of that. Oh yea, and the hotels……that’s a whole other blog!
Unfortunately, we here in the States are so used to the grifting, we accept it. Sports franchise owners hold their season ticket holders hostage. The Buffalo Bills are in the process of building a new stadium. In order for you to try and buy season tickets, you have to buy a personal seat license. That is a one time cost and that does not include buying your seats. AND, you have to renew each year with an additional fee. All for a sport. All because owners want money. It’s grift like anything else.
In the first ever blog I wrote a few years ago for this podcast, I told a story about how my father took me to the World Cup. While this was back in 1994, the price of the tickets for Greece v Argentina were $75. And Greece v Nigeria were $65 (for the most expensive tier). There was no dynamic pricing in those days. That was simply the cost of the ticket. All I ever wanted to do was give the same experience to my son and future step-son without having to choose between going to the World Cup and having a family vacation. You should be able to do both. But grifters gonna grift.