Over the next six weeks, there will probably be no escaping the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It will consist of over 100 games played across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The event is clearly the world’s biggest sports spectacle in terms of fan engagement, outmuscling the Olympics and the Super Bowl (outside the US).
For many of the billions of soccer fans worldwide, the event is a bucket-list trip, and millions will travel to North America to see the action. Yet many who would normally have traveled claim they are staying home, priced out by both the ancillary costs of the journey and ticket prices.
Those ticket prices have been in the headlines for the past six months, with much criticism thrown at FIFA, the global body that runs the tournament. They vary wildly, of course, as such a vast tournament has different levels of desirability for different games. But here’s the rub: If your nation is lucky enough to get to the Final, tickets will be like gold dust. Some tickets for the Final have been listed at resale websites at asking prices over $2 million. Two million dollars. It’s unfathomable.
NBA Finals tickets will be like gold dust
It is not just soccer, of course. The cost of Super Bowl tickets usually runs into several thousand dollars every year. Right now, the NBA Finals are getting underway. The New York Knicks, while underdogs in the NBA betting lines to beat the San Antonio Spurs, being there have suddenly made Madison Square Garden the hottest ticket of the summer. Some season-ticket holders will get lucky, but this once-in-a-generation chance (New York has not been in the Finals since the late 1990s) means tickets will likely change hands for several thousand dollars.
For some, there is a shrug when faced with this news and practices like surge pricing. After all, if people are willing to pay the inflated prices, that’s just the market at work. Yet there are broader questions, including a general sense that working-class and middle-class fans are being priced out of these events. Indeed, it’s not just sports. Look at the difference between the cost of a music concert – say a Taylor Swift event – and seeing a comparable star 20 or 30 years ago. It is not just inflation.
Music is going in the same direction
Scarily, there are those who think the inflated model of sports ticketing should be extended to music concerts, and they are the people who matter: Ticketmaster CEO Michael Rapino claimed last September that concerts could introduce higher prices on a tiered basis, similar to courtside tickets for NBA games. The overall takeaway was that he felt that fans were still underpaying for music events. Most fans would disagree with him.
In New York recently, there were some ostensibly good news stories that made the headlines. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani secured some free tickets for the NBA Finals, which he claims will go to underprivileged kids. He also secured a deal allowing New Yorkers to snap up tickets to World Cup games at MetLife Stadium for just $50. But while welcome, this is just a small gesture and, arguably, more of a marketing exercise for FIFA, the NBA, and the mayor.
Overall, it feels like we are veering toward a scenario where sports and music, at least the premium events, are becoming accessible to a select few. Sure, some fans will save up for the World Cup Final, and make their dreams come true by shelling out several thousand dollars for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but there will be many priced out, and the way things are going, that will continue to be the case.
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