Going to North America '26: tickets, accommodations, etc. (non-politics)

My window starts Monday and I'm hoping you can share some of your observations.

Was the most supply available at the beginning of the window? I'm hoping new supply gets added to each window but who knows.

Was the US men's match in Seattle available? As a USA fan, that's obviously the best value match for me.

I thought I saw an earlier post from somebody who said something like they couldn't get the individual match they wanted so had to buy an "All LA group stage" ticket. So is that a thing that's available for each city, and is there any discount for that versus buying the tickets for each match individually? (I'm guessing no discount)

How was the availability for the round of 32 and 16 matches? I get the draw of the group stage matchups, but there's also the possibility of getting a real clunker that doesn't really matter. A knockout stage match at least guarantees somebody is advances and somebody is going home and the round of 32 and 16 aren't prohibitively expensive. Like a round of 16 Cat 3 ticket in a bunch of cities is $220 to $240. That's pretty reasonable.

Speaking of which, was Cat 3 availability in general decent or was it mostly only Cat 1 and 2?

Really appreciate your insight. I am on a plane for the first hour+ of my window so I'll probably need to authorize my brother to make purchases for me, and I want to be able to give him good direction.

 

I think this is good advice, which is why I have no concerns about not getting a slot for this phase, or the next one either. And since Cat 1 seems like the only way to get a reasonably good seat this time, I am planning on maybe waiting for FCFS and those Hospitality conversions and sponsor returns. Does anyone remember about how many months out we get to see seat assignments before we purchase in FCFS? I remember everyone scrambling to upgrade their seats after that happens.

 

AI is telling me that the Venue Specific Tickets include all the group stage matches at a venue (excluding openers for USA, CAN, MEX) plus any round of 32 matches at that venue. Can anybody confirm if this is accurate?

 

And a face value Category 1 ticket to the Final in 1994 cost a little more than $500. People were asking up to $700 for those in the days before the game, and on the day of on the way to the stadium, and people were not paying that. So, I don’t think you can assume the demand will be there at $6,730 for the same ticket, as an example. And inflation would make that $500 ticket in 1994 what now, something like $1,200? There is clearly more interest now than in 1994, but there are also a lot more games this time and the stadiums are huge. If FIFA had just gone with their usual ticket pricing scheme, and maybe raised them something like 10% over Qatar prices, they would have sold every ticket easily. Now, they seem to have set themselves up for a Club World Cup repeat, although to a much lesser degree, because it is the World Cup. We shall see when we get closer to the tournament, but they better drop prices earlier than they did for the CWC, if they want sellouts at all of the matches.

 

https://gpcustomersupportfwc2026.ti...kets-products-available-to-the-general-public

 

That sounds very plausible, maybe even very likely. We’ll see.

 

Are there really going to be that many clunker matches? By clunker, I mean meaningless (as opposed bad quality; that can happen with any two teams). In the first round of group play, all teams have everything to play for. The second round, everyone is still in it. By the third round, there will be some teams that have guaranteed progression. But with 32 of 48 teams advancing, even teams with 0 points after two games have a chance. I checked 24-team tournaments, and historically teams with 3 points advance about 50% of the time.

So let's look at the worst case, a group with two teams with six points, and two teams with 0 points. The two six-point teams play for seeding - that might be important (similar to previous world cups). In a 32-team tournament, the two 0-point teams were dead, but now the winner of the match has a chance of advancing. I suppose if both of their goal differences are so crappy it could be practically impossible for them to advance. But in almost all other situations, they would have everything to play for - and they both would be playing to win.

I suppose there are other scenarios, like two teams with 3 points after two games, both playing for a draw, knowing that 4 points gets them through (either as 2nd or 3rd place team). But I think that's the exception rather than the rule.

 

Don't know if this has been metioned but the resale site is not loading I think.

https://access.tickets.fifa.com/pkpcontroller/wp/FWC26RESALE/index_en.html?queue=12-FWC26-Resale

 

What is the face value price for Iran’s TST3 tickets?

 

Good question. Iran's NTs future seems so unsure.

 

What are those prices??!!

Too early and unrealistic i agree, but under certain circumstances it will be quite "reasonable" if there's no ceiling.

The Audacity....

 

https://fwc26-resale-usd.tickets.fifa.com/ use this link

 

was any email sent out today by fifa to winners?

 

Uzbekistan are prjected for pot 3. DR Congo would most likely need to come through the playoffs and get pot 4.

I did pick an extreme example. However a lot of the group games will be a hard sell.

 

Have we any chat groups for World Cup 2026? please share links. Discord, WhatsApp, all!

Thanks!

 

Agree with you. San Francisco Bay Area is unique in the sense that out of the 5 group games, 3 of them are a group (B & D) that has one of the host nations (USA & Canada) but the games in SFO will not involve the host nation, and by virtue of these host nations being in Pot 1, will also not involve a Pot 1 nation.
So the M8 (Group B), M31 (Group D) and M60 (Group D) are not going to be worth the money unless you get a cheap Cat 3 or Cat 4 ticket. Now you mention M20 - and the same could be said for M44 - one of these games will hopefully include a Pot 1 team and indeed it could be France or Argentina... or Croatia. On the other hand, if these games are Pot 2 vs Pot 4 and Pot 3 vs Pot 4, then we'll know the San Francisco Bay Area really got screwed by FIFA.
So yes, could be France - Colombia but it could also be Iran - Ghana (Pot 2 vs Pot 4) and Uzbekistan - Cape Verde (Pot 3 vs Pot 4) for M20 & M44.
Since I live close to the stadium, I'm in great position to "wait and see", i.e. wait until after the groups and games are defined. I have not received an email for any of the slots yet, so at this point I'm guessing the presale is done for me. Not sure why FIFA has a second pre-sale BEFORE the draw but it might be greed winning over logic.

 

Changing the prices of some tickets downwards for future advance sales would be an insult to the early "winners" of the lottery. Knowing how the US functions - it's a very litigious country - I would think there would be class-action lawsuits involved. If you keep the price the same but move the category seats down in the stadium, with the early buyers getting the better seats, then no one gets hurt

 

Has there been any litigation over the Club World Cup tickets? I don’t think so. You can’t win a lawsuit just because you feel insulted that you paid more early than others did later. That’s how dynamic pricing works. Maybe it should be illegal/regulated, but it’s legal in the USA, and it seems the same in Canada.

 

Fifa countinue to send email with draw result until about 24 october then on 27 october start the second sale phase.
This first presale is sponsored by Visa and you can pay only by Visa Card the next sale phase have no sponsor.

 

It's legal but sometimes a successful lawsuit is just what it needs to make it illegal.
Ex.: https://www.justice.gov/archives/op...ster-monopolizing-markets-across-live-concert
I know this is about monopolizing (Live Nation owns venues, artists, and TicketMaster) but it seems the government is keeping an eye on the issue of concertgoers paying way more than they should.
I also know that for airline seats, if the price of your ticket has gone down, you can get a refund or partial refund. That's if the fare you purchased is not "non-refundable", and you may have to pay a "change fee" if there's one, so it's worth on a major price drop.

 

Look at post #3687. Maybe popularside should sue.

 

@popularside should ask for a refund, asking politely doesn't hurt... and it leaves a "paper" trail should you want to go further. And sometimes using the media can help, there are many TV stations here in the US with a consumer ombudsman who is often successful at getting money back to consumers. Because if there's one thing the corporations don't like, it's bad press!

 

FIFA is not a corporation.

 

Iran would draw a big crowd in Santa Clara. The diaspora in California loves that team regardless of politics. Other non-seeded teams that would do well are Colombia, South Korea, and Japan. Honduras, too, though they can't be in the host groups.

 

Another reason why sales might not go as expected... If ICE can be at the Super Bowl, they can be at the World Cup!
I know a few people who had planned to visit the US recently and have changed their plans for Canada or Latin America. I think the uncertainty of being booted at the airport when you arrive will be a deterrent unless Trump makes it clear that they will not be there and anyone with a valid entry visa - when necessary - will be let inside the country.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/kristi-noem-says-ice-over-183254686.html