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

The number reported by the Athletic *is* the one taken from the bid book. There’s no new info yet.

Average prices are always a bad measure for these things. The Cat 1/2/3/4 percentage breakdown is different between stadiums and gets manipulated later based on demand. And the truly cost-conscious fan doesn’t care about the average, they care about the cheapest ticket.

Cat 3 was $95 in Brazil and $110 in Russia (Qatar slashed Cat 3 to sell more tickets). Somewhere around $150-175 for Cat 3 seems like the best to hope for this time.

 

FWC26 Match Schedule_23042025.ai

 

I have been looking into the past World Cups prices breakdown to get some idea of the average price increases.

2006 -> 2010 : 37.6% (maybe influenced by the 2008 crisis?)
2010 -> 2014 : 10.3%
2014 -> 2018 : 11.2%
2018 -> 2022 : 15.7%

Take in mind that these percentages are an average from ALL the IMT prices. For instance, the 2022 final increased a 40.1% compared to 2018 but the group stage tickets decreased 10%.

If we look into the 2026 bid proposal made in 2018, the average increase compared to Qatar would be of 40.7% so want to think that it will be a little less, specially the Group stage and R16 which are heavily overpriced.

 

I mean, the cost of attending events in general is getting crazy. A quick peak at ticketmaster shows the cheapest Knicks ticket for tonight's game is nearly $700. And its not even that important or unique compared to a WC group stage match (due to best of 7 format).

 

Its actually very important with huge playoff implications if they Knicks can manage to go up 3-0 against their biggest rival, coming off 2 of the biggest come from behind victories in NBA playoff history

 

sure, its not meaningless but its still just 1 game out of 7 against one team, and then 14 more games to get through after this round. So, relative to a WC game, which is 7 (okay, now 8) games total from the start to the WC final.

It makes WC ticket prices look like a steal.

 

they simply took the prices from the the bid book and made their own calculation.
not much different to many other articles … journalists pretending to be smart or informed

all zero value. we’ve got to wait and see what FIFA is going to do. and if they introduce dynamic pricing all those calculations are getting worthless anyway

 

Multiple factors at play: venue company, dynamic pricing, last-minute tickets, and still is a semifinals match.

According to ESPN, lowest Knicks-Celtics M3 tickets at Boston cost $195 (from my geographical zone):
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/ny

 

Correct, no journalist can quote real prices of 2026 WC tickets, as of today.

 

When long-suffering fanbases find any success at all, prices tend to hyper inflate. And even more extreme when you’re the basketball team in the league’s biggest city and most expensive arena (a lot more people than just the basketball fans want to be there).

If the Knicks make the finals this year, prices will be more normal in the second round next year, since it’s not breaking new ground.

 

@soccer_23 funny thing: prices went up minutes later, after revisiting the link.

All other semifinal brackets show ticket prices below $100, lest you dare to hit F5.

A likely trend for the upcoming 2026 WC ticket purchasing experience.

 

Your maths add up. 60%, however, is way ahead of inflation. 12.5% per year,.

This creeping normalisation of the fan being fleeced is killing us.

 

I’m definitely skipping this one. No thanks.

 

Miami is still the type of place that people are going to want to go to with the most "International flair and World Cup Vibe" though.
I bet even a match like Jordan-Mail might sellout and be a tough ticket to get


Also, Miami missed out on World Cup '94 so you know most people still alive from back then know this will be something special.

 

I still think the only way any game doesn't sell out is if it's Jordan vs Mali in KC. You need the perfect storm of low following teams added with KC. Even then it may not be enough.

You will get parents of young kids who are caught up in the cup in that area who ask to go to a game. They will then look at tickets and see it's the only one left. The kids won't care it's Mali vs Jordan..

 

why are we comparing resale market prices to list prices?

if people think the list prices being reported for WC games are expensive, wait until they see what the resale prices will be.

 

On Location notoriously prices tickets at full secondary retail price - so the hospitality seats will end up being close or even lower than the advertised prices later on. The general tickets will be another story, going for several x's the original price for most matches

 

Crazy that KC won one of the venue spots. Small town that depends on visitors to scoop up a big chunk of the tickets, and where there is nothing to do except watch whales play mini golf.

If there were no other decent options, I think 10 venues (+5) would have easily been enough

 

This World Cup was always going to have the most expensive tickets ever. They usually increase the price every four years and everything in the US costs more, including sports tickets. But that’s because the people can afford it. USL season tickets cost more than those in the Bundesliga or many EPL clubs, despite significantly lower payrolls and quality.

The “average” of $305 is speculation, using data that was published in 2018. And Qatar was a unique situation (all 64 matches in one city) with very cheap Cat 3 and 4 to sell more tickets, so it’s probably not a great comparison.

For the group stage in 2026, I think we’ll see a very wide range, with Cat 1 absurdly expensive, Cat 2 expensive, and Cat 3 reasonable. And a small, cheap Cat 4 that can be expanded at the last minute if tickets aren’t selling. Maybe $400, $250, $150, and $60.

And the category breakdown within the stadiums will be different from the past. All of these stadiums have at least 3 distinct seating levels and some (LA) have as many as 7. The upper level tickets are much worse than lower level, so we won’t see any Cat 1 in the upper or Cat 3 in the lower. The CWC division of lower and upper level for the “Club Fan” blocks at different prices is an indication of this.

 

Based on the ticket prices of the Copa America, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was about right. My biggest concern is how many tickets will actually go on sale on FIFA during the sales phases versus given through all the weird NFT/CWC packages they’re advertising.

 

I hear you. The tickets HAVE already gone on sale.
And it wouldn't surprise me if noone on this page gets a ticket for the final or the semis in the ballot.
We are where we are.

 

So a single match Hospitality seat can't be bought. Have to buy 4 matches in a bundle.
Shop FIFA World Cup 26 Tickets | Hospitality Packages from On Location

 

Correct. At some point you may be able. But probably for games like Uzbekistan vs Angola on Wednesday at 12:00pm

 

Tickets really haven't gone on sale nor prices, sales phases, dates, or any other details have been released. The only thing we know are the premium hospitality packages, CWC bundles, and those random sticker collection things have been released. We really have no insight on the vast majority of tickets and how they will be issued.