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

this is the best one I found (of course PDF is great as well, easy to make image out of it)

https://i.imgur.com/1fsKwHq.png

2388x1668

 

Ok

 

yes this is correct, hospitality tickets are intended to bake in whatever secondary will be + some margin on top likely. What I’m very curious to see is secondary prices vs list, we agree many multiples. So we are talking $650+ for nosebleeds and for the best group games potentially even higher. Critical to be able to get a few games via the lottery. Lottery is going to be the highest demand ever IMO, still hard to project. Demand could truly be absurd if they do a good job marketing the lottery to normie Americans who want to go to the games (who’d otherwise just see secondary).

 

I'm hopeful that FIFA won't market that much; they really haven't in the past.

If no credit card is required to do an application again, I will shoot for 1000 applications.

 

1000 minimum for me. lol The World Cup doesn't need marketing. I'm actually hoping they require a credit card. lol

 

Of course they have.
All those RTBs are tickets taken out of circulation.
They won’t be in any ballot. They can’t be.

 

Technically you are correct. Current RTB allocations are small; but they may ramp up.

https://www.fifacollect.info/rtb-tickets/world-cup-2026

 

Demand will be high, but I think European World Cups and Euros are probably higher (like Germany 2006). Maybe even 2030 will be higher demand overall. We also have to remember there are nearly twice as many matches this time as in past World Cups, massive stadiums, and soccer isn’t popular enough in the US that people will be rearranging their lives to apply for the initial lottery tickets. Even if they end up going more casually when the time comes.

Of course, if they don’t require credit cards/mandatory purchase, no one will get anything in the lotteries since bot applications will be 99% of the pool. I actually don’t think I’ve ever been successful in the first round lotteries for any World Cup. All of my tickets have come later.

 

Well that's discouraging. I'll be overjoyed if I win Cat 3 Venue Specific Tickets for Levi's Stadium. I imagine there will be, at most, a three match limit for Cat 4 tickets.

 

You’ll stand a much better shot in the package lotteries, especially the venue ones.

And to correct myself, it looks like I actually did get some tickets in the blind lottery for Russia. I usually only apply for the low categories in the known higher demand matches in the blind phase (such as the weekend matches in Moscow and St Petersburg). Higher categories for lower demand matches are available later.

Living in a host city this time, I’ll need to revise my strategy. I’m definitely going to try for the venue specific package for my home city, along with the matches in Mexico, since I know I want to attend some of those (with a fairly flexible schedule there). And for my team’s matches (USA), I’ll mainly be trying through the federation lottery. If some TST-8 are an option, I’ll obviously try for that too as a way to get a final ticket.

 

FIFA will be converting to a new blockchain in about a week. The current Algo system is limiting. All indications are FIFA will ramp up the RTB sales. They'll make money on the "right to buy" and the actual ticket sale. If this happens over summer; Yes! a large portion of the seats will be already allocated to Hospitality and RTB. Lowering the number offered during the draw.

And that doesn't include the RTBs they allocated as Ticket Packs during the CWC promo.

 

Exactly my point.
Furthermore - what has previously happened was that some of the unsold hospitality ended up being added to Cat 1 allocations.
They can also add further hospitality if demand is there - hence the 'register interest' emails I have received (and you too, I presume).
They have already put the 'sold out' signs for Mexico hospitality.

De jure - the sales have not started. De facto, they started months ago.

 

Seriously? How can 1 person do 1,000 applications? Surely an email address can only be used once?

 

have 1000 email addresses lol. It's not hard if you have a gmail account

 

Genuine fans like ourselves NEED mandatory credit cards.
As you say - we are screwed if not because touts will be all over this one (to the extent any money is left on the table).
I have got tickets in phase 1 for the last five world cupsso it can be done. I would not give up hope - depends on what type of teams and locations you go for.

 

I am honestly not sure what's better for us, application process with or without credit cards. Meanwhile I tend to think it is the second one. Touts have solution for both options and for the rest, it is better to have more applications in the play

 

I think the credit card will eliminate a large portion of applications. The touts will do what they do every 4 years regardless. But credit cards will eliminate the millions of applications originating from asia,africa and latin America. There were guys in India loading thousands of applications for 2022 and selling the accounts on social media. A large portion of those will be eliminated with the CC requirement.

 

I agree, I would rather deal with CC requirement. However, I really don't think FIFA i going back to the CC requirement. The plethora of declined transactions doesn't sit well with them.

 

There are a lot of people on these boards who haven’t had much of a problem in the lottos post draw release. I think I had a 50% hit rate last time. That said if you’re only applying to the more in-demand games I could see a way lower hit rate. I missed on all the high demand games and hit on the med and low demand games in Qatar. And then just bought via secondary for anything else I wanted that I missed out on

 

That’s a solid strategy. I’ve personally always had great luck in the “real time” sales. I’ve gotten opening matches, finals, TST packages, etc.

Qatar was just especially bad in the lotteries because of the lack of mandatory payment.

 

Yeah, FIFA will need a credit card processing department to manage declined transactions etc. I think it was eliminated for 2022 for that reason. Too much work; but UEFA deployed it for this year's draw. So we can hope... lol

 

I cannot see this at all.
The problem is not just the professional tout.
It is the person that applies for everything in the hope of getting a 'glamour' match or location. When they don't - they just let the application lapse.
The thing is they push the genuine fan down the queue.
The serious fan gets crowded out by them as well.

If you are not a serious buyer - you should not be allowed near a queue/ballot/process.

 

For good order - time wasters are not just in Asia, Africa and Latin. They are everywhere.
(Speak to a Crystal Palace fan ahead of the FA Cup final).

 

Kind of true. Pre-draw is the easiest bc you have to pay for your tickets before the draw happens. You don't get to wait until after the draw to pay. This is why people like me love going for the pre-draw tickets. They are by far the easiest to get and allow people like myself to plan my trip earlier. I know what matches I am going to push hard for, I don't need to know what teams are there.

 

Welcome to this thread... where people have 1000s of emails from 2022.