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

I am not surprised. That is quite a lot of money. There are also way fewer Canadians (in absolute and %-age terms) with that kind of easily spendable money in their hands compared to Americans. For every 1 Canadian able to spend that, I reckon there are 20 to 40 Americans, so its not even close.

I consider myself a pretty diehard football fan and I wouldn't pay anywhere near that kind of mark up for a single match - not for any match. I can relate to the thrill of bidding wars. Heck, ticketmaster's whole business model is built on that adrenalin (hey, I have the tickets, oh there is another $80 to pay in fees, well I have come this far, no big deal). But I have to immediately compare this to annual membership fees of clubs, which vary from roughly $30 to $200 per year depending on the club. Being a club member is somewhat similar to a RTB and, again, that price is per year (no limit on # of matches you can attend).

I also didn't have much trouble getting tickets at face-value for all 4 past WCs I applied for (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018) via the FIFA website. Of course, this time will be different. I've heard that before. New variables come into the equation for every World Cup. But until I strike out, am not paying a dollar above face value for WC tickets. Face value is already not cheap.

Just my two cents.

 

This is not for everyone. I have 8 RTBs right now including Match1. I’m net positive $1800 right now. if you put in the time to play the game; it’s fun and you make back most of not all your investment.

the only place it makes sense to buy RTBs is for Mexico games in Mexico. Demand will be unprecedented with 150 million Mexicans and who knows how many Mexican American bidding. The second match in Guadalajara with a 45k capacity will be insane.

 

Yah, I suppose it also depends what matches you want to attend. For some, its crucial that a certain team is involved, while for others they are just happy to get whoever. I'm more in the latter group. Of course, I'd rather a "top team" be involved in the matches I attend over getting something like Bahrain v Poland, but its not essential and I don't need to see US or Mexico live. In fact, I'll be making a conscious effort of avoiding those matches.

 

I still stand by the number of ticket applications doubling at least for this tournament over Qatar. I had the argument with another user back on the first page. Qatar had 23.5 million applications and we ended up settling on 52 million for this one. That would give an application less than 0.5% chance of being successful by my math. Tickets are going to be a battle.

 

Twice as many applications doesn't sound so bad to me, considering there are far tickets to be sold. 0.5% does sound pretty bad, but I reckon the odds will be better for those applying in Phase I.

Also, IIRC, the % successful applications is always a worryingly low number but I find it never seems as bad in reality as the percentage would suggest. Perhaps boatloads of applications being made for the quarters, semis and final makes that percentage somewhat irrelevant to applications in general.

 

Everything depends on the city you want and the schedule. Mexico will have millions of applications from locals, USA Mexicans and touts! Canada not as much. If you're just trying to catch games wherever... you'll be able to land an Angola v Iran at face value for sure. Any of the weekday early games in most cities will be accesible. (top teams will play in primetime) There are 9 weekday match days with 4 matches per day.

The kickoff times will be set after the draw. A Wednesday june 17 match between Paraguay vs Korea in Houston/Dallas/Toronto at 1:00pm will be easy to get.

 

Depends on whose prime time. I think a lot of group stage matches involving top European teams will have an early kickoff as its prime time in Europe.

 

I wouldn't worry about getting tickets ... only about paying them, I expect horrifying prices

 

Not so sure about that. For Qatar 2022 they tried to schedule games at convenient times for the people watching on TV in the countries involved, to the extent possible. If they do the same this time, the top contenders from UEFA would be mostly involved in the 3:00 EDT games, or 6:00EDT at the latest.

 

I want you to be right but I feel that logic only works if you think that most fans in the stadium will be local and I just don't think that is the case. I've compared this comically to getting Taylor Swift tickets for my wife which was also insane, both in Zurich and our hometown of New Orleans. Neither had more than 25% locals in those stadiums.

 

While we don't know prices we do know a few things.
1. FIFA has stated they are taking care of ticketing in house, just like they always have in the past. That means no fees or taxes because they are Swiss-based.
2. USA-MEX-CAN has submitted a price structure to FIFA for review/approval. It was more than Qatar, but not that much more. (Cat 1 $323, Cat 2 $304, Cat 3 $174).

I personally expect the exact same ticket purchasing format as Qatar, same phases. I also expect the Cat 1,2,3 structure to stay because FIFA likes control and it is what it is. I had always avoided the main stadiums with 60-80k seats because of that. In a 40k stadium there isn't a really awful seat in Cat 1/2. But with the size of every stadium for WC26... unavoidable.

 

I wouldn't count with anything related to the past. FIFA will take whatever they may get, and in the USA that is going to be a lot. Infantino is going to take every single cent out of your pocket whenever he gets an opportunity! He actually already started with that, selling all those rights to buy.

About seats in the stadiums, yes, it will be a lot of dancing in the dark, but that is always the case with any world cup. OK, this time we will probably have more obstructed viewing seats than before due to narrow buildings designed for american fooball gridiron, but the best part of the world cup is happening outside of the stadium anyway

 

[QUOTE="jesta, post: 42615770, member: 236695" but the best part of the world cup is happening outside of the stadium anyway [/QUOTE]

This is generally true, but TBD for 2026. The proximity of a stadium to the city's center is such a huge factor in the overall vibe of a city that's hosting a match. I am trying to think if and where this amazing vibe will be in New York City because the stadium is way out in the middle of nowhere, New Jersey. I am concerned, because unless the city makes an effort to dedicate an area to WC fans, I don't think its going to exist. It won't happen naturally given the size of the city, the sheer # of non-WC tourists/locals that are barely aware of the WC, and the location of the stadium. And I think a lot of these head winds apply for other host cities as well.

 

yepp, world cup flair is not likely to happen in some US host cities, but let's wait and see, who knows. of course, that is not good for planing in advance but luckily ... there is always mexico!

 

What time will the openers be do people think? And other group games involving hosts? The primetime is the last two times or just the last one? If the kickoff times do end up being 12:00, 15:00, 18:00, 21:00 Eastern Time.

Also do people think they will actually try to put the most popular teams in the biggest stadium/locale when there is the 50/50 option for them, or will it be drawn? Eg. New York over Boston (M7 M5), Boston over Toronto (M46 M45)? New York over Philly? Will they always put the Latino team in Miami over Atlanta for the four days they are paired in the group stage or is this wishful thinking?

 

So some of them are easy. If it involves a non-US city, the US city gets the bigger team since all of the non-US stadiums are smaller except for Mexico City and I feel that the USA is going to strong arm that.

I feel it would be safe to assume that New York and LA are going to get the choice games whenever possible. I would also assume that Dallas beats KC every time.

The host groups (A,B,D) are already set, so no questions there.

Once you get past those 3 rules we really have very few toss-ups:

Miami and Atlanta go head to head 4 times, I do believe they will split them with a more marquee Latin team going to Miami but who knows.
Philly and Boston go head to head exactly once in Group C.
KC and SF go head to head once in Group J.
Houston and Philly once in Group E (I assume a Latin team will get Houston)

 

Will politely agree to disagree with 100% of that.

They have never done that in the past, AFAIK, and this time it makes the least sense to do so, since pretty much all the stadiums are large.

I think they will shift kick off times to suit the people watching on TV back in the countries involved, but not actually shifting venues, and especially not gonna swap matches across host countries - they're not gonna just saddle Canada and Mexico with all the rubbish games. But please do PM me your mushroom dealer. Lol.

 

I would love to be wrong here.... I'm going to games in Canada and want to in Mexico. But the reality is they didn't name games within a group A1 vs A2, A3 vs A4 to specific stadiums. They obviously did this to manipulate it somehow, I just have no idea how.

 

That's down to the fact that it's still very early. Do we normally have all the information on the time and venue of fixtures 20 months before a WC?

 

The host groups all have the same pattern.

Day 1: 1v2, 3v4
Day 2: 4v2, 1v3
Day 3: 4v1, 2v3

I assume they will do the standard draw to fill out the order of matches in the same way for all of the groups, but maybe leave it open to place the two matches for a particular day in the two designated venues according to FIFA's whim.

 

For example, Day 2 of Group H would be H4 v. H2 and H1 v. H3 with games in Atlanta and Miami. Let the draw decide who those teams are, but FIFA may want to wait for the teams before it decides which game is Atlanta and which is Miami. If one match has a big European team, it could go to Atlanta where they can close the roof and play an early slot for European TV without worrying about the weather. You really don't want Miami at noon. Pretty much any team from the Americas would be a good fit for Miami and would be good for a later time slot. If there's an Asia-Pacific team, later is also better for them.

 

Yes. When the schedule got released in the past you knew that say M29 was C1 vs C3 instead of C2 vs C4. We don't know which is which here.

 

I'm not worrying about time slots, I assume they will play with kickoff times best they can like Qatar did.

But lets say you have a group of Belgium, Uruguay, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan.

in Day 2 of H you can probably assume Miami gets Uruguay vs Uzbekistan and Atlanta gets Belgium vs Ivory Coast and both are moderately happy. but what if that is Day 1 of C? Do you think NY is going to get Ivory Coast vs Uzbekistan while Boston gets Belgium vs Uruguay?

I just think FIFA is going to flex those types of matchup disparities to the bigger cities/stadiums.

 

Yes like this. Again it's all assumptions only because they haven't allocated where each group team place holder plays their group game, but this and uaww's example in the post above if they happen definitely have pros and cons. The purist in me doesn't like having any manipulation over the randomness of the draw as that part is usually as fun as the group draw itself. Can see why they would do it, and it ensures the status of best attended and biggest world cup ever, not to mention all the extra income. But it's also great when a big team plays in small stadium and there's a huge buzz and then allow the chase of finding and acquiring the tougher ticket.

 

Do you think FIFA cares enough though? Its not like the Boston stadium is small. It seems big enough to stage a match between 2 small countries like Uruguay and Belgium.

And wouldn't Metlife stadium sell out regardless of what matches they get?