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

2026 and companies still haven't figured out how to reliably flag bots and scalpers...

 

It's also interesting that FIFA isn't allowing the current sales phase inventory to hit the Marketplace (Randon selection and PMA). There's 11 days left until the Marketplace shuts down until April. Tons of FOMO will be built up. Prices will stay high with only the old inventory being bought and sold until the 22nd. All the touts in the current phase will have to wait to dump in April.

 

While I hope you're right, I would imagine the BofA is more related to a small number of people that opened that specific card and good locking mechanism to avoid bots rather than a larger pattern. I can't imagine prices dropping below face value for knockouts and any group stage matches with teams like Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, England, etc. My strategy is just to wait out as close to the match as possible and hopefully pick up some last minute drops from scalpers. But if the cheapest Super Bowl ticket was going for $8k, I can't imagine the WC Final going for significantly less than that. I hope I am wrong though - been to 5 world cups with my dad and this is the first time we are genuinely worried about not securing tickets.

 

You're probably right, but at this point just being able to secure tickets at or near the current face value would be a huge win.

 

That's a good strategy. We'll see what happens when the full inventory hits the market. Super Bowl prices dropped to around 3k before kickoff.

 

It sucks for people who need to make travel plans, but for locals it's probably optimal. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on all the Dallas games for last minute drops.

 

Agree. I snagged Can v Sui and Van Rd of 32 as I doubt the prices will go down alot and I wanted those games. I will wait to try and snag the 2 NZ games in Van until closer to as I could see them dropping. I've given up on Can v Euro even though we will be in TO that weekend. Prices are insane.

 

I've made travel plans with my family to the bay area and will go to Jordan Algeria. No idea when I'll get tickets, but it won't be soon... but I'm also confident I'll find a way to get tickets. It would definitely be more uneasy if it was a game in higher demand and current prices were already beyond reach.
But I have an inverse problem with conditional games... Never had those before. Putting several more thousand dollars to hold things that might not happen is tough on top of everything paid for that will happen! Good problem to have but still a lot to swallow at once

 

Cheer against Italy next month for M3

 

I sold my tickets on December 22nd through a resale website. They haven't issued a refund; they couldn't process it through my credit card but asked for my bank account number, which I provided, but I still haven't received my refund. Is anyone else in the same situation?

 

Question for the US contingent on here. Do you guys have any more CC ticket lotteries coming up after the two you've had this week?

 

There's the Venture X one tomorrow, but it's run by the same vendor as the Chase one, so I'm not very hopeful

 

I guess the benefit of living in NYC is that Metlife is massive and there are almost always cheap tickets to be had in the days leading up to game day.

 

The more I assess matters, the more convinced ny strike-out on tickets was not due to supply and demand.
Matters like what you have raised, tickets plainly going straiight to resale (notice the limited number of countries where fans say they have Cat 4).
The evidence is there.
My ESTA is aporoved so will go ahead with logistics and pick up tickets later. They will come. (For low/medium games).

 

You keep mentioning your best friend but never share what he said about the datadome technique

 

He posted frequently in this thread, you can probably find his posts fairly easily.

I'll see if I can dig anything up.

 

LOL. Super Bowl tickets were down to around $3K day of. I can’t imagine WC Final tickets being higher, and probably will be lower if the most likely scenario ends up with 2 Euro teams in the Final. Only the limited number of fanatical fans are keeping these prices high. Regular folks aren’t going to be paying these prices. So, either FIFA and the scalpers drop prices or we’re going to see a lot of empty seats at a lot of matches.

 

Agreed with this. The only way Final prices stay or go up is if one of Messi/Ronaldo make it.

 

The WC final is an irrelevance for this discussion. Noone has got a ticket in the ballot apart from PMA applications. It is closed off to the non corporate/VIP fan.
For other matches, bar the obvious hot tickets, you can wait. I will be. I have two matches in KC - but either side of those, will wait and see what is avalable. (I have an eye on the Uzbekistan match in Atlanta - lots of availability already).
The touts have got a bunch of tickets, but WILL reslease them. They dont CONTROL anything about the pricing.
Forget FOMO garbage, if you MUST watch a match, then just get it now on resale and get rid of the angst. The FOMO brigade are not paying top dollar to post selfies for matches of teams they, never mind their friends, have never heard of.
If not, whats the worst, you watch in a bar?

 

Agree -- and Philly isn't that far away either.

 

This is great advice imho. In Qatar I got sick and missed Cameroon v Serbia, which was hardly a marquee match or highly desired ticket (my motivating 'desire' was a result of having an open day on my schedule and because I hadn't been to that stadium) -- and it was an awesome game. The dullest World Cup match I ever saw in person was Brazil vs Portugal in Durban in 2010. That was a super hot ticket, for obvious reasons, and it was like watching paint dry. One 'virtue' of the expanded format this year is that more of the final group games are likely to be consequential. That Uzbekistan match in Atlanta: that could well be do-or-die for both teams.

 

So y'all really think the Final tickets will drop below FV at some point? Like CAT3 for less than the $4K they're going for through FIFA right now?

 

FIFA will be giving away tickets to M72. Local firefighters, schools. etc

 

I don't. There is a lot of wishful thinking here.

 

Below FV? Probably not. Below current resale values? Absolutely.

There will be limited opportunities to get cheap (I.e, below FV) if you’re vigilant though. It’s an 80,000 seat stadium meaning there will be outliers.