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

If you are buying Boston train tickets make sure the MBTA account uses the same email you used to buy your FIFA match tickets.........they don’t make it explicit but it needs to.

 

Could someone please clarify how FIFA's 30% gouge fee works? For example, if someone wanted to list a resale ticket for $1,000, is it shown in the marketplace as $1,000 and when it sells the buyer pays $1,150 and the seller get $850?

 

The buyer pays 15% more than the list price. The seller receives 15% of the list price. Hence FIFA get 30% of the list price.

 

TRUTH!!!!!!!!!! Accurate article indeed.

 

The scam started with the FTBs anh has continued ever since

 

New Jersey festivals and community soccer related actives planed during the World Cup:
https://njbiz.com/sports-illustrated-stadium-world-cup-2026-fan-hub-harrison/

 

Your example looks exactly right. When you cart it, it shows the full price with the surcharge before you proceed to payment details.

 

I don't have any interest in Cape Verde v Saudi Arabia but trying to see how the FCFS section is working and it seems whatever seats you click the answer is no availability for quantity requested. This is not the same for the opening Canada and US games but seems odd you cannot get a single one from this game in the basket. Any ideas anyone?

 

Looks like FIFA (or a sponsor returning tickets?) has been doing some stealthy face value drops in the marketplace over the last few days. Guess we'll have to keep an eye out there as well as the main portal.

 

I don't hate it, specially the American Dream one. It sucks you have to pay though.

 

Are you using the scanner to catch wind of these drops?

 

They have, I was able to buy match 84, category 2 at face value, two tickets. With the help of the scanner .

 

Yes, haven't gotten anything I'm looking for though

 

So another day with nothing interesting to report.

 

I guess we are sort of desensitised to it all, or just accept and expect it, but the ticket category map is always just a guideline to roughly where you could maybe sit. This happens in so many other industries too. But with regard to World Cups, literally anyone who has been through this before knows that for any medium to high demand match if you buy tickets in any of the main phases especially early, your tickets will likely be in awkward less ideal places. It's also why so much emphasis gets put on PMA. It's why people always say here to buy late but organise to whatever match or cities you want to go to (handful of unicorn match exceptions each tournament). And as the article says, it was never too difficult to deduce which parts of the original ticketing maps had likelihood to be hospitality/VIP and thus excluded from initial general sale, same with reference to supporter sections if you had followed the CWC ticketing.

The only reason it hits the media this time is because it's largely exacerbated by the much higher prices this time (eg. 3-4x more), uncapped resale marketplace, the CWC style ticket category map etc. But I guess it makes a certain type of person feel even more entitled to the best part of the potential category map, rather than the worst possibility which is often the case.

The article is a decent recap I guess of the ticketing timeline, but in terms of allocation it's not really as much of an issue as many like to think it is. Or people like the author, a handful of other journos or any YouTube/tiktok influencers on the topic get so dramatic about it moreso for clicks and attention rather than legitimately care that people were allocated seats in parts of the ticketing map that they deem as inferior. Not too long ago people were upset to not have tickets at all

 

This front row Bullshit is now ridiculous, row 2 is now front row for Fifa...they have already put front row cat 1 and cat 2....I mean...

 

Next week they are adding a 5% fee to aisle seats per reports

 

Surely a joke?

 

Row 2 could still be the front row. They have to raise the pitch in some stadia, which will remove rows as a result.

 

They basically just released all low demand games and most likely rebranded some unsold hospitality as front row BS...quite pathetic

 

You are being way too generous to 26 on this.
Ok - the comment about the boundary tickets is a bit gratuitous. There is always a point at which one category of tickets is bordered by another. That is unavoidable.
Some of the actual locations are a bit much though. Forget the illustrations - the resale maps show clearly where the categories are and in some cases they are taking the....

For me this is NOT Cat 1.

 

Thankfully I'm basically all set with the main tickets I need, b/c all of this is turning me off severely from even thinking about adding more games to my list (assuming this indeed happens - not sure whether this was a joke lol)

 

Today drop is only low demand games, hopefully tomorrow we'll see some decent ones

 

To clarify, the prices listed on marketplace include the 15% fee. So if I sell a ticket for $1,000 it will be listed as $1,150.

 

Finally got a local game, Austria vs. Jordan.