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

The federation supporters ticket sales are always in December/January, as close as feasible after the draw. US Soccer notified members of their Insiders program that they anticipate it’ll be in January 2026.

It has to be after the draw (and after stadiums are assigned to matches), since the amount of tickets given to the federations is percentage based, meaning the total number varies slightly between each stadium.

 

“Fair pricing strategies.”
LOL
In other words, get ready to get absolutely gouged until they can’t squeeze another penny out of you.
Does anyone have any insight on dynamic pricing behavior for other in-demand USA sports events at neutral venues?
Super Bowl? NCAA Basketball Tournament Final Four?
Do prices typically start out high and go up before dropping as teams get eliminated?
We have the Club World Cup example, but that probably applies to lower demand matches (like Slovakia-Jordan midweek), where prices will probably end up much lower than the initial face value before the draw.

 

So the FIFA website says maximum 4 tickets per game per household. To increase chances for this first phase, am I able to submit an application for 2 tickets and then my dad as well for 2 tickets if we are under the same household (same postal address)? I heard somewhere FIFA regulates it to be one application per household but I don’t think that is correct.

 

For the 10 Millionth Time! you're not applying for tickets wednesday . You are applying for a Lottery ticket to enter the store and browse on or after October 1. Once inside, If there are tickets left that you like; you will have the option to buy up to 4 per match.

 

Youre not seeing the big picture. FIFA is a global non-profit. Excess revenue is reinvested into the global game. Leaving money on the table for touts takes away revenue that can be invested into FIFAs global work. In essence; you're taking away football pitches from children in Africa.

 

LOL. If I actually believed that, it might make me feel better about paying thousands of $ for absolutely crap seats. But I/we all know better. I mean is that where all the Qatar bid bribe money went? To build football fields for kids in Africa?

And what about that stadium in Doha they were supposedly going to dismantle and send to some African country after the 2022 World Cup? Did they follow through with that?

I think Infantino may actually be worse than Blatter and Havelange. Those guys actually did some things that benefited the sport. Infantino has been purely destructive.

 

No one believes the BS they're selling. But every article I read, that's the justification.

 

“If there are tickets left that you like” and I would add, can afford. There’s going to be a lot of sticker shock on the ticket prices this time. Not to mention credit card issues. I was having $500 transactions getting flagged as suspicious by my bank last time. What’s going to happen with $5,000 or $10,000, or more transactions this time? LOL.

 

Just remember that the train takes just short of forever to get somewhere. As someone who regularly takes the C Line to downtown, it's sub-optimal unless Metro increases frequency on it and the A Line (Blue) for the event. The K Line (Pink) is better for getting downtown or the Westside, but still is a long haul. Of course avoiding weekday rush hour driving in L.A. is a virtue for 99% of visitors.

Consider Metro to a "nearby" station (e.g. Expo/Crenshaw) then a rideshare that isn't 10x surge priced, if the train isn't going directly towards your accommodation.

@marianelah Any idea how the Metro SoFi shuttle service is post-match? If it's like the Rose Bowl it's quicker to walk 2 miles uphill. No hill to the Metro in Inglewood; even better. Of course for World Cup shuttle and train service may be enhanced.

 

On this side of the Ocean earlier this morning the FFA sent out a note to all its Football Account holders (like a supporters club that gets access to early release tickets) that it is introducing Football Account + later this month. For an undisclosed fee you will get access to a lottery for tickets allocated to the FFA.

FIFA WORLD CUP 2026™ TICKETING & FAN PACKAGES | Socceroos

 

I ride the Metro every time I go to LA and I find the Green Line to be fine, while the Blue Line is a slog. I prefer the J-Line bus for the north/south trips. Haven't been there since the full K-Line through the airport opened. Of course everything depends on where you're coming from. When it's a World Cup day you ought to be going early anyway.

Not much track record as this is the new shuttle route for NFL games since that airport station is new. I'd expect walking to be a good option. Downtown Inglewood is the closest, 1.5 miles, but no doubt there will be crowds walking Arbor Vitae and Century. For NFL there are also some suburban bus systems that run express buses, so we can hope they run for the World Cup as well.

 

In general there's no "dynamic pricing" (yet) for major sports events in the U.S. The event sets pricing up-front for each seat and put most public seats on public sale at once, and lets StubHub set the market price afterwards. As these are annual events they have plenty of data points to set the optimal (i.e. maximum) price. Yes prices are higher on the secondary market immediately after the first day of sales (hoping for the "I'll pay anything" crowd, knowing there will be >5% of tickets sold by the promoter to the public after first-day sale) and often decrease as the match approaches. But that has nothing to do with the promoter, unless they've withheld a large block of tickets for future public sale (quite rare.)

Of course having the ability to purchase a ticket is a separate issue. Final Four: Lottery to purchase tickets, about 1-in-20 chance to buy a pair of nosebleeds in a 70,000 seat stadium priced quite high, lottery deadline 10 months prior (this year May 31) and winners notified in the fall. Super Bowl is even more challenging. Both offer "supporter tickets" in similar numbers to the World Cup, usually about half price (?) to what tickets go for on the secondary market. Supporter tickets are good seats...so long as you've been "donating" $5K/year to the school for the last 20 years. In the case of the Final Four final, sometimes you get a $25 ticket last-minute if the wrong team loses. Or maybe the price doubles if the right team wins.

Best-of-7 series are a bit different, but most teams will price their Finals tickets for season ticket holders a couple of months before the playoffs begin, usually at a 25% discount to what they'll offer remaining seats to the public. However, as remaining seats usually aren't sold until the team qualifies for the next round, you'll see some (not lots) of variance in that premium, potentially a discount mid-series if the first two games didn't sell out. Meanwhile, it's becoming more common to see the secondary market price equal the season ticket holder discounted price as ticket supply exceeds ticket demand, and teams have fewer issues gouging the public (vs. not gouging their regular customers.) Tough to make a buck reselling playoff tickets unless the team makes the final series.

But "series" tickets have a large majority of local purchasers including everyday resellers. Pricing is a science these days. Neutral site major events - like certain World Cup matches - have a majority of people travelling. Lots of variables, lots of uncertainty, leading to big swings in the secondary market.

And no one doles out tickets a few hundred at a time like FIFA does/will. It'll be a new world with dynamic pricing + multiples rounds of public sales. Tough to predict what is coming, never mind create a strategy for purchasing IMHO. Eager to hear what others will do. Should be fun to watch, not very fun to participate.

 

Same as Canada, which copied the U.S. From the Canada press release back in July: "The structure of CanadaRED aligns with that of the United States Soccer Federation’s Insider program and is comparable to Football Australia’s fan packages offering for FIFA World Cup 26™."

Interesting that Australia is considering tickets + accommodations packages as that takes more work to organize.

One difference: Canada lets the $0 members into its lottery. Of course, they'll have something like 1000 tickets for people who donate $5K; another 1000 for $1K & $5K, hopefully 1000 for $50/$1K/$5K donors....and about 4 tickets for the free tier. Any idea what it'll cost for Account+? (There's also a $150 & $500 tier in Canada; presumably they'll have some dedicated allotment.)

Worst part about these last-minute donor clubs is there's no recognition for past support. CanadaRed has been accepting money for 5 years and, it appears, that will count for exactly zero in the upcoming draw.

 

Lowered expectations is my strategy now, which is to root for teams to qualify that should be cheap to get tickets to their matches. So far, I have the following teams qualified or looking good:

Uzbekistan
Jordan
Tunisia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Suriname

I should be able to pick up cheap tickets to their matches after the draw, as long as they’re not playing any of the Latin American teams.

 

I attended the 2006 World Cup on a ticket + accommodation + extras package through the FFA. They simply sub contracted the accommodation, internal transport and some other inclusions to a travel organisation that specialised in sporting tours. I've no idea what FA+ will cost, but can't really see any value in it unless you are planning to attend the world cup as another source of tickets. I'm not so I won't be paying for it.

 

The Silver Line (bus) is always faster...I've always been too cheap to pay the upcharge. lol (No longer a surcharge as of...2023?) But the Green Line doesn't go anywhere visitors will be staying; it doesn't even go in the right direction towards anywhere. Very frustrating. But then LA Metro is a rather unique experience.

If you've been to London and slogged through the Underground line(s) from Heathrow airport...imagine that, PLUS a couple of buses of varying length and limited frequency and too often poor on-time record to get where you're going. I doubt anyone would recommend the Tube to go from Heathrow to say Watford; it's hard to recommend Metro for 100% door-to-door trips in L.A. Perhaps as one part of a complete trip plan, especially over a $100 parking lot. But I can drive and park on Century towards the airport, and walk or wander over to the shuttle from the LAX station.

Here's hoping for a Blue Bus (Santa Monica) or maybe Culver City bus?

 

Adding New Zealand to the list of affordable tickets.
Big W on the road for Suriname tonight, combined with Panama dropping more points at home.

 

I'd add Belgium to the list? Fans nowhere to be found in Qatar.
And cheering on DR Congo, although first-time-in-50-years + a few migrants to the U.S. might surprise. Same w/ Jordan - I wouldn't immediately target Jordan matches but looks positive.

I'm curious how UAE/Qatar/Saudi fans will travel, given they've just hosted and are in line to host again in 2034? I'd love to watch Saudi beat Argentina again - in person this time instead of watching from Dubai.

Any good teams with minimal fans? Swiss I guess; any others? Uruguay used to be a good bet but they aren't as good as 4-8 years ago. You can gauge fan interest w/ the upcoming friendly in Tampa. Since they're in Raymond James the USSF must be expecting a large Uruguay contingent?

 

They beat my El Salvador. But they’re the best team in the group so far. Don’t sleep on Cape Verde

 

Group A was so unfortunate to get Suriname as their Pot 4 team. Their level is Pot 1 level now after their new dual nat strategy.

 

500-1000 editions of RTBs for each match are on the marketplace, so it's not really helping to understand the demand

 

You can pay to join Switzerland fans club and guarantee supporters tickets for CHF250.

https://www.football.ch/sfv/nationalteams/fanzone/football-fans-premium-club-1/bronze-member.aspx

 

how did RTBs for the CWC actually work?

all categories or selected ones?
which prices, initial ones or prices as at the moment of purchase?

 

It was a mess, there were two main issues:

1. Only Category 1 tickets were offered despite promises of all categories.
2. Prices were FIFA list prices at the time (eventually reduced by 15%). Due to low demand, it was cheaper to buy from Ticketmaster.

Very few CWC RTBs were actually redeemed. As you would imagine, there was uproar and I don't think the same mistake will be repeated (fingers crossed...).

In the end, FIFA Collect started issuing CWC tickets (including Cat 2/3) bundled with WC RTBs and also as challenge prizes. Many people made of lot of money selling these tickets which effectively compensated for the RTB issue.

The WC is a whole different ball game from a demand perspective. For the me, the main outstanding questions on redeeming WC RTBs are:

1. Categories and price of tickets
2. Max number of tickets per account
3. Transferability
4. Timing of redemption

 

in short words, they are joinig fifa in this unique fan ripoff called world cup 2026