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

Assuming early December is before December 5th, because chaos erupts after that.

 

I dont think there will be a price table. Each match will be uniquely priced and the price can go up or down. They already implemented the model for CWC.

 

Thought I read somewhere that they will post prices before each sale. That they will move them around only before each sale, not live. I might be wrong.

 

best bang for your buck is June 22 - June 30. You can still get super cheap hotels in Dallas/Houston area or AirBNB. Rent a car and in 9 days you can hit 7 games in Dallas and Houston. The Northeast corridor would be my 2nd pick and you won't need to rent a car but I think itll be more expensive.

 

Sounds great, but I'm not paying $400 for Indonesia vs Senegal. So my theoretical trip for the October lottery window would start with the Round of 16 - though catching Brazil vs. Argentina in the Round of 32 would be pretty cool.

July 5 M92 Mexico City (what are the odds of El Tri winning a knockout game & winning a group? Looking for $4 university student ticket like CWC.)
- Would target the red-eye flights to Toronto, Calgary, preferably Vancouver. Qatar-like flight pricing won't last.
July 6 M94 Seattle - might be based in Vancouver and drive/bus down. Noon kickoff risk.
July 7 M96 Vancouver - allez les rouges
- I might stroll down the coast on Amtrak since the 8th is a rest day. Otherwise...Magic Mountain.
July 10 M98 Los Angeles - could be more expensive than the SF though.

And if I got real lucky I'll take M101 or M102; preferably Atlanta. I'll find some Frontier/Spirit flight abomination and a Motel 6 90 miles out of town to save enough money for a beer at the stadium. Or, fly home very cheap from either Vancouver or Los Angeles.

Show me some matches, I'll show you a plan for the Group stages. Might even take a risk on a R32 game...although a potential Saudi Arabia vs. Argentina matchup sounds terrible.

(The Philly/Meadowlands double on July 4/5 is tempting; combine with Dallas or Atlanta R16 (preferred) or just relax in Vermont until the Boston QF on the 9th.)

 

So as we head to the end of this application period, I have a very strong feeling that prices will vary widely in this window for those who get in: They’ll have enough prices that are “affordable” along with some very expensive ones. Though it’s easy to dismiss “variable pricing” vs dynamic pricing as a meaningless distinction, FIFA is sensitive to negative headlines and I’m getting the feeling that they do mean it when they say they’ll have some tickets at $60.

The difficulty is that they may use this window to experiment and tinker all throughout. So there will always be a certain proportion of “affordable” prices but that doesn’t mean that it will always be the same matches across the sales window — meaning there could be different prices on different days for the same matches (though at least prices are not going to be adjusting minute to minute).

Anyway, this is an educated guess because nobody really knows. But this is just my hunch from everything I’ve read and the people I’ve talked to about this.

 

Yall think it will be the same as last World
Cup? I’m having my girlfriend apply for this phase since she a different household. She is not a fan whatsoever so I know she won’t go. Let’s say she gets selected and is given a time slot and scores some tickets. Say she buys 3 ticket for a match. Will she (primary applicant) be able to sell the primary ticket and send the guest ones over to me and someone else? Or would they all have to be listed up for resale?

 

Yeah me too. Was it not agreed here some weeks back that FIFA is implementing variable and not dynamic pricing, which I understand means that ticket prices will be set differently for different matches, but within a purchasing window, those prices won't change. So one group match cat 2 could be set at $150, and another at $650. As for the table I dream about, I think @marianelah is probably correct that they won't publish, and thus bring attention to where they are gouging the public.

 

We haven’t seen ticket documentation. But fifa is changing the rules. If I was to guess; all tickets will be transferable to 1 recipient. So she will be able to send them to you. But you won’t be able to forward them to anyone.

 

I think they would be well advised not to change the price of the very same ticket from one day to the next - that opens up all the publicity around 2 fans paying dramatically different prices for the very same ticket within the Oct selling window. That won't go over well. But, with each ticketing phase, I could see them adjusting the pricing such that the same ticket will cost different depending on which window it was bought in. I'm only speculating, but the latter approach seems far more tolerable... Keep in mind that each fan does not have the option to buy the ticket they want on Oct 5 vs Oct 17: they're given one time slot to enter the portal and purchase. If one time slot charges a lot more than another's time slot based simply on the luck of the draw, that will annoy me and enrage many others.

 

🎟️ FIFA confirmed to @TheAthleticFC a new approach for 2026 World Cup Tickets Visa Presale:

FIFA to scrub duplicate ticket applications from the same household (NOT disqualify all). Roommates can apply separately, but rules for multigenerational households & others remain murky https://t.co/lnNkhHp9eu

— The World Cup Guide (@World_Cup_Guide) September 17, 2025

 

September 29 cant come soon enough

 

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6635982/2025/09/17/2026-world-cup-ticket-lottery-rules/

A 2026 World Cup ticket rule that FIFA hardly communicated has sparked confusion. There's a one-entry-per-household limit... but what, exactly, constitutes a household? As the first lottery deadline nears, FIFA has *some* answers:

 

Serious question: Anyone know of any Cruise lines or ocean liners that will guaranteed have all the games on television in the rooms?

I am thinking it will be less expensive to just travel the world at sea for a month and have all you can eat buffets and watch the games at my leisure in the room.

 

Wouldn't it be cheaper and have a way better atmosphere to just rent a villa in a part of Mexico not near the stadiums?

In all seriousness, the big meat of my World Cup trip involves going to Seattle for the USA match and hitting up the 2 matches in Vancouver around it. We have the RTBs and booked our AirBNB months ago. More importantly, we are staying 90 minutes north of Seattle in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean. While fan fests are fun, they haven't been amazing for us since Brazil; and the cheaper and easier to confirm housing makes it worth it. We much rather have a house to enjoy. Even in Russia and Qatar we got the apartments because we realized how much time we spend watching the games.

 

seriously. We are totally in a wait and see what happens. As much as I would be annoyed about my effort being scrubbed, it would probably be better for me to have all the touts scrubbed too.

 

Multiple entries should be fine then just switch '1234 Avenue' to '1235 Avenue', etc and you'll be fine.

 

The article is confusing. 3 anonymous spokespeople saying different things. And a manual process to check dupes? Really fifa? But one spokesperson says: “When asked whether unrelated roommates, such as Pira and her friend, were allowed to apply separately, the spokesman confirmed that they can.” How will they determine if they’re unrelated?

 

I do not want to go to Mexico.

 

I imagine they're only going to remove duplicates where the addresses and zip codes have multiple entries before assigning timeslots, a very simple SQL query can do this.
Cross referencing to VISA's database with the card numbers would be a more complicated matter so that's why I'd guess there's no problem with multiple same card entries.
In the spanish rules it clearly states 1 entry per household but it never says anything about one entry per visa card

 

My group of friends has joked that it may be more fun (and cheaper) to just go the opposite way and travel to the countries of the teams we play and watch the matches from there.

 

If you're trying to travel to the US for the 2026 FIFA world cup, then this article might be helpful to you.
https://futbor.com/read/what-visa-d...a-world-cup-usa-visa-requirements-explained/1

 

Accurate householding is complex. First you must standardize the address. 123 W 2nd Ave, and 123 west second avenue are different addresses. I don’t know an SQL query that can match the 2. After you’ve standardized the address you have to determine if the occupants are in the same “household”. 4 roommates in 1 home are 4 separate households. If this is true; fifa is creating a huge mess for themselves.

 

I image their are not going to do anything... and this whole phase is just for marketing, to collect data, understand the demand, to please sponsers (VISA), etc. They will distribute every single entry among different slots, make a few tickets available and before the final draw in December, they will have a new phase and follow the same process used before.

This is FIFA, they only care about one thing: the fan's experience $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I have 30 accounts (so far), with the same address, card and everything.. no harm trying. I will let you if more than one get a slot

 

Sounds like a good idea in theory.
Unless we get an Morocco/Iraq/Serbia sorta draw.
Not really interested in all that.