Come on @wixson7, I'd have expected that there would be details already about 2026. Times a ticking. It's only 3.5 years away!
How many of you have the circle membership for USA soccer? How many tickets did they allow to purchase for each World Cup game?
At worst, figured that this one is going to cost a LOT of $ so start now by putting something like $50 per pay (if you can) into a travel account.
im going to rack and save as many miles and points as possible. Bonvoy helped out in Qatar. Having a base camp in LA will be a plus. I can drive to san francisco and stay with family. Leave the car there and fly to the next match. Having friends in Mexico will help as well.
I don’t think it’ll be more expensive than most World Cups, at least for people who already live in North America. You’re saving $1k+ by not having to take an international flight across an ocean to get to the country. In between games you can return to your own home and stay there for free. And there will probably be some non-US matches to go to in your city or nearby, if you’re interested in seeing other matches. The face values for tickets will be higher than recently, but if you plan ahead, you’ll be able to get Cat 3 or 4. Especially if you’re applying for them by city before the draw takes place. Flights could get expensive, but the US has capacity to add more flights and most cities have multiple airports nearby. And a lot of normal domestic summer travel may get put off due to the World Cup, opening some space. Hotels could get expensive if you have to stay at Marriotts or whatever. But there will be people renting out houses, apartments, and rooms on Airbnb at various prices points.
What's everyone's magic number for budgeting? I've been trying to stash away cash each month but I really have no idea what to expect as far as what I should be targeting. Planning to at least go to all the group games. Not sure beyond that.
Hard to know without knowing where the groups will be. What I’m doing is racking up airline miles and Bonvoy hotel points. I’m thinking $200 for group ticket games. $500 for summer flights (each ) $200 for each hotel night. $50 a day in food. Rough estimate of coarse.
Definitely rack up air miles since most airlines allow free cancellation of booked flights giving you flexibility to keep shopping around for cheaper flights.
Getting decent seats at face value as a nobody is going to be difficult. We'll be longing for the days of "upgrading" on the FIFA portal for Qatar 2022. Still can't believe the seats I had for $60-200 apiece to so many games. People here are incredulous when I tell them.
Low prices are normal everywhere else in the world. I fly to london and the cheapest expense is match tickets. My flight is around 500 dollars. But in USA; where people pay $400 to watch an exhibition match; it's another world as far as prices. 2026 may be the least accesible world cup for fans ever. I miss Qatar already.. lol
This is the kicker. I'll probably go for the circle membership when i renew in 2025 but beyond that it's just crossing my fingers. I wish US Soccer would lay out how the priority will work now for their allocation instead of likely waiting until summer 2025.
Upgraded to Presidents Circle last week. Hoping that "assures" access to Copa and WC. But who knows.. all a bit of a racket.
Well I may have wasted my money but my US Soccer Insider renewal was coming up and I upgraded from VIP to Suppoerter's Circle. Figure I'll do this for 2 years and then be dissapointed when seniority is not considered at all for lottery priority.
Just did the same a few months ago from Supporters to Captains after a mild panic attack. I guess we'll see this summer how they handle it given the high priority games and limited allocations.
Gotta say..this is a bit sad. The WCQ buildup was my absolute favor part.. https://www.concacaf.com/news/fifa-...-for-concacaf-fifa-world-cup-2026-qualifiers/
Man... the 12-agon... sort of. 12 teams, 3 groups of 4. All games played in a 3 month span back to back. Sept, Oct, and Nov '25. 6 games to decide who qualifies. Instead of spanning a year, that's 90 days of high anxiety. Oof. I'll definitely want to make some trips down to Central America for that.
Well, assuming a 25% increase in overall ticket prices, then I would expect to pay roughly $5,300 for the USA CAT-1 TST-8 series (which would cost $450 more than others because of the opening game premium). I have to make a guess on the round of 32 pricing, but here is how I am guessing it could break down: Opening Game: $700 Group stage games: $250 (x2) Round of 32: $300 Round of 16: $375 Quarterfinal: $500 Semi-final: $1,100 Final: $1,825 CAT-2 series could be about $3700, if we assume they will be 30% cheaper. CAT-3 series could be about $2125, if we assume they will be about 60% cheaper. In 2010, my CAT-1 finals ticket was $600...
Good breakdown. Just a couple of things… there will be 3 group stage games (12 groups of 4 teams) leading to a Round of 32. And I think $250 for Cat 1 group stage is too low (my guess is Cat 3 will be at least $150).