AO nor Sammers will have tickets. These will all go thru US Soccer's allocation. IF AO is given tickets, it will be for their greatly over-priced travel packages thru their travel partner. Agree with you about USSF. It's likely gonna take the $1000 level to "guarantee" tickets.
The silver lining is that most of that $1000 should be tax-deductible, so it's probably not as bad as it seems.
Maybe not. As I recall, that changed for college football "donations" a few years back.... You are assumed to be getting a benefit (the right to buy tickets). An example from U Oregon. https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/items/a6c1b9ce-bcf3-4025-8ee6-c4cab3608242
I'm no tax expert, but my guess is that's only true if you make enough $$ to itemize your deductions. That's not nearly as common as used to be the case.
Bingo. Unless you're single or originated a big mortgage in the last couple years or give a lot to other charities or needed major surgery that wasn't covered by insurance, you're not getting an incremental benefit.
So kind of the USMNT to have, IDK, a single group match or anything played out of the Cali/Seattle area. FFS, the rest of the nation exists. I hate that our region fails or wimps out of stuff like hosting this time around. I feel like the Haslems would have pushed harder if they knew they were going to end up owning the Crew. Perhaps the bid would have succeeded also if they had owned the team at that time.
So glad I got to go to Germany back in 06. To get the USSF lottery I had to sit at a fax machine all day trying to get a fax through (the old days were awesome) Good luck to everyone trying to make plans. I really hope the local communities do a good job with watch parties.
FWIW, hotels are starting to open up for bookings for next year. I believe Marriott is open thru 6/19/26 dates.
Additional thought for people traveling light and on a budget: hostels are very affordable and a great way to meet fans visiting from other countries.
There will be plenty of hotel rooms for most venues. They're NFL cities--they do this every week in the fall for the same number of people.
Don't say I didn't warn you when you go looking at hotel room prices. But if you want to wait until right before to plan, you be you.
It depends on how far out you want to go from the venue. And often the hotel rooms are booked for packages, that later aren't sold. I've been lucky and gotten rooms at a good price a few days before CFB games when those packages cancel. While not a World Cup, of course, I've done this for years for CFB, and in a city with very limited rooms. And, if I go to Atlanta or Philly, I can always stay with family.
Lol yep. I just finished booking hostels in Vancouver and Mexico City and Marriotts in Seattle and Guadalajara. Need to get one night in Monterrey booked when Marriott opens up additional dates in a couple days and then this part of the process will be done. It's going to end up around $900 per person all-in for essentially two weeks of lodging. Happy with that.
That's a pretty major win. My group is trying to determine travel plans outside of US. Could either see us staying on West Coast journey for all the group stage games (lots between Mexico, LA, SF, Sea, Van) or fly back and forth to East Coast.