The World Cup starts tomorrow, and fans and news outlets are complaining that tickets are far too expensive. The England Supporters Travel Club says that following England all the way to the final would cost supporters more than $7,000 (£5,000) in tickets alone. Prices have more than doubled since the last World Cup and the cheapest standard ticket for the final is $4,185 (£3,000). But how much of this is down to Fifa’s greed?
This year's World Cup is jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico across 16 cities. The United States is holding 78 of the matches, while Canada and Mexico have 13 each. When bidding for the tournament, the host nations used existing events as pricing benchmarks: boxing matches, ice hockey tournaments and the Super Bowl. After all, why wouldn’t the World Cup, they argued, be in the same category? The cheapest face-value Super Bowl ticket costs $950 (£700) while the most expensive $8,500 (£6,300). For the World Cup final, the range is $2,030 (£1,500) to $6,370 (£4,700). The audience gap puts this in context: last year's Super Bowl drew around 200 million viewers globally, while the last World Cup final attracted closer to 1.5 billion.
The comparison holds for group-stage matches too. Tickets for a group game in Kansas City are more than double the equivalent prices in Qatar, ranging from $140 (£100) to $410 (£300) depending on seat category. However, when compared with a regular NFL game in the same stadium and the same seats, World Cup tickets are actually slightly cheaper.
