The World Cup is captivating audiences with viewership numbers that have already hit historic heights, but retired soccer legend Gareth Bale says there needs to be a solution so that “normal” fans are not priced out from actually attending games.
Bale, who played most of his career for Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur, expressed excitement for the World Cup in a Monday interview with Front Office Sports about his new sports investment fund. But he said the exorbitant ticket prices are “something that needs to be addressed.”
Although many tickets remain for sale, including directly through FIFA or on resale markets, the price of those tickets just keeps climbing. Each one of the 16 group-stage markets has an average get-in ticket price of more than $300 on the resale market, and most tickets are more than $400 apiece. Resale prices have jumped by 70% over the last two weeks, according to aggregated ticket information from Ticket Data. The cheapest ticket for sale as of Monday morning was $273, for the June 26 match between Egypt and Iran at Lumen Field in Seattle.
“It kind of feels like it’s losing that interaction with fans” who “live and breathe” soccer, Bale said.
“I would love to see everything come back a bit and give that, kind of, normal fan the accessibility to just go and watch their team play,” he added.
