With 36 days until the World Cup kicks off in the United States, Mexico and Canada, fans are outraged at FIFA’s decision to continue the slow roll of ticket sales leading up to the tournament’s start.
The organizer for the tournament is set to drop yet another limited release of tickets to multiple matches on Thursday, despite previously announcing sell-outs and ‘last chances’ for purchases in the past.
FIFA maintains that the roll out in these limited ticket releases is in response to high demand, despite a recent poll indicating that the desire to purchase tickets is falling among American soccer fans.
A recent poll conducted by Seton Hall University found that interest in purchasing tickets has declined over the past six months.
The study found that interest among those who identify themselves as soccer fans has fallen from 40 percent in October to 30 percent in April.
Interest from self-described sports fans fell from 21 percent to 16 percent, while ‘avid sports fans’ also saw a drop in willingness from 33 percent to 25 percent.
Fans are outraged after FIFA announced another wave of limited ticket sales for the World Cup
FIFA has employed the strategy despite a recent poll indicating that demand is declining
It’s unclear if there’s one particular reason for this falling demand, but the difficult purchase process combined with outrageously high prices for group stage matches has begun to turn fans away from attending.
The frustration of this was reflected in the comments section underneath the post on X made by FIFA announcing the additional tickets up for sale.
‘Having trouble selling them because your greedy a**es priced too many fans out?’ wrote one user on the platform.
Another said, ‘LOL we know you’re withholding a ton of inventory to call it “limited”. Will get tickets a week out when they’re 75% off. You overestimated the market.’
‘Maybe if you priced the tickets at a reasonable price you would’ve sold out by now instead of doing this dumb ass rollout. Stop pricing out real fans,’ raged another user.
One fan remarked, ‘I’m so tired of this. Wait all day only to find single tickets that cost more than my mortgage payment.’
‘Release of tickets for the fans who actually care has been a disaster,’ read a different comment.
One user advised, ‘I encourage all of you to just wait it out at this point. They’re desperate, as are the scalpers who bought up a majority of tickets.’
FIFA has been criticized by fans for this strategy of ticket sales with about one month to go
It comes after reports indicate lower ticket sales for the USMNT’s home opener in Los Angeles
This new batch of ticket sales comes weeks after a report from The Athletic revealed that the United States’ men’s national team home opener in Los Angeles is being significantly under-sold.
A document from April 10 distributed to local organizers revealed that only 40,934 tickets to United States-Paraguay had been sold, which is significantly lower than the capacity at SoFi Stadium of 69,650.
Category 1 tickets for that match are being sold for $2,730, Category 2 runs fans $1,940 per ticket and the majority upper-bowl Category 3 tickets run an inexplicable $1,120. There’s no indication that the federation will drop those figures any time soon.
Adding insult to injury, there are multiple matches being held at the same venue which are out-selling the USMNT’s home opener.
This includes Iran-New Zealand, which sold nearly 10,000 more tickets at the time of the report.
