Last week, the New York and New Jersey attorneys general announced an investigation into FIFA’s ticketing practices ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
New York’s Letitia James and New Jersey’s Jennifer Davenport said in a Wednesday news release that the probe will look into “a range of issues that have arisen with FIFA’s ticketing process,” citing reports that allege exorbitant ticket costs, fans being misled about the location of their seats, and staggered ticket sales to create inflated demand that allowed FIFA to hike prices.
“New Yorkers have been waiting years for the World Cup to come to their backyard, and they deserve a fair shot at affordable tickets,” James said in a statement.
A chance to view the final match on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey may set fans back nearly $33,000, with seats on the resale market touching $2 million.
How did the World Cup get so expensive?
The 2026 World Cup isn’t just unique because it’s the first to be spread out across 16 cities in three countries. The U.S.—with its 11 cities playing host to 78 of the event’s 104 matches—also has a loose regulatory framework that has allowed FIFA to use dynamic pricing on its ticket sales for the first time.
This pricing model uses an automated system to algorithmically adjust ticket prices based on demand, a common practice across sporting and entertainment events in the U.S. While it may allow some fans to purchase cheap last-minute tickets if there are still empty seats available, dynamic pricing often means more expensive tickets.
Dynamic pricing exploded in sports when the San Francisco Giants pioneered the practice in 2009, leading rest of MLB, the NHL, and NBA to follow a few years later. The Giants used an algorithm created by the company qcue that used 20 variables to determine the cost of some tickets, with a starting range of $7 to $30 that moved in 50 cent-increments depending on demand.
Prices for NFL and MLB tickets rose an average of about 300% between 1991 and 2023, according to the Fan Cost Index. Sports ticket costs rose more than twice as fast as consumer inflation between 2000 and 2019, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Meanwhile, presale tickets for this year’s NBA finals cost $2,000 to $6,000, with resale tickets selling for as much as $85,000.
Now add dynamic pricing to the world’s biggest sports bonanza.
According to an analysis from the Athletic, FIFA’s three primary ticket categories saw an average price increase of 34% from October to April, with the sporting body hiking costs in October, December, and April, each by about 10% to 20%. Those translated to eye-watering average ticket prices ranging from $380 to $4,105 for the event’s early group games and topping $13,000 for the final, leading President Donald Trump to admit, “I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest.”
To be sure, the World Cup has always been an expensive affair, though previous tickets pale in comparison to this year’s prices. In 2022, when the games were hosted in Qatar, the most expensive general sale tickets for the final match were 5,850 Qatari riyals, or $1,607, a 46% increase from the $1,100 price for the equivalent match in 2018. Qatari residents were able to buy tickets for as low as 40 Qatari riyals, or $11, for group stage matches.
But the outcry over 2026 ticket costs isn’t just about sticker shock, according to economists and tourism experts. Five-figure seats—on top of lofty travel costs—risk alienating fans by paving the way for the wealthy to snap up tickets. It’s not just an unfortunate truth for fans being priced out of watching their favorite teams, experts said; it risks making the whole business of the World Cup unsustainable.
“It’s a real concern that you might have a world where stadiums—instead of being full of vibrant and excited fans—are instead full of rich people on their phones taking selfies for their influencer accounts,” Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at the College of the Holy Cross, told Fortune.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has defended steep ticket costs, suggesting the high prices were a result of “market rates” in the U.S., which has a developed entertainment economy, and that Americans are used to shelling out for events.
Still, FIFA made some $60 tickets available for every match of the tournament, after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani secured 1,000 tickets costing $50 each for the city’s residents.
Like Matheson, Florida State University sports management professor Mark DiDonato believes the high cost to attend live sports will lead to a transformation in the industry more broadly, or a “corporatization of the sporting space.”
“You’re getting a lot more of the upper management people who can afford those tickets who are going to be going to the games,” he told Fortune. “And I think we’re going to see a difference in terms of the fans or the environment based upon that.”
FIFA did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The sustainability of sky-high costs
While sky-high ticket prices may exclude fans from attending the World Cup, the free market can work in the other direction too. As of last month, resale ticket costs were already falling. TicketData founder Keith Pagello told NBC News the dropping prices were a result of not enough purchasing activity at the high price point.
In fact, early indications show FIFA may have overestimated the World Cup’s projected $30.5 billion economic windfall. A recent report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association found that of more than 200 hotels across the 11 U.S. host cities, nearly 80% reported bookings tracking below initial forecasts. U.S. hotels have begun to slash room rates to match softer demand.
FIFA has already sold 5 million tickets for the World Cup and will see a return on investment, Matheson predicted, but the success of its pricing model remains to be seen and could present a “long-term concern.”
“Can you really become a beloved sport if the kids aren’t able to get there because their parents can’t afford to take them to a bunch of games? [When] people don’t get a chance to casually go to games and you essentially price out your clientele, eventually that means you don’t have fans at all.”
Then again, he added, that’s what dynamic pricing is for. Prices skyrocket when there’s high demand, but when interest in the games diminishes, prices should drop.
“It wouldn’t be dynamic pricing if FIFA wasn’t taking into account what ultimately happens to ticket sales in the United States the next time they host this event in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco,” Matheson said.
