FIFA’s decision to release the latest tranche of World Cup tickets, coinciding with the 50-day countdown mark for the tournament, has left fans more frustrated than excited in advance of the biggest sporting event in the world.
Football’s global governing body announced yet another “last-minute ticket phase” on Wednesday, with tickets for all 104 matches available on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are available in the three previously open categories, as well as the new “front category” pricing it added this month.
Fans have expressed outrage at the exorbitant prices for the matches — the most expensive ticket for the final costs nearly $11,000 — since the first phase of ticket sales in December, and the latest round has left them wondering if FIFA’s “dynamic ticketing” is to be blamed for the pricing and availability of seats at the most sought-after sports event.
Here’s what we know about the ticket prices for the World Cup cohosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States:
Ostensibly, FIFA has plenty of unsold tickets in the bank despite its four previous sales windows, and it wants those tickets to sell out between now and the match days.
The global body has repeatedly claimed that the “cumulative attendance record of 3.5 million” set at the 1994 edition of the World Cup, which was hosted by the US, is on course to be surpassed during this year’s competition, but an unplanned fifth phase of ticket sales seems to suggest otherwise.
The unexpected release has raised questions about FIFA’s ticket sales strategy, as it previously said the April 1 phase was “the fourth and final” one that would remain open until the end of the competition.
However, in a comment to Al Jazeera, a FIFA spokesperson said: “This ticket drop is part of the ongoing last-minute sales phase, which runs until the end of the tournament and allows the general public to purchase tickets via FIFA.com/tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.”
“Along with this set of tickets, additional tickets will continue to be released to the public on an ongoing basis up until the final on Sunday, 19 July (subject to availability),” the spokesperson told Al Jazeera.
The most obvious answer would be that fans are not buying tickets, likely because they are significantly more expensive than promised.
Last month, Football Supporters Europe (FSE) said the North American bid had initially promised that tickets would be available from as little as $21. Instead, the cheapest tickets to go on sale — for $60 — have been limited. These tickets are allocated to a small portion of tournament venues and were introduced in a new pricing tier in December due to the immediate backlash over high pricing.
FIFA has brushed aside suggestions that a lack of interest and “pricing out” are to be blamed for low sales.
“Ticket sales for the FIFA World Cup remain strong with a high degree of interest for all matches,” its spokesperson said.
When the tickets first went on sale, in December, the prices ranged from $140 for category 3 to $8,680 for the final.
It then raised prices to as much as $10,990 when sales reopened on April 1, which is nearly seven times more expensive than the $1,550 maximum price initially laid out when North America bid for the tournament’s hosting rights.
Experts link the pricing to multiple factors, the biggest of which is the allocation of 78 of 104 matches to the US.
“One of the main reasons the World Cup is taking place in the US is because of the revenue-generating opportunities it potentially offers,” Simon Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian sport at the Emlyon Business School in Shanghai, explained to Al Jazeera.
FIFA has tapped into what Chadwick calls a “mature” market, where “consumers have a strong predisposition towards spending on sport, a part of which are the premium price and corporate segments.”
The sporting industry expert believes FIFA has tapped into the “dynamic ticket pricing model”, which has been employed in the US for several years.
“Sports consumers [in the US] are used to the real-time adjustment of ticket prices, which can result in both rises and falls in the price of entrance,” he said.
“When used in conjunction with a premium pricing strategy, dynamic ticketing is very clearly an attempt to revenue harvest, as FIFA seeks to maximise the financial returns from this summer’s tournament,” Chadwick explained.
“The problem is that such an approach may price some fans out of the market, resulting in a crowd that has more affluent socio-demographic features.”
Dynamic ticketing, also known as dynamic pricing, is a sales strategy in which ticket prices are not fixed; rather, they fluctuate in real-time based on demand, supply, and timing.
There has been much criticism of ticket prices, with a group of US lawmakers last month calling on FIFA to lower the cost, saying that the use of dynamic pricing has turned the World Cup into an exclusionary enterprise at the expense of fans, according to the news agency Reuters.
FIFA also says variable pricing is being used, where ticket prices may be adjusted based on a review of demand and availability, rather than dynamic pricing, which automatically modifies ticket prices, Reuters said.
The variable pricing method was used for the opening two phases of sales – Visa Presale Draw and Early Draw. It was not used for the third phase, Random Selection Draw and PMA ticket sales, but is now being utilised again for the last-minute sales phase.
Chadwick, who has written several books on the economy and politics of sport, believes selling out tickets may not be a problem for FIFA.
“In theory, there shouldn’t be any unsold tickets, as the logic of real-time dynamic pricing is that market conditions will necessitate a price reduction resulting in all tickets being sold,” he said.
“However, the reality might actually be somewhat different; markets don’t always operate in such a perfect, predictable way. Indeed, some fans may resent the initial premium-pricing strategy and completely withdraw from the market.
“In this regard, FIFA has rolled the dice on the effectiveness of dynamic ticket pricing, a gamble the organisation may not necessarily win.”
Tickets for the final of the Qatar World Cup in 2022 cost approximately $1,604 for the most expensive seat, which was 46 percent up from $1,100 for the 2018 final in Russia. The nearly $11,000 ticket for this year’s final is an astronomical rise compared with both previous iterations.
The cheapest seats on general sale for international fans to watch Qatar open the 2022 World Cup were $302, up from $220 in Russia. In comparison, FIFA’s December ticket sales priced the June 12 USA opener against Paraguay at $1,120, $1,940, and $2,735.
Despite this being noted as the third-most-expensive match of the tournament, The Athletic reported on Tuesday that ticket sales are lagging for the match in Inglewood, California.
It said a document distributed to local organisers, dated April 10, stated that 40,934 tickets had been bought for the US-Paraguay game, and 50,661 were bought for the Iran-New Zealand contest on April 15.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has defended high ticket prices for this year’s World Cup, saying that the event is the organisation’s only source of income every four years.
He also reiterated that FIFA is a nonprofit organisation that has 211 member nations who are supported through the revenue FIFA generates at tournaments like these.
Fans have taken to social media to vent their frustration at not only the pricing but also the technical issues with FIFA’s official ticketing platform. Prospective buyers said that after queueing for hours, they received an error message or were told tickets were sold out.
Others have accused FIFA of “ruining the sport” for “pricing out lots of genuine fans”.
One user, seemingly based in the US, compared the price of a single World Cup ticket to flying all the way to Europe and watching a Premier League game.
