The first phase of ticket sales for next summer’s World Cup will open Wednesday with a 10-day presale lottery that will give applicants the opportunity to purchase up to four tickets apiece for as many as 10 matches.
Two other similar phases, the first running from late October through early December, will be followed by a first-come, first-served phase after the World Cup draw in early December.
FIFA, the tournament organizer, said around a million tickets would likely be available in the first presale phase, one-sixth the total available for the entire tournament.
This World Cup, the second to be played in the U.S., will kick off June 11 in Mexico City and end in East Rutherford, N.J. on July 19. Eight games will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, including the U.S. team’s opener on June 12 and its group-play final 13 days later.
The opponents for those games won’t be determined until the draw, which will be held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
FIFA said prices will start at $60 for some group-stage tickets and climb to $6,730 for the final. That’s four times the regular-ticket maximum price to the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, according to the Athletic.
Hospitality tickets for 2026 games, at costs ranging from $3,500 to $73,200 per person, are already on sale. A FIFA official said in a conference call with reporters last week that world soccer’s governing body expects to make more than $3 billion from hospitality and tickets sales and is confident the tournament will break the all-time World Cup attendance record set in 1994, the last time the competition was held in the U.S.
That 1994 World Cup featured just 24 teams and 52 matches. Next summer’s tournament, which will be co-hosted by Mexico and Canada, will be twice as large, with 48 teams and 104 games.
Prices for many games could change after the draw since FIFA will use variable-pricing metrics, meaning the costs for more-desirable games are likely to increase once matchups, locations and dates and determined.
“What FIFA is doing is adapting to the domestic market,” a FIFA official said in the conference call. “It’s a reality in the U.S. and Canada that events are being priced as per the demand that is coming in for that event.”
FIFA greatly overestimated demand for tickets to last summer’s Club World Cup in the U.S., causing prices to crash and forcing organizers to find creative ways to fill empty seats. Dynamic pricing for the World Cup could help with that.
FIFA said the initial ticket prices will be divided into four categories, with category 1 being the most expensive and category 4 the least expensive.
To enter Wednesday’s opening ticket lottery, fans must have a Visa card and must register their interest by creating a FIFA ID at FIFA.com/tickets. Fans can then sign in to the same site between 8 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, and 8 a.m. Friday, Sept. 19, to enter the draw. After a randomized selection process, successful applicants will be given a date and time to purchase tickets beginning Oct. 1.
FIFA stated the timing of a fan’s entry in the presale draw will not impact the chances of success since the draw is random.
The post How do you buy World Cup tickets? The first presale begins this week appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
