Amid reports of lagging sales for this summer’s World Cup, which kicks off in less than 60 days, FIFA announced Tuesday that a new ticket inventory for all 104 matches will be available for purchase beginning Wednesday at 8 a.m. PDT at FIFA.com/tickets.
Tickets will be available across categories one through three in addition to the front-row seat categories, depending on the match. Tickets in this phase will remain on sale through the end of the tournament. Additional tickets will also be released to the public on an ongoing basis through the World Cup final in East Rutherford, N.J., on July 19.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said more than five million tickets have already been sold for what will be the largest World Cup in history, which would break the tournament attendance record of 3.5 million set in 1994, the only other time the games were played in the U.S.
However, Wednesday’s drop, which comes three weeks after what FIFA had said would be the fourth and final phase of ticket sales, follows by a day a report from the Athletic that stated thousands of tickets have not been sold for several high-profile matches, including the U.S. opener with Paraguay at SoFi Stadium.
That story was based in part, the Athletic said, on a document distributed to local organizers earlier this month. It listed 40,934 tickets sold for the June 12 game between the U.S. and Paraguay, about 10,000 fewer than had been purchased for the Iran-New Zealand group-play match at the same stadium.
FIFA lists SoFi’s World Cup capacity at 69,650.
“Ticket sales for the World Cup remain strong with a high degree of interest for all matches,” a FIFA spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Times. “The information cited by The Athletic does not accurately reflect actual sales to date.”
However statement did not say how the numbers were inaccurate.
“Tickets will continue to be made available on a first come first serve basis until the end of the tournament as part of the Last-Minute Sales Phase,” the statement concluded.
When the first batch of World Cup tickets went on sale in October, the U.S. opener was the third-highest-price match in the tournament, behind only the final and one semifinal. Tickets in the top two categories, priced between $1,940 and $2,370, have remained available through subsequent ticket drops, suggesting fans have been deterred by the cost. Tickets also remain available for more than a third of the 72 group-stage games and many of the expensive hospitality packages are unsold.
Last summer’s Club World Cup, played in the U.S. as a dress rehearsal for this year’s event, was also plagued by high costs and slow sales, eventually leading organizers to drastically reduce prices, with some seats falling from nearly $500 to less than $15. Although attendance for the 63-match tournament was nearly 2.5 million, four games drew fewer than 8,500 fans.
The FIFA news release announcing Wednesday’s ticket drop also included a paragraph warning buyers that a match ticket does not guarantee admission to the tournament’s three host countries, the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and urged fans to consult government websites.
The U.S. government has suspended visa issuance for citizens of 39 countries, including World Cup qualifiers Haiti, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Iran. And as of April 2, visitors from 50 countries are being required to post a bond of between $5,000-$15,000 to obtain B1/B2 business or tourism visas, according to the State Department.
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