If you’ve been refreshing FIFA’s ticket portal hoping for a miracle, Friday was your day. Just don’t look at the price tag before you sit down.
FIFA unexpectedly released nearly 1,200 tickets for the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The catch? They’re not exactly bargain-bin seats. Category 2 tickets in the upper deck along the sidelines were listed at $7,380 each. That’s for a seat in the nosebleeds, folks.
The breakdown is pretty specific. There were 282 seats in section 344, another 299 in section 343, 139 in section 335, 443 in section 334, and just 15 in section 333. All told, 1,178 tickets in that price range went up for sale on a site that had previously told fans the game was sold out.
For anyone with a few extra grand burning a hole in their pocket, FIFA also offered 68 front Category 1 tickets in the lower deck. Those ranged from $19,995 all the way up to $32,970. And if you want the full VIP treatment, hospitality packages in the Trophy Lounge and Trophy Lounge+ sections were going for $34,500 and $32,500 respectively. Food and drinks included, presumably.
FIFA didn’t immediately explain why these tickets suddenly appeared. The governing body didn’t respond to requests for comment about the late drop.
Resale Market Is Even Wilder
If you think those prices are steep, check the resale market. On FIFA’s official marketplace, tickets from other sellers were listed from $7,440.50 to a staggering $11,499,998.85. Yes, that’s nearly $11.5 million for a pair of seats. Somebody out there is either optimistic or testing the limits of human greed.
The Road to the Final
Meanwhile, the tournament keeps rolling. France punched their ticket to the semifinals Thursday by beating Morocco 2-0 in Boston. Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele did the damage, sending the 2018 champions through. They’ll face either Spain or Belgium next Tuesday.
On the other side of the bracket, England gets Erling Haaland’s Norway on Saturday in Miami. That one’s for a spot in the final four. And Lionel Messi’s Argentina takes on Switzerland in the last quarterfinal. Argentina’s still in the running to defend their title, but they’ve looked shaky. They needed extra time to get past Cape Verde in the Round of 32 and came from two goals down to beat Egypt in the last 16.
Quarterfinal tickets for that Argentina-Switzerland game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City were on sale too, ranging from $1,600 to $3,995. Which sounds almost reasonable compared to that $11.5 million resale listing.
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