As World Cup Resale Ticket Prices Fall, Major Uncertainty Remains

BusinessSportsMoneyAs World Cup Resale Ticket Prices Fall, Major Uncertainty RemainsByIan Nicholas Quillen,Contributor.Follow AuthorMay 19, 2026, 03:00pm EDTLUSAIL CITY, QATAR - DECEMBER 18: Lionel Messi of Argentina lifts the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Winner's Trophy following the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final match between Argentina and France at Lusail Stadium on December 18, 2022 in Lusail City, Qatar. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)Getty ImagesFor much of FIFA’s 2026 World Cup ticket price rollout, there has been skepticism that market demand truly merited FIFA’s unprecedentedly expensive ticket price scheme. In the last month, there are signs those doubts may be warranted.According to the website TicketData, the price of the average resale ticket has fallen 23% in the last 30 days. (This is for games staged in the United States only, not co-host nations Canada and Mexico.)That doesn’t mean tickets are becoming cheap, exactly; the average “get-in price” as of early Tuesday morning came in at $558, and the market has more or less flattened over the last week. Even so, with three weeks until the tournament kicks off and a full two months until the final, it’s the clearest sign yet that FIFA’s pricing approach might not be as fundamentally sound as FIFA president Gianni Infantino has suggested.That shouldn’t be a surprise to longtime observers of American soccer, who have seen fans’ options domestically increase at an exponential pace since the nation previously held the tournament in 1994. You need only look back at the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, in which prices for the final games had to be dramatically reduced and still resulted in half-empty stadiums.But going forward, potential consumers also need to understand that the market will carry enormous unknowns from here through the tournament itself, and may not behave like a typical American sporting event. (In most cases, resale prices drop slightly in the last two weeks before a game, but for the most...