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How America Made The World Cup Unaffordable
How America Made The World Cup Unaffordable
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Subtitle (306)
0:00
This chart shows the average cost of
0:02
category 1 tickets for all the World Cup
0:05
final matches since 1998.
0:07
To see the average price for 2026, you
0:10
have to zoom out and zoom out even more.
0:15
People are pretty frustrated primarily
0:17
with FIFA about just how expensive the
0:20
2026 World Cup is shaping up to be.
0:23
>> Cheapest $7,000.
0:25
>> FIFA needs to do something about the
0:27
prices of these tickets. They caught on
0:29
the trend of let's let me make money out
0:30
of this.
0:32
>> But this chart is just the tip of the
0:34
iceberg. Flights, hotels, and travel to
0:37
the stadiums are also expensive. So,
0:40
there's a lot that a fan has to pay to
0:41
see even one game. I crunched the
0:43
numbers myself and compiled five charts
0:46
to show just how expensive this year's
0:48
World Cup is and who's to blame. Before
0:52
we move to the next chart, let's talk
0:54
about ticket categories for a sec
0:56
because they point to a broader trend
0:58
that we're seeing with this year's
0:59
tournament costs. Category 1 tickets are
1:02
the most expensive. They're usually
1:04
located along the sidelines or closer to
1:07
midfield. Category 2 seats are mid-tier,
1:10
often in corners or in less central
1:13
sideline sections. And category 3 seats
1:16
are cheaper. They're usually high up in
1:17
the stadium or behind the goals.
1:20
There's also a fourth category which is
1:22
the cheapest, but those tickets are
1:24
mostly reserved. What's interesting is
1:27
when you compare how prices have changed
1:29
for different categories.
1:31
This chart shows the change over time
1:33
for category 3 tickets compared with
1:35
category 1 for group stage matches. The
1:39
first round of games before the later
1:41
knockout stage, which tends to be even
1:43
more expensive.
1:45
The increase in costs for this year's
1:47
category 3 seats wasn't nearly as much
1:50
as it was for the most expensive ones.
1:53
>> This represents something that we might
1:55
call the premiumization of the sports
1:58
fan experience.
1:59
>> That's Ben Shields, a senior lecturer at
2:01
the MIT Sloan School of Management who
2:04
researches the business of sports media
2:05
and entertainment. It is a reflection of
2:08
this broader trend in premium fan
2:12
experiences here in the US and FIFA is
2:16
capitalizing on that or at least trying
2:18
to. But on FIFA's resale market, you can
2:21
find some pretty pricey tickets even in
2:24
category 3.
2:26
Let's pull up this game between Colombia
2:29
and Portugal on June the 27th. In this
2:32
category 3 section, you'll find tickets
2:35
ranging from few thousand to nearly
2:38
12,000.
2:40
And category 3 can reach up to $23,000
2:43
for this game. More on the resale market
2:46
in a bit because that is a whole other
2:48
issue. So ticket prices are the highest
2:52
they've ever been even after adjusting
2:54
for inflation. But why?
2:58
Part of that is supply and demand,
3:00
right? Next time that it's played here
3:03
on US soil, we don't know when that's
3:07
going to be.
3:08
>> Ben's right. When you look at the supply
3:10
versus demand, the imbalance is enormous
3:13
compared with previous years.
3:15
>> To receive 500 million ticket requests,
3:18
half a billion people.
3:20
>> But FIFA President Janney Infantino said
3:22
only 7 million tickets were available.
3:25
By comparison, FIFA received fewer than
3:28
100 million ticket requests for the 2022
3:30
tournament. In a statement to Business
3:33
Insider, FIFA said about 104,000 tickets
3:37
priced at $60 were made available to
3:40
fans across the 2026 tournament. Still,
3:44
demand hasn't been strong everywhere. In
3:47
some host cities, resale ticket prices
3:49
have fallen below $100 as FIFA and
3:52
sellers struggle to fill less popular
3:54
matches. That contrast highlights how
3:57
uneven the demand really is. And even
3:59
with strong demand for certain matches,
4:02
it still doesn't fully explain why some
4:04
tickets have skyrocketed to the
4:06
thousands and tens of thousands of
4:08
dollars. There's something else going on
4:10
here.
4:12
This is the first time that FIFA has
4:14
used dynamic pricing for ticket sales.
4:17
People have been frustrated about
4:18
dynamic pricing for years, whether it's
4:21
for ride hailing apps, concert tickets,
4:23
Disney parks, or online shopping. In
4:26
FIFA's case, it essentially means that
4:29
it could raise prices when it saw that
4:31
demand was high. For example, category 1
4:34
tickets for the final reportedly started
4:36
at around $6,400,
4:39
then jumped to about $8,700,
4:42
and then to around 11,000 in the final
4:44
stage of sales. And for some fans, those
4:47
rising prices completely changed which
4:50
teams they could afford to see.
4:52
Wiihanzing Hai, a 40-year-old football
4:55
fan from a village in northeast India,
4:57
hoped to buy tickets to see England or
4:59
Portugal, but they were out of his price
5:01
range.
5:02
>> The cheapest ticket were like $450 to
5:05
$650. My budget was like $350.
5:09
Beyond that, I could not go. Eventually,
5:11
he gave up on seeing the teams that he
5:13
originally wanted to and focused on what
5:15
he could afford. Two tickets for him and
5:17
his father-in-law to see the Czech
5:19
Republic against South Africa for $140
5:22
each. Wiihon was able to snag his
5:24
tickets through FIFA's lastminute sales
5:26
phase in April. But fans who didn't get
5:29
tickets during any of the previous sales
5:31
stages were pushed into the resale
5:33
market with prices far higher and
5:35
largely unregulated in the United States
5:38
and parts of Canada. For example, if I
5:41
lived in the US and I bought a ticket in
5:42
an early sale for $1,000, there's
5:45
nothing stopping me from turning around
5:47
and reselling it for double. But if I
5:49
lived in Mexico, I couldn't do that. I
5:52
could only exchange my ticket because of
5:54
resale regulations, and any tickets for
5:57
games in Ontario could only be relisted
5:59
for the face value price or lower.
6:03
Seatpic, a ticket aggregator, found in
6:05
April that the average resale ticket in
6:07
any category cost $1,600
6:10
and the average resale tickets for the
6:12
big final game cost 10 times that. FIFA
6:16
told BI that its resale and primary
6:19
marketplaces are aligned with typical
6:21
standards and trends in North American
6:24
sports and entertainment.
6:27
Let's look at the game that I pulled up
6:28
earlier. Say I buy this nearly $3,000
6:32
category 3 resale ticket. FIFA shows
6:35
that the original price was $155.
6:39
And FIFA takes 15% from the seller and
6:42
15% from the buyer in this transaction.
6:45
>> FIFA and and America and everyone is
6:47
just they're giving them that chance to
6:49
take advantage of it and they're
6:50
definitely taking it to to the fullest.
6:52
>> But the ticket itself is only part of
6:55
the cost. I've calculated that a fan can
6:58
still shell out a ton of money beyond
7:00
what they're paying FIFA. That brings us
7:02
to our third chart. Flight prices alone
7:06
can easily dwarf the cost of a ticket.
7:08
And if you bought your flight after the
7:10
start of the Iran war, it's likely
7:12
higher than expected due to rising fuel
7:14
prices. Then there's the cost of your
7:16
accommodation and transportation to the
7:18
stadiums. I calculated that if an
7:21
Argentina fan was to fly from Buenos
7:23
Aries to Dallas with a layover in
7:25
Atlanta to attend a group stage game
7:27
against Jordan, they'd spend about
7:30
$3,361,
7:32
which includes the tickets, the flight,
7:34
and an average three-star downtown
7:36
hotel. I'm a Scotland fan, so I also
7:40
looked up how much it would be to fly
7:42
from Edinburgh to Boston to see the
7:44
team's first game against Haiti. The
7:46
breakdown is similar. The average group
7:49
stage game ticket cost a couple of
7:51
hundred dollars less, but hotels in
7:53
Boston cost more, driving up the total.
7:56
And while we're talking about Boston,
7:58
take a look at this extra bit at the
7:59
end. That represents transportation
8:02
costs. While FIFA is expected to
8:05
generate billions of dollars from the
8:06
tournament, local governments and
8:08
transit operators, not FIFA, are largely
8:11
responsible for covering the additional
8:13
costs of handling the massive influx of
8:15
fans trying to get to and from the
8:17
stadiums.
8:19
Next chart. In Boston, a roundtrip train
8:22
ticket from downtown to Gillette Stadium
8:25
about 20 m away usually costs about $20,
8:28
but during the World Cup, the city is
8:31
charging $80. Similarly, New Jersey
8:34
Transit usually charges $12.90 for a
8:38
roundtrip fair between Penn Station and
8:40
the Metife Stadium. On the day of a
8:42
match, fans will have to cough up $98
8:45
for the same trip. In Florida, the
8:48
Bright Line train is also charging a
8:50
high markup. Because prices have jumped
8:53
so much, fans like Muhammad Faraj are
8:56
finding creative ways to make the World
8:58
Cup more affordable.
9:00
Muhammad, an Iraq supporter living in
9:02
Boston, bought tickets to all three of
9:04
Iraq's group stage games for about $850
9:07
total. He and his friends plan to drive
9:09
the entire route while making Instagram
9:11
and Tik Tok content. After some of their
9:14
past football videos have drawn hundreds
9:16
of thousands of views,
9:18
>> I've been busy just uh just messaging,
9:20
emailing different businesses that want
9:22
to be part of this World Cup journey to
9:24
to sponsor the trip for us. Muhammad
9:26
says he's also been setting aside $200 a
9:29
month since last November to afford it
9:31
all.
9:31
>> I opened a separate bank account where
9:33
every single month I would get paid. I
9:35
money just goes in there just so it
9:37
wouldn't be a big chunk. That's the only
9:39
way that I could have handled it. Now,
9:41
to bring together all the numbers I've
9:42
crunched and the people that we've
9:44
talked to, I broke down what it would
9:46
cost for a fan of last time's winners,
9:48
Argentina, to go to the first three
9:50
matches on a budget. If they flew out of
9:53
Buenos Aries to Houston and then to
9:55
Kansas City for the first match, and
9:58
then flew to Dallas for matches two and
10:00
three, flights and hotels alone would
10:04
cost about $7,000.
10:06
When I looked in May, the cheapest
10:08
tickets I found on the resale market for
10:10
each of those three games would cost
10:12
about $747,
10:15
$835,
10:17
and $862.
10:20
And using public transit in these cities
10:22
would be a combined $33. Not too bad.
10:26
All in all, the Argentina fan would
10:29
shell out around $9,800.
10:33
Just for fun, I also calculated what an
10:36
Argentina fan would spend if they went
10:37
to every game from beginning to end.
10:40
Assuming the team makes it to the final
10:42
like last time, a fan would be looking
10:44
at about $31,250.
10:48
FIFA expects to bring in roughly $13
10:51
billion during this World Cup cycle,
10:54
making 2026 the most lucrative
10:56
tournament in its history.
10:59
There is a tension between sport as an
11:03
institution
11:04
that offers a public good to fans versus
11:10
sport as a business that sells a product
11:15
and experience to fans. In the case of
11:19
the World Cup, I'm sensing a little bit
11:22
of tension
11:23
between these two factors. Meanwhile,
11:26
fans from many countries can't even
11:28
afford a single ticket, let alone the
11:31
travel costs. For Wiihon, whose in-laws
11:34
are covering the cost of flights,
11:36
attending even one match meant putting
11:38
off a major purchase.
11:40
>> Regarding money, my plan was like to buy
11:42
a laptop this year during this time, but
11:46
then uh I have to wait a little bit
11:48
longer.
11:49
>> Wiihon says he earns about 500 rupees a
11:52
day. That's5 or $6 and has been cutting
11:55
back spending ahead of his trip.
11:57
>> We are very very careful with our
11:59
spending here. No more holiday, no more
12:02
buying new things.
12:04
>> Which brings us to my final chart. I
12:08
calculated what the cheapest available
12:10
ticket was for a person to watch their
12:12
country's team as a proportion of the
12:14
country's GDP per capita or essentially
12:18
how much of their country's average
12:19
income would be spent to see the
12:21
national team. In Haiti, for example,
12:24
the cheapest ticket cost 89.2%
12:27
of the average income. Even Brazil and
12:30
Turkey at 7.2% is quite steep. This all
12:34
brings up an important question. Who is
12:37
this year's World Cup really for
How America Made The World Cup Unaffordable - Video học tiếng Anh
