Please help me understand this. In an ideal world, how much would tickets cost? At low(er than what they are now) price points, would the buyers not still be compelled to resell them on the secondary market at prices that are indicative of supply and demand?
I’m not trying to be obtuse here, I really don’t get this.
I’m confused as to why you’re confused. Is there a world in which prices to a match would be affordable to me (say, no more than $150)?
Yes, there is. It’s not a WC, but standing places in Bundesliga games still start at about €15. The clubs could charge much more, like they do in the Premier League, but they wouldn’t want to alienate the fans, which are the core of the game.
Admirable for them, I guess, but I suppose that means that my view of things is colored by my experience as a US sports fan - viz, the team charges what they think they can get away with, and if it’s too low, the tickets are resold on the resale market.
The difference is that in the US, a sports franchise predominantly is a business, while in the rest of the world, football is a quasi-religion.
There were several criteria when FIFA decided to award the World Cup to a particular country and not another, like the Olympics, btw. And both have turned corrupt. Gradually and relentlessly, for decades. Ah, well!
But one of those criteria was: affordable tickets. That is: the organizing country (three in this case) subsidize the tickets. So normal people, the ones that like the game, can attend. Yes, really! That was the aim.
FIFA and the USA (and Mexico and Canada too, not as motors, but as passive “beneficiaries”, but that is another story) have broken this promise. Prices are suddenly “set” by “the market”.
What does this mean in pratice? That private citizens will no longer be able to afford those tickets, except the very rich ones. Or some crazy guy who is going to mortgage his house for a ticket. Something that not even crazy Frodo will do, go figure.
So who is going to buy the tickets? You won’t believe it! Corporations! And they will hand out the tickets as perks to the management and distinguished clients, and they will gladly pay excessive prices, because they know they will fill the pockets of corrupt people that will reward that indirect corruption. Well, not so indirect, but indirect enough for you not to see it. It will be worth it for them. And tax deductible, so you end up paying for it. Yep: YOU and all other honest contributors.
And you believe that if FIFA sold the tickets for a fair, i.e. reasonable prizes you would
Really? Compelled? Well, people who wanted to attend past WCs did not usually sell their tickets to corporate fat cats, I can tell you that.
With past WCs I mean before Catar and Russia, of course.
Yes, this is an abridged version of a complex story. Important details are missing. Things are always more complicated than they seem at first glance. But if my story is simplified, yours, sorry to say, is naive. Nobody is forcing you to sell your tickets for the match you want to watch to a corporate fat cat that does not really care about the game but just wants to show off and save taxes getting a fat contract from the government whose pockets it just lined in the process.
You know what’s the worst part? I believe you. You are just being a simple US American. Naive, duped, and quite happy about it. They tell you this is the way it is supposed to be and you swallow it hook, line and sinker. And then preach the gospel of the invisible hand to us.
And that is why I will boykott this WC, like I did the last one. I only watched the final. This time I will try not to watch even that. I will get my news from this thread and hope to resist temptation to watch Spain win and Germany lose. And the USA be trashed.
So the European Championship final in Berlin (an expensive world city) in 2024…
tickets available to fans at four price points, starting at a relatively reasonable £76. However, higher category tickets ranged from £253 to £844
That compares to $3,500 – $73,200 for the this year’s world cup final. That’s around 100 times more expensive! Now the European Championship is not as prestigious as the world cup but its not 100 times less prestigious.
Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of my Freedom.
Joking aside, I appreciate your explanation, even if I find it a bit harsh.
It’s meant to be. I am done being polite.
Well if I’ve upset you, I apologize. Was never my intention. For whatever it’s worth, I posted in ignorance and have since had said ignorance fought. Funny how the Dope works like that.
And it is not freedom, sorry, Freedom™, of course, if you can’t afford it.
It’s not you who has upset me, you are just the scapegoat. FIFA, Mafiantino, the President Supreme Ineptstein, those are the ones I am pissed about. You gave me the opportunity to vent. You are a symbol. Please don’t take it personally. You may learn something, though. Like not accepting being duped by conmen and explain it away like it was a good thing.
But: Fuck, Man! I like football. I have watched it all my life. I am stopping now. I have been stopping for five years already. Fuck!
Quasi?
And people will ask “Why is there so much less passion and color in the public now?”.
You give me too much credit, I mostly pay for watching the World Cup in years of life, I haven’t actually went to the stadium more than a few times in my life.
Though I have compatriots/co-religionaries that have been known to sell the family car to go to Qatar a few years ago.
It’s much more important than that 
And now, if you excuse me, I think I should better get away for a while.
If he is a Bayern fan, he will never see that price, so it’s meaningless except for a small group. I say that as someone who’s stalked their resale market for years, but maybe other teams are different? I have also checked St. Pauli many times, but maybe that will change now.
On the subject of people feeling compelled to resell their tickets at a profit, Ontario recently passed a law making such resale illegal, so that tickets can’t be sold for higher than face value. It’s one way to try to address things.
A year before the women’s 2021 Euros (actually played in 2022 due to covid) I and some friends bought tickets to the final for £50 each. We had no idea who would be in the final but we wanted to attend. Well, it turned out brilliantly, with England playing Germany. In the days leading up to the game, tickets on eBay (or whatever) were going for upwards of £500. Did we sell ours? No or course not - we wanted to watch an amazing football match! It’s not all about money. At least, not to (most) fans. Apologies for the rudeness but FIFA can go you-know-what themselves.
Though the example of the last European Championship final which I post above is more meaningful. That is definitely comparable to the world cup final, it’s not as prestigious but it’s probably a good second place (3x the viewers of the Superbowl), and it was in Berlin, an expensive world capital (though unlike this years WC final was actually held in the city itself not in an entirely different state )
And that had a ticket price range of $102 to $1138. Compare that to $3,500 to $73,200 for the world cup final! That’s insane! So to answer @HeyHomie’s question I’d say a reasonable price for a world cup final ticket is no more than 3x the price of the European championship final. And that’s a bit of a stretch IMO (there is a pretty good chance the world cup final will feature two teams that were in the European championship). So somewhere around $300-$3000 for the sticker price of a ticket.
I don’t want to hijack this thread too much, but unless I’m missing something, there’s an easy way around this law: Do It Anyway. I’m looking at StubHub right now and CAN-BIH tickets at BMO Field start at about $900.
I’m reminded of the time I spoke to a guy in the Hospitality Department at St. Louis City SC to ask about hospitality tickets, and he told me a) they aren’t sold to the general public individually, and b) they “police” resale sites for hospitality tickets. He was either lying or he’s shit at his job, because there are plenty such tickets for sale on the secondary market.
Bayern (and Dortmund and Schalke) are exceptions, because they have sold out every home game in years, and it’s very hard to get a ticket if you’re not a club member. But I’m sure the Bayern/Dortmund/Schalke fans in the standing areas, the ultras and hardcore fans, still mostly have season tickets that will be in the ballpark of €15 per game. It’s just very hard to get one of those season tickets. And of course those tickets are personalized, so you can’t resell them.
I mean, that’s my point - you say it’s for the fans, but it’s for a very (very very) small, lucky group of fans, whereas an open market here at least lets me see games. Would I pay $300 or $400 for those Euro15 tickets, just to see them in person once? I would indeed. But it can’t happen.
As for the $3,500 to $73,000 tickets, these have sold? Or is that just listings?
As I said, that only applies to the three or four German clubs that get sold out every week. As a counterexample, me and my parents were visiting my uncle in Berlin in 2005 for a week, and for one of our activities I proposed seeing the Hertha-Leverkusen game at Saturday. So we went into a nearby ticket shop and bought nice sitting places for €15 each, two days before the game. Granted, this was 20 years ago, today these tickets would probaly cost €30, but that’s really still affordable.