Sports fans have always been a sucker market. Year after year, they validate the innocuously named dynamic pricing model by paying thousands of euro for event tickets alongside suddenly inflated charges for flights, hotels, food of often questionable quality and local transport simply to follow a team or say they were “there” for a particular event.
But is there a limit to what they are prepared to pay? We may be about to find out.
For the World Cup, which kicks off today in Mexico, Fifa chose to price tickets well above the level of previous tournaments, citing local market conditions – shorthand for “that’s what US fans tolerate”.
But in the days before the tournament opened, almost 180,000 tickets were reported still to be available on official resale platforms for the opening group phase of games. Prices on those platforms have fallen by about 20 per cent in recent weeks and with Fifa charging a chunky resale fee, anyone selling those tickets is almost certainly losing money.
READ MORE
On top of that, Fifa has about 15,000 tickets available for group stage games. Quite clearly, the anticipated surge in demand for tickets has not materialised.
The American Hotels and Lodging Association said in a report last month that “anticipated demand has not translated into strong hotel bookings”. A survey of members found that 80 per cent were experiencing bookings below initial forecasts, with many blaming visa barriers and broader geopolitical concerns.
Fan groups estimate the cost of following a team at this summer’s World Cup will be five times higher than four years ago, the Financial Times reports. Prices for the World Cup final in New Jersey start at $4,185 (€3,621), rising to $5,575 for “standard” seats and $8,680 for “premium”.
For its part, Fifa has said it expects to raise over $3 billion from ticket and hospitality sales during the tournament, more than three times higher than in Qatar in 2022. Supporters of the 48 teams and those simply looking for the “World Cup experience” may yet have something to say about that.
Fans always complain about price gouging but, until now, they have swallowed hard and paid anyway. Fifa is about to find out whether it has tested that loyalty once too often.
