How America Made The World Cup Unaffordable

This chart shows the average cost of category 1 tickets for all the World Cup final matches since 1998. To see the average price for 2026, you have to zoom out and zoom out even more. People are pretty frustrated primarily with FIFA about just how

expensive the 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be. >> Cheapest $7,000. >> FIFA needs to do something about the prices of these tickets. They caught on the trend of let's let me make

money out of this. >> But this chart is just the tip of the iceberg. Flights, hotels, and travel to the stadiums are also expensive. So, there's a lot that a fan has to pay to see even one game.

I crunched the numbers myself and compiled five charts to show just how expensive this year's World Cup is and who's to blame. Before we move to the next chart, let's talk about ticket categories for a sec because they point to a

broader trend that we're seeing with this year's tournament costs. Category 1 tickets are the most expensive. They're usually located along the sidelines or closer to midfield. Category 2 seats are mid-tier, often in corners or in less central sideline sections.

And category 3 seats are cheaper. They're usually high up in the stadium or behind the goals. There's also a fourth category which is the cheapest, but those tickets are mostly reserved.

What's interesting is when you compare how prices have changed for different categories. This chart shows the change over time for category 3 tickets compared with category 1 for group stage matches. The first round of games before the later knockout stage,

which tends to be even more expensive. The increase in costs for this year's category 3 seats wasn't nearly as much as it was for the most expensive ones. >> This represents something that we might call the premiumization of

the sports fan experience. >> That's Ben Shields, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management who researches the business of sports media and entertainment. It is a reflection of this broader trend in premium

fan experiences here in the US and FIFA is capitalizing on that or at least trying to. But on FIFA's resale market, you can find some pretty pricey tickets even in category 3. Let's pull up this game between Colombia and Portugal on

June the 27th. In this category 3 section, you'll find tickets ranging from few thousand to nearly 12,000. And category 3 can reach up to $23,000 for this game.

More on the resale market in a bit because that is a whole other issue. So ticket prices are the highest they've ever been even after adjusting for inflation. But why?

Part of that is supply and demand, right? Next time that it's played here on US soil, we don't know when that's going to be. >> Ben's right. When you look at the supply versus demand, the imbalance

is enormous compared with previous years. >> To receive 500 million ticket requests, half a billion people. >> But FIFA President Janney Infantino said only 7 million tickets were available. By comparison, FIFA received fewer than 100 million ticket requests

for the 2022 tournament. In a statement to Business Insider, FIFA said about 104,000 tickets priced at $60 were made available to fans across the 2026 tournament. Still, demand hasn't been strong everywhere.

In some host cities, resale ticket prices have fallen below $100 as FIFA and sellers struggle to fill less popular matches. That contrast highlights how uneven the demand really is. And even with strong demand for certain matches, it still