FIFA says ‘market rates’ explain World Cup prices. Economists say the market was rigged by design

On Monday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood in Central Park to announce a free watch party for 50,000 New Yorkers in the park for the World Cup final. The State of New York is spending $6 million so that residents who cannot afford the most-watched sporting event on earth can at least watch it together on the Great Lawn. “In a moment where sports, experiences, and memories have grown increasingly unattainable for working people,” Mamdani said, “we will make this viewing party 100% free.”

Standing nearby was FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who last month defended the exorbitant costs of the world’s most prestigious sporting event and blamed them on “market rates” that apply in the U.S.

“We have to look at the market—we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates,” Infantino said at the Milken conference.

His comments mirror what some economists have pointed to as driving the World Cup’s pricing crisis, saying it’s a market deliberately designed—by FIFA, with full knowledge of the consequences—to generate revenue at every stage of a fan’s increasingly expensive journey to a seat. By offering the watch party to soccer fans who otherwise should be able to attend in person at a stadium just 20 minutes away, these economists say the governments of New York City and state are patching a hole that FIFA deliberately designed to enlarge.

Those market rates have produced numbers without precedent in World Cup history. Face-value tickets to the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium started at $2,030 and ran to $6,730 for Category 1 seats—but under FIFA’s dynamic pricing model, they didn’t stay there. By early May, FIFA had tripled its best available final tickets to $32,970, up from a previous high of $10,990, on the same day members of Congress pressed the organization for transparency on its pricing. On FIFA’s own resale exchange, final tickets were listed at about $9,000—each transaction generating 30% in combined fees that flow back to FIFA. Four years ago in Qatar, the most expensive seat at the final cost roughly $1,600. Football Supporters Europe estimates that a fan following a single team from its opening match through the final would spend a minimum of $6,900 on tickets alone.

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