An empty seat at the Super Bowl or the Masters, where exclusivity is part of the brand, where the price is the point, makes sense. However, an empty seat at the World Cup means something different. This is the tournament that stops wars, where the world unites over a single sport and gives everyone a reason to watch and support.
When over 1,000 seats at BMO Field went unsold during Canada's first-ever World Cup match last week, it was clear that something was severely wrong. The remaining tickets were listed between $1,645 and $2,240 apiece. FIFA simply priced out all the loyal fans who existed, making an all-inclusive sport something of exclusivity.
The defining failure of the 2026 World Cup has a cultural cost and a financial one. But more interestingly, the two are a lot more connected than a lot of people understand.
What Was Promised
When the U.S., Canada, and Mexico won the right to co-host in 2018, the pitch was straightforward. North America had the stadiums, the infrastructure, and the appetite. The original bid promised a maximum ticket price of $1,550 for the final, positioning the tournament as an accessible, high-volume alternative to the gilded excess of Qatar 2022. Come to North America, the bid said, where the game belongs to everyone.
FIFA estimates that the tournament will generate close to $41 billion in economic impact across North America. Goldman Sachs estimated it would add tens of thousands of temporary jobs and lift consumer spending meaningfully across host cities. The U.S. Travel Association called it a golden opportunity to reclaim America's lost share of long-haul international visitors, which has declined 41 percent since 2000. The cultural promise and the financial promise were the same promise: open the doors, let the world in, and everyone benefits. Unfortunately, neither held, and now the U.S. is losing its word and thousands of potential fans who are willing to experience their first match.
What Actually Happened to the Tickets
By April 2026, the cheapest standard ticket to the final had reached $5,785. The most expensive seats hit $10,990 and later tripled. On FIFA's own resale platform in mid-May, the cheapest final ticket was listed at $9,200. For one person to attend a match in each of the eight rounds of the tournament, the likely total cost exceeds $5,225 in tickets alone, before flights, hotels, or the $150 NJ Transit surcharge to get from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium on match days.
Two days before the tournament opened, there were 180,000 unsold tickets. The attorney general of New York and New Jersey launched a formal investigation into allegations that FIFA had artificially inflated prices. Even USMNT star Tim Weah, an American player whose hometown stadium is hosting eight matches, put it plainly: "Football should still be enjoyed by everyone. It is the most popular sport. Lots of real fans will miss matches."
That is not a financial complaint, but more so a cultural one. Weah understands something the people setting prices apparently do not, which is that the World Cup derives its value from the kind of fans it attracts. The Moroccan supporters who turned Qatar 2022 into the most electric tournament in decades were not hedge fund managers. They were people who saved for years, flew across the world, and filled stadiums with something that cannot be manufactured at any price. Empty seats represent the absence of the energy that made the event worth attending in the first place.
FIFA's response was to introduce a $60 "Supporter Entry Tier" for every match, amounting to a few hundred seats in stadiums holding up to 80,000. Infantino defended the pricing the day before the tournament opened, claiming cheaper tickets would have ended up resold on the black market.
The Access Problem on Top of the Price Problem
Pricing alone does not explain the full picture. The fans who could afford to come are also running into walls built by U.S. immigration policy. International travel to the U.S. was already down 9.7 percent year-over-year before the tournament started. Moroccan supporter groups report more than 40 members denied U.S. visas despite holding valid match tickets and hotel reservations. Fans from Iran, Haiti, Senegal, and Ivory Coast face travel bans with no exemptions for ticket holders. For fans in Brazil, the average wait time for a U.S. visa interview now runs between 400 and 700 days. A new $250 Visa Integrity Fee applies on top of that for travelers outside the Visa Waiver Program.
The Moroccan and Brazilian fans who cannot get in are the same fans who made past world cups unforgettable. Supporters stuck in an 18-month visa queue are the people who turn group stage matches into celebrations. It is a different tournament than the one the world was promised, and it is a different economic event than the one host cities budgeted for. The money those fans were going to spend on hotels, restaurants, and retail in Dallas and Miami is redirecting to Mexico City and Monterrey, where the doors are open. This not only hurts U.S. businesses, but also inconveniences the thousands of fans who plan to travel.
Looking Back to 1994
The comparison that keeps surfacing, and keeps landing, is 1994. That tournament set the all-time attendance record at 3.5 million, with game after game filled to capacity. It is still regarded as the model for how to host the event. It helped turn the United States into a soccer country. Kids who watched that tournament grew up to fill MLS stadiums, buy national team jerseys, and make the sport commercially viable in a market that had ignored it for a century.
That is the long-term return on a World Cup done right, which is simply not captured in the $41 billion projection. The 2026 version risks doing the opposite because it's teaching a generation of American fans that the World Cup is a corporate event for people with disposable income, not the global celebration it was supposed to be.
What Is Actually Being Squandered
The United States had a huge opportunity to welcome hundreds of thousands, bigger than any single revenue projection. Hosting the World Cup with full stadiums, accessible tickets, and open doors would have told the world something about America at a moment when America's image abroad is complicated. It would have generated the kind of goodwill and tourism habit that pays dividends for decades. It would have delivered on the financial projections that host cities, hotels, and local businesses built their planning around.
Instead, the U.S. is on track for another decline in international tourism in a year that was supposed to reverse one. FIFA handed the host nations a $41 billion opportunity and then priced the fans out of it. The U.S. government made it structurally difficult for a significant portion of those fans to arrive even if they could afford the tickets. The soul of the World Cup is the reason it is worth $41 billion in the first place. You cannot extract the financial value of the event while systematically destroying cultural conditions that created it.
References:
[1] Sports Illustrated. "World Cup Ticket Price Controversy Continues, Canada's Debut Sees Empty Seats." si.com, June 13, 2026. https://www.si.com/soccer/world-cup-ticket-price-controversy-continues-canada-debut-sees-empty-seats
[2] The Conversation. "The Ticket Price Fiasco for the Men's FIFA World Cup Has Been a Spectacular Own Goal." theconversation.com, June 2026. https://theconversation.com/the-ticket-price-fiasco-for-the-mens-fifa-world-cup-has-been-a-spectacular-own-goal-282532
[3] Time. "Why 2026 World Cup Ticket Prices Are So High." time.com, May 2026. https://time.com/article/2026/05/24/why-2026-world-cup-ticket-prices-are-so-high/
[4] Sports Illustrated. "FIFA's Worst Nightmare Comes True on Day One of 2026 World Cup." si.com, June 2026. https://www.si.com/soccer/fifa-worst-nightmare-comes-true-day-one-2026-world-cup
[5] Sports Illustrated. "USMNT Star Tim Weah Slams Staggering Ticket Prices for 2026 World Cup." si.com, June 2026. https://www.si.com/soccer/usmnt-star-tim-weah-slams-staggering-ticket-prices-for-2026-world-cup
[6] Council on Foreign Relations. "FIFA Promised a World Cup Economic Boom, But U.S. Stands May Be Emptier Than Usual." cfr.org, June 11, 2026. https://www.cfr.org/articles/fifa-promised-a-world-cup-economic-boom-but-u-s-stands-may-be-emptier-than-usual
[7] Al Jazeera. "Which World Cup Teams, Players and Officials Were Denied US Visas, Entry?" aljazeera.com, June 11, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/11/which-world-cup-teams-players-and-officials-were-denied-us-visas-entry
[8] AOL/Independent. "Which World Cup Fans Might Be Blocked from Entering the US?" aol.com, 2026. https://www.aol.com/articles/world-cup-fans-might-blocked-165619431.html
[9] American Immigration Council. "World Cup Immigration Questions Answered: ICE, Visa Denials, and Iran." americanimmigrationcouncil.org, June 2026. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/world-cup-ice-visas-iran
[10] PBS NewsHour. "Fact-Checking Claims About 'Unprecedented' Demand for World Cup Tickets." pbs.org, June 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/fact-checking-claims-about-unprecedented-demand-for-world-cup-tickets
[11] Bladex. "World Cup 2026: Football, Economic Structure, and Economic Impact." bladex.com, June 2026. https://www.bladex.com/en/World_Cup_2026_Football_Economic_Structure_and_Economic_Impact
[12] Yahoo News. "Fears That Trump Reforms Could Keep World Cup 2026 Fans Out of the US." yahoo.com, 2026. https://www.yahoo.com/news/fears-trump-reforms-could-keep-194443879.html
[13] Empty seats were visible during South Korea's 2-1 win over the Czech Republic at the World Cup. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)