The K-Shaped World Cup and the Rising Cost of Live Tourism

The 2026 World Cup is bigger than ever before. So are its ticket prices.

Top-tier seats at the final are priced at nearly $33,000, up from $1,607 for the most expensive general sale ticket at the 2022 Qatar tournament. One group of U.S. lawmakers called the tournament “the most financially exclusionary and inaccessible to date.” Football Supporters Europe called the prices “uncontrolled” in an 18-page complaint with the European Commission against FIFA.  

“I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest,” President Donald Trump told the New York Post last week, referring to $1,000-plus tickets. 

FIFA has caught flak over ticket sales before. In 1994, the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup, the Chicago Tribune wrote about “irate” ticket buyers who believed they had paid for better seats than they received. Reuters described the average price for the 2022 final as an “eye-watering” $812.

Prices this year have be