Marc Atkins/Getty Images
Most soccer fans are aware that the World Cup is a fairly shameless money grab designed to suck as much cash as possible out of the people rooting for the teams that are taking part. That’s especially true if you want to watch a match unfold in person, and while tickets to the final game boast some outrageous prices, they’re downright reasonable compared to four that have been listed for well north of $2 million each.
Plenty of sports teams, leagues, and organizations have had their reputations tainted by accusations of greed and corruption, and FIFA has really mastered the art of attracting those kinds of allegations over the past few decades.
The governing body has nonetheless been able to maintain its international stranglehold on the sport of soccer thanks in large part to the fact that it’s responsible for organizing the World Cup, which will unfold this summer at stadiums across the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
FIFA has managed to avoid ending up at the center of any major scandals in the immediate lead-up to the tournament that will officially get underway on June 11th. However, it’s still garnered plenty of criticism over the sky-high prices that most fans who want to attend games will be forced to stomach.
The organization not only opted for the “dynamic pricing” model for initial sales but set itself up to reap a tidy profit courtesy of the resale market it’s overseeing, which currently features a handful of tickets that are being offered for a truly unbelievable price.
Four tickets to the World Cup Final are being listed for close to $2.3 million
There’s growing evidence that suggests FIFA may have gotten a bit too greedy with the prices it attempted to charge for some World Cup games in the early stages of the tournament. However, it will almost certainly be able to take advantage of the law of supply and demand when it comes to the later rounds.
We’ll have to wait close to three months to see which teams will earn a spot in the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium (which will officially be known as “New York New Jersey Stadium” during the tournament) on July 23rd, but a sizeable chunk of the 82,500 seats will be filled by people who dropped a minimum of five figures to secure their ticket.
Some of the “cheaper” seats would have “only” run you a few thousand dollars if you were able to scoop them up during the initial sale. However, if you missed out, you’ll have to rely on the official resale platform where FIFA will be charging buyers and sellers a 15% fee whenever tickets change hands.
It doesn’t have any control over the prices that are listed, but the nature of that arrangement means it will be more than happy to see them offloaded for some exorbitant sums, which certainly applies to four seats that are up for grabs as of Thursday afternoon.
Section 124 boasts a view directly behind one of the goals, and most of the tickets currently being resold in that particular area are going for between $16,000 and $46,000 apiece. However, if you want to sit in Seat 33, 34, 35, or 36 in row 45, you will be required to fork over $2,299,998.85 for each one.
Given the lack of zeroes in that number, this does not seem like the kind of situation where someone was trying to sell them for closer to $29,000 and somehow screwed up. There is also nothing that suggests there is anything special about the seats that merits them being 4,900 times pricer than the most expensive seats in the area.
Call me crazy, but I have a feeling nobody is going to meet that asking price.