Last week, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) joined 69 other Members of Congress led by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) in urging the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to reduce the cost of tickets for the 2026 World Cup, which have soared in part due to the use of dynamic pricing.
The full letter, sent to FIFA President Gianni Infantino, can be found here or below:
As the United States prepares to welcome international visitors for the rapidly approaching 2026 FIFA World Cup (FWC), we write with great concern regarding the decisions made by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) that have led to rising costs for fans and host cities. Both American fans and international visitors should have access to tickets at affordable prices. The extreme high demand for World Cup tickets should not be a green light for price gouging at the expense of the people who make the World Cup the most-watched sporting event in the world.
When the tri-nation model for the 2026 World Cup was announced and confirmed in 2018, FIFA emphasized an inclusive tournament experience, including the availability of hundreds of thousands of low-cost tickets, some projected at approximately $21, to allow fans to follow their teams across all host cities in North America. That vision of an accessible, global celebration, welcoming 48 national teams and their supporters from every corner of the world, has been undermined by a dynamic priced ticketing model that is financially exclusionary and stands in stark contrast to the vision presented. This pricing structure has made tickets for all stages of FWC games unaffordable for many fans who have already confirmed travel for this monumental international sporting event.
It is our understanding that in response to widespread international opposition to the extremely high prices of World Cup tickets, FIFA made a limited number available to national football federations for independent distribution at approximately $60 each. However, these tickets represent only 1-2 percent of the total tickets available for the 2026 FWC, and only a few hundred will be available per game. Beyond this small portion of affordable tickets, the overwhelming majority of fans traveling from across the globe will only have access to substantially inflated ticket prices through a limited lottery system and resale platforms. Current pricing indicates that the least expensive group-stage tickets average over $200, while the lowest-priced tickets for the final match exceed $4,000.
The employment of dynamic ticket pricing for the 2026 FWC starkly contrasts with FIFA’s core mission to promote the accessible and inclusive promotion and development of soccer globally. This widely-criticized decision to abandon the traditional static pricing model prioritizes revenue maximization over accessibility for fans and host community residents. Despite host cities’ cooperation in bringing the vision of the largest, most global World Cup in history to fruition, the consequences of dynamic pricing will make the 2026 FWC the most financially exclusionary and inaccessible to date.
The use of dynamic pricing on FIFA-operated ticketing and resale platforms allows FIFA to capture inflated revenues while placing the burden on fans and host-city residents, many of whom are already contributing to the tournament through state and local level public funding for security, transportation, and infrastructure. In the United States, taxpayers at the federal, state, and local levels are bearing substantial costs to host the World Cup. Although Congress has appropriated approximately $625 million to reimburse local law enforcement expenditures, local governments have had to garner additional funding of up to $150 million per city for infrastructure improvements, transportation, and security preparations.
The high cost of hosting these games, without FIFA’s financial support, has forced some cities to scale back or privatize the acclaimed fan festivals. Fan festivals have historically ensured that World Cups are affordable for visitors and residents alike to participate in the World Cup celebrations, serving as a partial alleviation to the negative consequences of unaffordable tickets on the fan experience. Without public access to these celebrations, the affordability of World Cup tickets becomes even more pertinent. However, Host Committees are collectively $250 million short of needed funding due to FIFA’s commercial contracts that restrict their cities’ ability to accept additional local sponsorship. These funding constraints have created significant obstacles for host cities to host public fan events.7 As a result, for the first time in World Cup history, certain cities are taking unprecedented measures,8 such as charging admission for fan festivals or reducing them due to difficulty attracting visitors.
Taken together, these financial challenges reveal a structural imbalance in the FWC 2026 model that contradicts the core principles of the largest international sporting event in the world: FIFA maintains control over the tournament’s most lucrative revenue streams, while host cities and their residents are left to shoulder the substantial costs of accommodating millions of visitors, often without meaningful access to the matches themselves.
With the 2026 tournament looming, we urgently request that FIFA review and reconsider the tournament policies that have created insurmountable challenges to fans and host cities, and provide answers to the following questions:
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Will FIFA redistribute the unallocated bands of tickets to be dedicated to affordable tickets for fans?
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What measures will FIFA take to ensure that tickets remain affordable as teams advance in the tournament, particularly given that many later-round tickets have already been sold at dynamically- inflated prices?
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Will FIFA commit to returning to a static pricing model in future tournaments in light of the accessibility concerns raised by the 2026 World Cup?
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Will FIFA implement changes to support host cities with fan festivals, or adjust sponsorship limitations so host city committees can fundraise and host public tournament events for fans unable to attend the actual games?
We appreciate your prompt attention to these issues and look forward to your response. We urge FIFA to take immediate corrective action to address the harms caused by its use of dynamic pricing, which has transformed the world’s largest sporting event into an exclusionary, profit-driven enterprise at the direct expense of fans, host communities, and public taxpayers.
Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.
