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Anthony Olivieri
Multiple Authors
Parking costs more than $200 in one World Cup city, and it’s not at the stadium. Train fare is four times that of a normal ride in another city. A matchday hotel room can cost nearly $700 in the highest-priced locale. And one fan group accuses FIFA of “extortionate” ticket costs.
The list of hassles, headaches and rising costs seems to keep growing as the World Cup approaches, prompting fans in 11 World Cup host cities around the United States to question whether viewing the games in person is worth the expense. Canada and Mexico also are hosting games, but they appear to have generated far fewer complaints.
FIFA spokesperson Adam Geigerman, in a statement to ESPN, said revenue generated from tickets is reinvested into the “global development of football.” He added: “Unlike the entities behind profit-driven third-party ticket marketplaces, FIFA is a not-for-profit organisation.”
FIFA is forecast to rake in at least $11 billion from the games.
But fans are asking: What, aside from a lot of annoyances, are they getting in return after doling out all that hard-earned cash?
The World Cup “will bring in millions of fans … along with the related economic impact,” FIFA responded in a statement.
For many, the promise of future benefits is overshadowed by a maze of ticketing tiers, multipart transportation directives and head-spinning logistics. Challenges in some places are growing as the matches near — especially as visa delays and U.S. travel restrictions limit some fans’ ability to travel.
More than a million international visitors will arrive in the United States, according to research firm Tourism Economics, for matches that begin June 12 in Inglewood, California, and culminate with the July 19 final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s World Cup task force, told ESPN the matches in the U.S. will be akin to 78 Super Bowls in 39 days. He said the federal government is focused on making them all safe and accessible, citing the hundreds of millions of dollars earmarked to support security and transit ahead of the tournament.
But Giuliani, who lived in New York for most of his life, outlined how a trip from a New York airport to East Rutherford via public transit could be difficult on a normal day, with travelers navigating multiple train lines to cover less than 30 miles.
It’s complicated even for native English-speakers, he said. “It’s very difficult if there’s a language barrier. We’ve spoken to a bunch of the U.S. ambassadors as well as some of the embassies here in D.C. for being able to get that message out beforehand. That way, it can help people in making their plans.”
FANS WHO HOPE to watch Argentina defend its title will have to begin in Kansas City on June 16 before heading more than 500 miles to Arlington, Texas, for a June 22 match. Then they’ll incur five more days of living expenses before Argentina’s next group stage game in Arlington on June 27.
“The travel distances are very long,” said Rodrigo Lipara, a 52-year-old fan from Buenos Aires, who said he won’t attend. “And, when you add stadium prices, food, hotels and everything else, I think it really discourages Argentinians who are not, obviously, upper class.”
Public transit, a staple in large Argentine cities as well as in Europe, could prove far less reliable getting to some remote stadiums.
Thiago Deya, a commercial executive for Somos Argentina, the official travel agency for Argentina’s national team, told ESPN his company will need to secure buses, vans and cars to head to Arrowhead Stadium, which isn’t in a city center.
“That increases costs,” he said.
That doesn’t even account for tickets, which are available in four main categories. In September, FIFA said tickets bought through its website could be had for as low as $60 for the group stage and as high as $6,730 for the final. But FIFA’s dynamic pricing means those prices can change.
The fan group Football Supporters Europe called ticketing a “monumental betrayal” by FIFA for “extortionate” prices. FIFA then released the $60 seats in December during a third ticketing phase when fans could apply for specific matches for the first time. FIFA said then that there were 5 million ticket requests in the first 24 hours of that phase.
But by early April, FIFA added more expensive “front categories,” stoking fan ire about what they’ll get for what they’ve paid.
“The folks in charge of the World Cup,” said Michael Collins, a Scottish fan and director of social justice coalition Play Fair ATL, “they have dollar bills in mind and not people.” He said he will attend his home country’s matches in Foxborough, Massachusetts, despite the cost.
Yvonne David, a Dutch soccer fan and member of the same group, said high prices effectively serve as a barrier to fans based on the money they make. “I refuse to pay so much money,” she said, explaining why she won’t follow her country to Dallas, Houston or Kansas City.
FIFA’s resale marketplace — on which it does not control listing prices but takes a 30% cut — at one point had four tickets listed for $2.3 million for the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The seats are in the 45th row. Someone listed a seat in the third deck’s last row for $138,000 for that game. Some prices were in the four figures for quarterfinal matches in Foxborough, Inglewood, Kansas City and Miami and five figures for the Arlington semifinal.
Fans also will need a place to stay. Average hotel prices for a single matchday, as of late April, varied from lows of $254 a night in San Francisco and $264 a night in Houston to $662 in Boston, according to Lighthouse, which compiles data on hotel rates.
“From the hotels that I’ve talked to, they’re a little surprised that they have not been booking up more,” said Rep. Josh Harder, a San Francisco-area Democrat, “and I think that is largely up to just the tickets being less affordable than people were hoping.”
Overall, hotels have slashed rates since late November, Lighthouse’s data revealed, including a 20% price reduction in New York City. A representative from Lighthouse told ESPN that it’s likely hotel rates were set similar to early December, the city’s busy season, and were adjusted down from there.
THE COST OF GETTING to and from stadiums is another bone of contention for fans and politicians alike. NJ Transit will charge ticket holders $150 roundtrip from New York City’s Penn Station to MetLife Stadium. That trip normally costs $12.90.
“New Jerseyans shouldn’t be stuck with that bill while FIFA makes $11 million in profit,” New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill wrote on X. She explained that the higher price reflected the financial burden New Jersey Transit would have absorb to “carry four times the usual ridership for events at the venue, at a cost of $48 million.”
FIFA took issue with Sherrill’s implication that it should subsidize fan transit. “FIFA is not aware of any other major event previously held at NYNJ Stadium … where organizers were required to pay for fan transportation,” a FIFA statement read.
On Thursday, Sherrill announced a $45 decrease in roundtrip fares. “Understanding how important it is for New Jersey to showcase the state to the world,” the governor asked private sponsors and other sources to contribute and help reduce the tab, said Kris Kolluri, president and chief executive of NJ Transit. Kolluri added: “I am pleased we are able to reduce the price by at least 30% and bring the cost down to $105 per ticket.”
Heimo Schirgi, chief events operations officer of FIFA World Cup 2026, warned that NJ Transit’s pricing would have a “chilling effect,” pushing fans away from public transportation and adding to congestion.
In March, trains ran on time from Boston’s South Station to Foxborough for a friendly between Brazil and France, but riders could increase tenfold for the World Cup, according to local officials. The hourlong trip will cost $80 this summer, four times the cost of the same journey to New England Patriots games. An express bus will cost $95.
Prices are significantly cheaper elsewhere, such as in Philadelphia, Houston and Atlanta — all of which offer round-trip fares of $5 or less.
In Miami, where 600,000 fans are expected, some ticket holders will get free transportation to Hard Rock Stadium. “We know this is a global event happening in the middle of a working community,” said Roger Borges, a Miami-Dade County transportation official. Hard Rock Stadium was the scene of chaos in 2024 when fans mobbed the ticket turnstiles — a warning for World Cup planners of how badly things can go wrong. That helped prompt wider security perimeters and other measures for World Cup matches.
Fans weighing taking their own cars might want to think again. Gillette Stadium will have only 5,000 parking spots for World Cup games, 15,000 fewer than normal. At the Brazil-France match in March, 7,000 fans bottlenecked thanks to overwhelming traffic on local roads, causing them to miss the start of the World Cup dry run, according to Foxborough Police Chief Michael Grace.
There is no general parking at MetLife Stadium. The American Dream Mall, half a mile away, has limited parking for $225, but parking for the final is already sold out. Local officials warned fans not to walk on Interstate 95 to the match.
The price is even worse at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where it can cost as much as $300. All other cities charge three figures for their cheapest spots, except for Atlanta, where a spot costs $99.99.
Fan festivals also have prompted some confusion. Seattle announced in October 2024 that it would welcome as many as 500,000 fans to Seattle Center, a 74-acre outdoor space, before switching to multiple other venues.
New York-New Jersey in February canceled its single event at Jersey City’s Liberty State Park, with the Statue of Liberty in view, in favor of multiple events across the region, including one free event in each of New York’s five boroughs.
Around the world, there are many stories like that of Hazel Stewart, an unofficial spokeswoman for Tartan Army, a boisterous traveling band of Scotland supporters. Stewart said she couldn’t afford to go to France in 1998.
Scotland’s nearly three-decade World Cup drought ended in November with a qualifying win over Denmark. Stewart purchased a ticket package costing $6,000 for three scheduled games (two in Foxborough, one in Miami), squirreling away bonuses from her compliance job at a London investment firm. She estimated it could cost $20,000 to follow her team to the United States.
“How is a working man able to afford that from Scotland?” Stewart asked.
Turned off by the cost of staying in Boston, Stewart and 10,000 fellow fans are planning to descend on nearby Providence, Rhode Island, where they hope to march with bagpipes in the streets. Scottish bands will perform at local pubs. Stewart warned their owners to overstock beer.
The Providence contingent, numbering about 1,000, plans to ride to the first match against Haiti in 21 yellow school buses. The buses will leave at least four hours before the game, using a Rhode Island police escort for the first leg of the journey. Stewart and Tartan Army worked with the city to plan it themselves.
