FIFA World Cup 2026 ticket sales hit with long delays, $11,000 price tags

HOUSTON - Soccer fans across Texas are facing a digital endurance test this week as the final "last-minute" ticket sales phase for FIFA World Cup 2026 officially opened to the general public.

While the tournament is on track to shatter the all-time attendance record of 3.5 million set in 1994, the experience for local fans has been marked by eight-hour wait times, website crashes, and "dynamic pricing" that has pushed some tickets for the final to nearly $11,000.

How one fan finally secured tickets

Local perspective:

For Andrew Villareal, a lifelong Houston soccer fan, the process was a months-long saga of lotteries and digital queues. After being passed over in four previous draws, he finally secured tickets on Wednesday, but only after a two-hour wait and a change in strategy.

"Two hours in the queue... were you ever losing hope? Were you thinking am I ever getting these tickets?" Villareal said. "I looked up the U.S. games... it came in at like $2,700 for a single ticket. Eh, I’m not gonna do that."

Villareal eventually found success by looking for single-seat options in Dallas rather than high-demand group seating in Houston. He managed to secure seats for Japan vs. Netherlands and Sweden vs. Japan for $220 each.

"I’m only going to two... Japan and Netherlands, and that’s a single seat," Villareal said. "Total, yeah, solo, totally fine with 220... I can’t beat that."

"It’s absolutely not fair"

By the numbers:

However, many others are finding themselves priced out of the 104-match tournament. Emily DiVito, Senior Advisor for Economic Policy at Groundwork Collaborative, argues that the current ticketing model favors "maximum extraction" over the average fan.

"It’s absolutely not fair, nor is it a supply and demand sort of end result," DiVito said. "It is the result of a lot of price gouging and using tech-enabled pricing tactics to demand the highest price every buyer is willing to pay. And it's harming families, it is hurting fans, and it will inevitably hurt the local communities who are hosting these teams."

DiVito noted that while FIFA previously promised $60 tickets to keep the games accessible, those seats represent only about 1% to 2% of total inventory and have largely "disappeared" into lotteries. In Houston, which is hosting seven matches at NRG Stadium, the downstream costs are also climbing, with parking expected to hit $200 per night.

"Most fans, if you're interested in going, are going to have to pay hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars for a ticket," DiVito said. "It is a real shame and I think it is failure on FIFA’s part."

Reinvesting revenue

The other side:

FIFA, a not-for-profit organization, maintains that it reinvests tournament revenue back into the growth of soccer globally. The organization also reopened its official Resale and Exchange Marketplace on Thursday, which it describes as a "secure and authorized" environment to protect fans from fraud.

Officials remind fans that FIFA.com/tickets is the only official source for seats and that additional tickets will continue to be released on a rolling basis, including same-day tickets for some matches, right up until the end of the competition on July 19.