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The commissioner of Major League Soccer, Don Garber, said Fifa has been “smart” about its ticket pricing strategy for this summer’s World Cup, the effect of which has raised prices significantly across all games of the tournament to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada this summer.
Garber made the comments in Miami, where he attended the inaugural fixture at Inter Miami’s Nu Stadium and spoke to reporters before kick-off. Asked by the Guardian whether high prices resulting from Fifa’s dynamic pricing model undermined the domestic league’s efforts to grow the game and attract new fans, Garber reasoned that the cost attached to tickets matched the event’s exclusivity, and said Americans were used to that.
“I think the president of Fifa has been pretty clear to say it’s going to be dozens and dozens of Super Bowls, and nobody seems to have issues with championship events that have ticket pricing that’s appropriate for the exclusivity and nature of that event,” he said. “So Fifa has been smart. They have variable ticket pricing and I’m hoping they’ll be providing access to anybody that wants to buy a ticket. It’s not really for me to comment on pricing. [MLS] has nothing to do with that, it’s Fifa’s decision. But I think it’s going to be a premier event and premier pricing Americans are used to.”
Dynamic pricing, which sees the price of tickets to an event fluctuate based on demand, has grown enough to become fairly common practice for major sporting contest, concerts, and other events in North America. The practice has been found in multiple studies to raise the overall price of tickets for consumers in nearly all instances. Critics of Fifa’s use of dyanmic pricing have called it “price gouging”, US politicians have written to Fifa president Gianni Infantino and supporters groups have expressed outrage.
This weekend, Fifa raised the top price of a World Cup final ticket to $10,900, up from the $8,600 it cost after the finals draw in December. A category three ticket rose to $5,785, from $4,185 in December and $2,790 during the original sale in October. By comparison, the top asking price for a World Cup final ticket in Qatar four years ago was about $1,600. In another break with World Cup tradition, group games at the 2026 tournament are priced not at a flat rate but in line with the popularity of the teams playing.
On Saturday night, Garber said the League was working to capitalize on the tournament to showcase it’s growth with many of MLS’ top names representing their nations – likely including Inter Miami and Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Rodrigo de Paul.
“We’re going to be present during the games,” he added. “We’ve just finalized the last shoot for major advertising campaigns. It’s the first time we’ve ever produced anything like that. We’ll be advertising in the final and semi-finals with some of our biggest stars that we think will resonate around the world. It’s important to us. We’ve got our teams activating in every market. We have fan fests in every market, whether they’re in host communities or not.”
“I think there was a time when we depended on a lot of things happening to move the league forward. That was the success of the men’s national team, or the right building in LA when the Home Depot Center was built. Now the league has got momentum. It’s got its own energy. I’m hope the World Cup will be successful for our men’s national team. I hope they do well, but if they don’t, we’ll have 50, 60 players participating as of, I think, last week. We’ll have a lot of great stories to talk about.”
English (US)