Tickets to World Cup matches have been on sale since March, with initial demand as strong as you might expect. Two-thirds of the 3.2 million tickets to the 64 matches have reportedly been sold.
But on Wednesday, soccer’s governing body FIFA opened up a big block of 180,000 tickets for general sale online, saying “there will be tickets for all 64 matches” in the latest (and last?) round of official ticket sales.
FIFA appears to be selling into a buyers market however, with numerous reports suggesting ticket prices on secondary services like online vendor Viagogo “collapsing” well below face value.
Tickets at venues in northern Brazil in particular have fallen steeply in price as concerns weigh about the readiness of some of the stadiums still currently under construction.
Tickets can be bought on Viagogo and other online vendors for between $10 and $20, or 80 to 90 per cent off face value.
“Some of the ticket prices have been directly related to the confidence in the infrastructure,” Oliver Wheeler, a spokesman in London for Geneva-based ticket exchange Viagogo, told the Sydney Morning Herald last week.
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The current round of tickets appear aimed at international fans, with more than two million tickets across all matches held by domestic Brazilian fans already.
“We take this opportunity to remind fans that the additional ticket collection points at airports and further locations in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are only for tickets that were already purchased online,” a release from FIFA said. “It is not possible for fans to purchase tickets there.”
WATCH: FIFA opens ticket pick-up kiosks at Brazilian airports. While there’s deals to be had on tickets, don’t expect them there.
Still, average ticket prices are still pretty steep, with the minimum a person must pay to watch the United States in group action still above $100. A trip to the World Cup final, meanwhile, will still set you back $5,000 minimum.
If you’re still on the fence, you can “apply” for some of the new tickets up for sale here.
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