World Cup Tickets, Ads Selling at Blistering Pace

The 2022 World Cup isn’t until November, but tickets are quickly becoming scarce.

Organizers have sold 2.45 million tickets for the tournament in Qatar, which kicks off on Nov. 20.

• FIFA plans to sell 3 million tickets in total.
• 520,532 tickets were sold in the sales period from July 5-16 on FIFA’s online platform. The largest sales volume in that period were for group-stage matches.
• Qatar and neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates showed strong interest, as did the U.S., Mexico, the U.K., Argentina, Brazil, and Australia.

The dates for the next sale period will be announced next month.

Ad Sales Hot, Too

Telemundo and parent NBCUniversal have sold around 90% of their ad inventory for the World Cup. The companies hold exclusive U.S. Spanish-language rights for the tournament through 2026. Fox holds U.S. English-language rights.

Peter Lazarus, NBCU’s executive vice president of advertising and partnerships, told Adweek that the company is “pacing way ahead of where we were for 2018.”

Lazarus noted that the shifted schedule of this year’s tournament has proven advantageous in appealing to companies. The World Cup was moved to November to avoid scorching summer temperatures — host city Doha ranged between 90 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit for most of July this year.