Ticket Prices Plunge for World Cup Knockout Matches

The great World Cup ticket price drop has finally arrived, though not exactly when or how anyone expected.

World Cup ticket prices are falling on secondary resale markets for knockout rounds, according to resale market tracking site TicketData.

In the past week, the average get-in price for round-of-32 matches fell 39% from $2,040 to $1,245, according to figures TicketData provided to Front Office Sports on Monday morning.

There was a widespread belief—or perhaps hope—among ticketing experts and fans that FIFA’s aggressive prices would drop ahead of the group stage. Instead, those costs did not fall on FIFA’s own website. On secondary markets, they increased in the lead-up to the tournament, then continued to climb as matches got underway. Now, prices are falling as the field is pared down and the tournament begins its most consequential matches.

The round of 32 began with Canada’s 1–0 win over South Africa on Sunday, and continues with three matches per day from Monday through Friday.

Some individual round-of-32 matches have fallen precipitously, according to TicketData’s website. The get-in resale price for Monday’s match between Germany and Paraguay in Boston fell 68% over the past seven days to $466, while Wednesday’s Belgium-Senegal game dropped the same percentage to $421. The biggest changes in the past week are Switzerland-Algeria in Vancouver, which fell 72% to $443, and England against the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Atlanta, which fell 69% to $598.

Only one match has barely budged. Mexico-Ecuador on Tuesday in Mexico City has fallen only 1% to $2,849 over the past week.

According to the figures provided to FOS, in the past seven days, the average get-in prices fell:

• 26% for all knockout matches, from $2,930 to $2,165
  
• 28% for the round of 16, from $2,895 to $2,080
  
• 19% for the quarterfinals, from $3,660 to $2,970
  
• 16% for the semifinals, from $4,705 to $3,960 

The trend really started only in the past week, according to TicketData. When looking at data from the past 14 days, prices for the round of 32 are only down 14%, and further rounds are more expensive than they were two weeks ago, per TicketData.

In other words, the prices shot up during the tournament but have fallen sharply in the past week.

Several factors might be driving the fall. The main one is the increasing uncertainty for international travelers. Many fans over the past weeks told FOS they were following their team through only the group stage or the round of 32 before they would go back home.

FIFA released a small batch of tickets on its own primary resale site early in the morning on Friday, Sunday, and Monday. The batches were only about a few thousand tickets at a time, hitting around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. ET.