The prices for the first World Cup game to be played on Canadian soil range from $495 to $2,440 for the four different categories of tickets.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
After a gruelling wait of more than three hours and a heart-stopping series of technical glitches which made her think all hope was lost, Chaun Basile had one word to describe how she felt when her computer browser finally broke through on Wednesday afternoon to the webpage where she could buy tickets to FIFA World Cup matches for next summer: “Euphoric.”
But very quickly another emotion took hold: Anxiety. “You still don’t know how much the tickets are going to be, or if what you’re looking for will even be available,” she said.
All of which meant that, by the time she closed her browser, Basile felt the experience of buying her first World Cup tickets hadn’t been all that different from the wild rollercoaster of emotions of watching an actual World Cup match.
Even so, Basile counted herself among the lucky ones: the few thousand fans, out of about 4.5 million who submitted applications during a 10-day stretch last month, to win the opportunity to buy regularly priced tickets to next summer’s tournament during the first 24-hour timeslot that they were offered to the public on Wednesday. (Tickets with luxury hospitality offerings have been on sale for months.)
FIFA continues to send out e-mails granting more fans access to buy tickets during an additional series of 24-hour slots, in what it is calling a “pre-sale” available only to those who hold a valid Visa card.
City of Toronto unveils first phase of BMO Field upgrades ahead of World Cup
Fans may be taken aback by some of the prices: Tickets for Team Canada’s first game, on June 12 at Toronto’s BMO Field, are on sale for $2,440; $1735; $1,000; and $495 including tax, depending on the section – or, in FIFA’s parlance, “category.”
Seats for that match are priced at a premium because it will mark the first time the Canadian men’s team will play in a World Cup on home soil. Canada’s other two group-stage matches, in Vancouver on June 18 and 24, are currently priced at $665, $495, and $230. (Pricing for the lowest tier, Category 4, was unavailable.)
Even so, Basile, who lives in Pickering, Ont., was happy to splash out for four tickets in the least expensive section, at a total cost of $1,980, for her and her husband and their two sons. “We’re going to be in the nosebleeds for this, at more than double the price of what we paid when we were, like, 10 rows back in a Leafs game,” she noted. “But this is once-in-a-lifetime. It’s not going to happen in Toronto again, right?”
She also picked up a pair of Category 3 tickets to the semi-final in Atlanta, for a total of $1,840 – because why not? “Category 2s were going for $2,500, so it was like – well, since they’re $920 each, I might as well grab a couple of those. Just in case Canada makes it that far,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be wild?”
(And if not – demand for World Cup tickets being what it is, she figures it shouldn’t be too difficult to sell the seats without losing money.)
Canada will host 13 World Cup matches, including the Canadian men’s first World Cup match on home soil on June 12.LARS HAGBERG/Getty Images
While demand for the three Team Canada group stage matches is supercharging prices, those who are just looking to take in some World Cup action in Vancouver or Toronto, and don’t care which team they’re watching, may be pleasantly surprised. Tickets to the group stage match on June 20 in Toronto – whose two teams won’t be determined until the official draw on December 5 – are priced at $625, $470, and $220. (The least expensive, Category 4, was not listed.)
Martin Bautista, a soccer fan who lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, was pleasantly surprised by the prices he saw when he logged on to buy tickets on Wednesday. He was able to pick up Category 4 tickets to one game in Houston for US$60 each, as well as Category 3 tickets to a round-of-16 match in Houston for US$220 each. “Category 3 isn’t the most luxurious seating, but that’s affordable for the common person who wants to go to a knockout game,” he said.
And while he, too, was frustrated by the long wait in the queue, he was impressed by the fact that he was required to enter credentials three times during the process, as well as prove repeatedly to the ticketing system that he was not a robot. “It gives people a chance and prevents scalpers and bots from going in there and messing with the system,” he said. “So, I appreciate that.”
About one million tickets are expected to be sold during the current pre-sale. FIFA is expected to sell about 7.5 million tickets in total for the 104 matches. Registration for the next round of tickets will take place Oct. 27-31, with tickets actually going on sale in mid-November. The next batch after that will go on sale in the middle of December.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Chaun Basile bought four tickets to the June 12 World Cup game for a total cost of $1,752.21. That was the pre-tax cost. The total cost was $1,980.