FIFA President Gianni Infantino will earn soccer's governing body upward of $11-billion with this year's World Cup. Meanwhile, costs for hosting matches in Toronto and Vancouver have ballooned from their initial projections.KENT NISHIMURA/AFP/Getty Images
Other than the war in Iran that FIFA Peace Prize recipient Donald Trump started, backlash over skyrocketing ticket prices, pushback from host cities over exorbitant costs and tourism officials having to drastically scale back imagined revenue projections, the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup couldn’t be going better.
Of course, many large-scale sporting events always sound better in the abstract. And few sell that abstract, that promise of what can be, better than FIFA. That’s why countries around the world end up offering football’s governing body a blank cheque for the “privilege” of being part of it all.
But then, like people waking up in strange surroundings after a night of heavy partying, they wonder what the hell they’ve done.
Vancouver, for instance, is saying it will have the largest police presence it’s ever known for the seven matches it’s hosting in June and July. Last year, the security cost was estimated to be $345-million. I will eat my soccer cleats if the final invoice isn’t at least a hundred million higher. And then the fight will begin over who pays what.
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A recent investigative piece by Radio-Canada revealed the onerous restrictions FIFA places on wannabe host cities. Montreal, for instance, was interested in joining the fun this summer but bailed after seeing how ridiculous FIFA’s demands were. They included a “sporting blackout” period in the lead-up to the World Cup, which would have compromised the city’s huge Grand Prix week.
Toronto seems to be having some buyer’s regret. Initially in favour of bringing the iconic soccer festival to the city, councillor Josh Matlow now thinks it’s a terrible idea. “It was a horrible deal for our citizens,” he told CBC. He said the city was presented with a plan in 2018 indicating the cost to host six games in Toronto would be up to $45-million. Now the estimated price tag is $380-million. And it will surely be far more by the time all receipts are accounted for.
“We gave them a blank cheque,” Matlow said. “It’s the worst agreement I’ve ever seen.”
Initially, Vancouverites were told the cost to host seven games would be $240-million. That has now climbed to $624-million. Is a final bill closer to $1-billion out of the question? Surely not.
Some politicians in the U.S. host cities are starting to realize just how much of a financial hit they’ve taken on and are fighting back.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, trying to alleviate a steep bill to transport World Cup fans to and from MetLife Stadium, is imposing event pricing for the 30-minute train ride from Penn Station in New York.Seth Wenig/The Associated Press
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill says she inherited an agreement with FIFA that provided no money for transportation costs, which she estimates to be about US$48-million to get people safely to and from games at MetLife Stadium. As to not stick New Jersey commuters with that tab, she’s imposing event pricing for the 30-minute train ride from Penn Station in New York to the stadium. That round-trip will be US$150 – almost six times the normal US$26.
A headline in the Wall Street Journal said it all: “The $150 Train to a $2,000 Seat: The World Cup of Price Shock.”
Yes, those ticket costs have also been getting lots of attention. FIFA has adopted “dynamic pricing” for this World Cup, which effectively means it sets prices at what it believes the consumer will ultimately be prepared to pay, rather than what might be fair. So in the U.S. that means top tickets for US$2,730 for the American opener at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. The second-tier seats go for US$1,940 and the bottom tier is US$1,126.
Some people literally aren’t buying that.
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As of April 10, according to The Athletic, there were upward of 28,716 seats still available for that U.S. opener against Paraguay on June 12. FIFA surely expected that to have sold out by now.
The Financial Times reported last week that some host cities are having to slash hotel prices due to a lack of demand. Some of that is surely cost-related, some of it undoubtedly Trump-related. He’s made his country a global pariah. His war in Iran has helped ignite inflation and boost travel costs around the world.
Many Europeans who may have been inclined to make the trans-Atlantic trip to take in a game or two in the U.S. are surely taking a hard pass now. Tourism officials like those in Seattle say they have slashed revenue estimates for hosting the World Cup by 10 per cent. It could end up being worse.
But of course, we know how this story ends. The games will go on, FIFA will make its US$11-billion and host cities will try and justify the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars they spent to host a party for the wealthy.
Some will say never again. But that’s what they always say.