Donald Trump has hit out at the price of tickets at this summer’s World Cup. (Image: Getty)
Donald Trump helped bring the 2026 FIFA World Cup to the United States during his first stint in the White House, an accomplishment he takes pride in. However, he is far from pleased after learning the eye-watering ticket prices American supporters will face to watch the US men’s national team in action, and he has suddenly made his true feelings abundantly clear.
In a brief telephone conversation with the New York Post late Wednesday, Trump reacted with evident astonishment upon learning that seats for the United States’ opening group fixture against Paraguay on June 12 in Los Angeles were beginning at approximately $1,000 (£734.44).
“I did not know that number,” Trump, who hopes to see Italy replace Iran at the World Cup, said. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”
He indicated his administration might examine the matter more closely, voicing particular alarm that the costs were shutting out the working-class supporters who form his core political constituency.
“If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed,” he said. “I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me to be able to go.”
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He fell short of announcing any concrete intervention, recognising the tournament’s commercial triumph in the same moment. “I know that is extremely successful. Setting every record in the book. They’ve never had anything like it.”
Donald Trump has been speaking about tickets prices at the World Cup this summer. (Image: Getty)
The average price of a ticket to the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19 stands at nearly $13,000 (£9,548), compared to roughly $1,600 (£1,175) for the 2022 World Cup final. One resale listing on FIFA’s own secondary marketplace was positioned at $2,299,998.85 (£1.67m).
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, even joked about the latter figure, pledging to personally deliver “a hot dog and a Coke” to any fan who paid it. He justified the wider pricing model by highlighting the scale of demand.
“We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates,” Infantino said. “In the US, it is permitted to resell tickets as well, so if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.”
Independent market data challenges that argument. Gilad Zilberman, CEO of secondary market comparison site SeatPick, told Deutsche Welle that at the end of April, 72 per cent of matches where comparable data was available showed secondary market tickets emerging cheaper than FIFA’s own prices.
“I think prices will drop. That’s my gut feeling. I think FIFA is struggling,” he said.
He characterised dynamic pricing as beyond FIFA’s area of expertise, saying the organisation gets “stuck with a lot of tickets” as a result. The hotel sector data reinforces the impression of a tournament that has shifted tickets in substantial volumes but has failed to deliver the expected influx of overseas visitors.
A report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association revealed that almost 80 per cent of hotels across the 11 US host cities were performing beneath initial World Cup forecasts.
In Kansas City, between 85 and 90 per cent of operators indicated demand falling short of even a standard June or July period without a major event. Visa complications, elevated airfares and geopolitical anxieties have deterred international travellers, leaving domestic supporters, who can afford to hold out for price reductions, as the main audience.