World Cup ticket prices explode, and now FIFA is under investigation

FIFA used dynamic pricing at a World Cup for the first time. Final seats reached nearly $33,000 at face value, prices across most matches rose 34%, and New York and New Jersey have subpoenaed FIFA over how the seats were sold.

World Cup tickets were supposed to start at $21. They did not. FIFA used dynamic pricing for the first time at a World Cup, letting prices rise with demand the way airline fares do, and the cost climbed fast, as Time reported.

The final shows how far it went. Face-value seats in the top section for the 19 July final at MetLife Stadium reached around $32,970, roughly triple the previous top price, with resale listings running far higher. By June, FIFA's dynamic model looked to be backfiring, Fortune found, as backlash thinned demand and some prices fell.

It is not only the final. The cheapest tickets, first floated as low as $21, settled nearer $60, and group-stage matches often ran past $200. Investigators found that FIFA raised prices across most of the 104 matches between October and April, by an average of 34% on the three main categories, as CNN reported.

Two states have now stepped in. On 27 May, New York's Letitia James and New Jersey's Jennifer Davenport subpoenaed FIFA over its ticketing, ESPN reported. California's attorney general sent a formal letter. They are examining the high prices, staggered sales that may have inflated demand, and fans who say they were misled about where their seats actually were.

The seating complaints sting most. After sales began, FIFA added new front zones to each category. Some fans who paid premium prices were then assigned seats far from the field or behind the goals. Lawyers are circling, and the probe is also weighing whether FIFA used its monopoly position unfairly.

FIFA has since blinked. After the outcry it introduced a fixed $60 "Supporter Entry Tier" for all 104 matches, with the cheap seats handed to the national federations of the teams playing — a fan who might have paid thousands for the final could now get in for $60, as ESPN reported. The catch: only a few hundred seats per game. Football Supporters Europe dismissed it as "an appeasement tactic".

For fans in Kenya and across Africa, the maths is brutal. Five-figure seats, on top of flights and visas, put the stadium out of reach for almost everyone. Most of the continent will watch this World Cup from home, which is why the free-to-air coverage on KBC matters so much.