Soccer fans now have their first chance to throw their names in the proverbial hat to snag some tickets to the FIFA World Cup next year but it might not be so easy to actually score seats.<\/p>\n
Starting at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Visa cardholders can sign up for a nine-day pre-sale draw for all 104 matches for the 48-team tournament co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S. The FIFA lottery is open to fans all around the world, with this pre-sale to be followed by additional phased releases of tickets.<\/p>\n
A random draw is then held after the pre-sale closes and those selected will be notified by email by Sept. 29 with a dedicated purchasing time slot sometime in the first few weeks of October. <\/p>\n
About one million tickets will be up for grabs in the first draw and fans can buy up to 40 tickets, spread out across 10 matches with a max of four per game. <\/p>\n
Tickets start at US$60 (just shy of C$83) with the \u201cmost exclusive\u201d seats in the World Cup final reaching prices as high as US$6,730 (roughly C$9,300). <\/p>\n
With some tickets potentially costing less than $100, coupled with the fact that the World Cup will take over Canadian fields for the first time, how will this impact the demand?<\/p>\n
Rotman School of Management Associate Professor Richard Powers says while some tickets are going for a \u201cvery reasonable\u201d price, fans may not want to get their hopes up. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t get too excited about that, I suspect tickets are going to go for a lot more once the resale market kicks in,\u201d Powers told CTV News Toronto. \u201cThe other thing they\u2019re doing is they\u2019ve really increased\u2014someone can bid to buy 40 tickets (\u2026) so some people might view this as an opportunity to make some money off of fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ontario\u2019s previous Liberal government had once put forward a law that capped ticket resale prices<\/a> at no more than 50 per cent of the original face value, but the current Progressive Conservatives scrapped the regulations, deeming them \u201cunenforceable.\u201d<\/p>\n This has been taken advantage of by ticket resellers, notably seen during Taylor Swift\u2019s Eras tour, when resale tickets cost at times thousands more than what they initially cost (even prompting calls on the Canadian government<\/a> to assist with better protections for ticket buyers). <\/p>\n FIFA is set to launch its own official resale platform for eligible ticket holders as a means of protecting fans from falling victim to fraudulent resale<\/a>. Its platform will be subject to federal and local regulations, something Powers says is noteworthy, especially because of Canada\u2019s\u2014and the United States\u2014lack of a resale price cap. <\/p>\n \u201cIn Mexico, they have to get face value,\u201d Powers said, due to the country\u2019s resale regulations. <\/p>\n Outside of what could happen with the resale market, FIFA is planning on using dynamic pricing<\/a> for tickets\u2014meaning the cost of tickets will fluctuate depending on the level of demand for each match. <\/p>\n So while some tickets may initially be offered for less than $100, that might not remain the case.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason any seller does dynamic pricing is because they\u2019re trying to optimize their revenue from the event while still making sure that the stadiums are full, that\u2019s sort of the name of the game,\u201d David Soberman, professor of marketing at the University of Toronto\u2019s Rotman School of Management, told CTV News Toronto.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a business and they, of course, have to pay huge amounts of money themselves for the stadiums, for the venues, for all the things associated with putting on the event.\u201d<\/p>\n There has been some competitions in the past where prices have gone down, Powers says, but demand will likely ramp up as soon as fans know what teams are playing when and where.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the group games have been established and everything, that\u2019s when the real interest is going to come about\u2014when we find out who\u2019s actually playing in Canada,\u201d Powers said. <\/p>\n So far, only the general landscape of what sorts of matches will be played at what stadium has been announced, with Toronto slated to have six World Cup <\/a>matches, including a round of 32 game.<\/p>\n The draw for group-stage matches is scheduled to take place on Dec. 5 at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n \u201cI think you\u2019re going to have some kind of segmentation,\u201d Soberman said. \u201cSome people just want to go to a World Cup game, and if it happens to be two countries that they\u2019re not interested in, they don\u2019t care. They just want to go to a World Cup game whereas avid fans will wait until they know.\u201d<\/p>\n In the pre-sale, fans can either apply for tickets based on the venue where they want to view a match or based on the team they want to watch, which includes three group-stage matches for a specific side.<\/p>\n \u2018Taylor Swift plus Oasis and Blue Jays playoffs all in one\u2019<\/p>\n To paint the picture of the level of demand World Cup tickets will likely yield, Powers likened it to trying to nab a ticket for three highly sought-after events.<\/p>\n \u201cThink Taylor Swift plus Oasis and Blue Jays playoffs all in one,\u201d Powers said. \u201cToronto is such a multicultural city, it\u2019ll go crazy, and there\u2019s a limit.\u201d<\/p>\n That limit, Powers says, is being beholden to the number of fans BMO Field can fit in the stands. The venue, called the Toronto Stadium<\/a> for the duration of the World Cup, is expected to have 17,756 extra seats for the tournament, bringing capacity to a total of 45,736. <\/p>\n Even with the boosted capacity, the Toronto Stadium offers the fewest number of seats across all 12 venues hosting FIFA World Cup games. For example, Vancouver Stadium (BC Place) can hold around 54,500 people, while New York\/New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium), where the final match is set to be hosted, has a capacity of 82,500.<\/p>\n \u201cIn (Toronto), we\u2019ve seen what\u2019s happened every FIFA World Cup, the city goes crazy from Little Portugal to Greektown,\u201d Powers said. \u201cHorns blowing, flags waving\u2014if their team wins, it\u2019s amazing. I think these tickets will be a really hot item, particularly in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n