{"id":622080,"date":"2026-04-22T23:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/622080\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:38:09","slug":"80-of-toronto-fifa-fanfest-tickets-to-now-be-free-following-10-admission-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/622080\/","title":{"rendered":"80% of Toronto FIFA FanFest tickets to now be free, following $10 admission backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The City of Toronto now says it will provide the vast majority of tickets to its 2026 FIFA World Cup fan festival at no cost, changing course from a plan to charge $10 per person for general admission last week.<\/p>\n

The move follows backlash from councillors<\/a> when it was revealed at last Monday’s executive committee that the tickets would come at a cost, after the city had promised in 2025 the festival would be free for Torontonians. <\/p>\n

In a report before city council published Wednesday morning, staff said of the 20,000 tickets available to the festival every day, 15,600 will be no cost general admission and 500 will be no cost dedicated to community groups. <\/p>\n

There is still a plan to sell some tickets, with staff proposing to charge between $100 and $300 for 3,900 premium tickets every day. <\/p>\n

In last Monday’s report, staff said the ticket sales were required so the city wouldn’t go over its hosting budget and to ensure the festival doesn’t become overcrowded.<\/p>\n

But the revised recommendations, made at the request of Mayor Olivia Chow, would “go above and beyond the original $380-million budget.” It says “other third-party” revenues are being pursued to close a remaining $5.1-million funding gap. <\/p>\n

If those third-party revenues, such as sponsorship, can’t be secured, other “savings will be identified” in the overall FIFA budget, the report says. <\/p>\n

WATCH | Staff proposed charging for tickets last week:\"\"<\/p>\n

Toronto wants to charge for FIFA Fan Fest after promising free tickets<\/p>\n

The City of Toronto’s proposal to charge for tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup fan festival has been met with backlash from councillors after it was originally promised to be free. CBC’s Naama Weingarten breaks down what we know.<\/p>\n

Councillors voted to approve the new ticketing prices during this Wednesday council session.<\/p>\n

“I hope councillors will support it so that everyone who wants to come to Fort York, no matter what their income level is, can enjoy the games,” Chow told reporters Wednesday morning. <\/p>\n

FIFA drops last-minute tickets Wednesday<\/p>\n

With exactly 50 days to go to the start of the World Cup, FIFA released last-minute tickets for all 104 games for sale on Wednesday at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, said the international soccer organization, though the website has warned of “extremely high” demand. <\/p>\n

FIFA says there are still opportunities to get tickets throughout the tournament, however.<\/p>\n

“Additional tickets will continue to be released to the public on an ongoing basis up until the final” on July 19, it said. <\/p>\n

Over five million tickets have been sold this year as 48 teams get ready to battle for victory, the organization says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-622080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}