{"id":343096,"date":"2026-06-19T16:59:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343096\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T16:59:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:59:37","slug":"lina-hidalgo-caught-in-new-firestorm-over-world-cup-ticket-browsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343096\/","title":{"rendered":"Lina Hidalgo caught in new firestorm over World Cup ticket browsing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The internet spent part of Friday roasting Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo<\/a> over what appeared to be an attempt to score World Cup tickets during a Commissioners Court meeting.<\/p>\n

The backlash was swift. The empathy may have been even faster.<\/p>\n

After an image circulated on\u00a0X,\u00a0posted by FOX 26’s Greg\u00a0Googan,<\/a> appeared to show Hidalgo browsing ticket options for a\u00a0FIFA Club World Cup match, critics accused the county’s top elected official of wasting taxpayer-funded work time.<\/p>\n

“She is such a joke,” one user wrote.<\/p>\n

But amid the criticism, a different reaction emerged\u2014one that may be familiar to anyone who has ever sat through a long meeting.<\/p>\n

“Not a fan of hers but let her be, it’s the World Cup,” one user wrote.<\/p>\n

Another added: “Who cares. I’m sure people at work all over the city are keeping tabs of the soccer games on their computer.”<\/p>\n

The split reaction exposed a reality of modern office life: Americans spend a lot of time doing non-work things at work.<\/p>\n

Whether it’s hunting for Astros tickets, tracking fantasy football scores, checking March Madness brackets, scrolling social media, monitoring Zillow listings, or trying to beat a Ticketmaster queue before seats disappear, workplace distractions have become a fact of life.<\/p>\n

Of course, Hidalgo isn’t just any office worker.<\/p>\n

The county judge has spent much of the past year under scrutiny from critics over a series of controversies, including a public dispute with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo over access to premium concert seating. That controversy erupted after Hidalgo sought access to the rodeo’s coveted chute-seat area during a sold-out concert after already receiving thousands of dollars worth of complimentary tickets for previous performances.<\/p>\n

Chron reached out to Lina Hidalgo’s office for comment, but has not yet heard back.<\/p>\n

For now, the photo represents something far more relatable: a sports fan trying to snag tickets before they disappear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The internet spent part of Friday roasting Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo over what appeared to be an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1836,88494,1704,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-343096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chronnews","tag-chronpolitics","tag-chronstaff","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}