Gianni Infantino tried to defend FIFA's World Cup ticket prices by explaining American sports to Americans.
Big mistake.
The FIFA president is facing criticism over expensive tickets, FIFA's first-time use of dynamic pricing, and a resale market that already has some World Cup final seats listed for ridiculous amounts of money (the get-in price for USA vs. Paraguay on June 12 is over $1,000). It's also worth noting FIFA isn't just watching the secondary market from the outside; it runs an official resale platform and takes a commission on resold tickets.
So, during an appearance at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles this week, Infantino made the case that this is simply what big-time sports cost in the United States.
Then he brought up college football and that's where his defense started to go off the rails.
"You cannot go to watch in the U.S. a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300," Infantino said, according to The Times (UK). "And this is the World Cup."
Wait, what?
The problem isn't that World Cup tickets are premium, it's that his comparison is wrong.
If Infantino wanted to say World Cup tickets should be compared to the biggest events on the American sports calendar, fine. That's a fair point. The World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.
But even that comparison doesn't make sense.
Because we're not talking about the World Cup final here. We're not talking about the semifinals. Infantino was talking about group-stage tickets. And, by the way, he wasn't even just talking about matches involving the United States or other big-name countries.
The majority of group-stage matches feature prices over $300 per ticket, according to SeatGeek. Those are resale-market get-in prices; on FIFA's official ticket site, the cheapest remaining group-stage tickets were $380 as of May 1, according to the Associated Press. And that's the get-in price to sit in the nosebleeds.
The cheapest ticket, as of Wednesday afternoon, for any opening match (meaning a country's first game in the tournament), is around $175 for Austria vs. Jordan at Levi's Stadium. Again, that's for terrible seats for one of the worst matchups of the entire group stage. The most expensive is over $1,200 to see Brazil vs. Morocco at MetLife Stadium.
Well, technically, the most expensive is over $2,500 to see Mexico play South Africa, but that match is in Mexico and the FIFA president was talking about the prices in America, so we'll stick with that (although, if we start talking about the prices of the Mexican matches, it gets really out of hand).
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Going back to his comment about college football (and "top professional games"), let's actually take a look at some data. We're even going to be generous to Infantino and look at postseason ticket prices because that's a more fair comparison, even though he implied that any college football game costs $300 (pretty sure tickets to see Purdue play Northwestern don't cost anywhere near that much, but I digress).
The better comparison for the World Cup group stage isn't the Super Bowl or the College Football Playoff National Championship. It's something like the College Football Playoff quarterfinals or NFL Wild Card weekend. The games matter, but they aren't the finals. However, one could argue those games have more importance because losing a group-stage match doesn't knock a team out of the tournament like a loss at any stage of the NFL playoffs or College Football Playoffs does.
But even with higher stakes, those tickets don't automatically start at $300, either.
OutKick reported in December that get-in prices for all four College Football Playoff quarterfinal games were below $300 on SeatGeek at the time of publication. Not even close, in most cases.
Ohio State-Miami in the Cotton Bowl was $32. Oregon-Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl was $50. Indiana-Alabama in the Rose Bowl was $117. Georgia-Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl was $219.
So, a fan could theoretically buy 5 tickets to see Ohio State play Miami for the same price as one ticket to see Austria square off against Jordan. Seriously, what is Infantino even talking about?
The same is true in the NFL, by the way.
OutKick reported in January that two NFL Wild Card games (Rams-Panthers and Texans-Steelers) had a get-in price under $200 on TickPick, while Eagles-49ers and Patriots-Chargers were just over $200. The only ticket that cost more than $300 was Bears-Packers.
Even Wild Card weekend, the first postseason round of America's most popular sport, didn't automatically mean every ticket started at $300.
It's hard to overstate just how incorrect Infantino was when he boldly claimed that $300 is just the price of admission to watch live sports in the United States.
If College Football Playoff quarterfinals and NFL Wild Card games can have get-in prices below $300, then FIFA probably shouldn't act like group-stage World Cup tickets under $300 are some huge bargain by American sports standards.
Some group-stage World Cup matches will be massive draws. Others won't be.
That's not an insult. It's just how tournaments work. Every World Cup match carries the brand, but not every World Cup match carries the same demand.
The World Cup final is one thing.
A random group-stage game is another.
According to The Times, Infantino said 25% of group-stage World Cup tickets are priced below $300. FIFA clearly wants that to sound reasonable. Maybe it is, depending on the match. Again, the World Cup is a premium event, and premium events cost money.
But if the defense is that "under $300" is cheap by American sports standards, that's much harder to sell.
American fans know better.
They know there's a difference between a playoff game and a championship game. They know there's a difference between Ohio State-Michigan and a Tuesday night MACtion clash. They know there's a difference between a monster World Cup group-stage draw and one that doesn't involve a host nation or global powerhouse.
That's the part FIFA is trying to blur.
Infantino also argued FIFA has to respond to the American resale market.
"We have to look at the market - we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world. So we have to apply market rates," Infantino said.
That's a more honest argument.
FIFA wants to charge high prices because it knows people will pay them. The World Cup is enormous. It hasn't been held in the United States since 1994. The tournament is expanding to 48 teams and 104 matches. Casual demand is already through the roof. Corporate demand adds another layer.
So just say FIFA believes the prices reflect the event. In most cases, that seems true. Fans might not like it, but that's capitalism at work.
Instead, Infantino tried to make $300 sound like the cost of doing business for American sports fans, and that's where he sounded completely uneducated and uninformed.
And before people try to argue that FIFA doesn't control the resale market or has no stake in it, think again.
FIFA has its own official resale platform and, according to The Times, the organization takes a 30% cut of any resale. Which means it not only makes money on the original sale, but on any subsequent sale, as well.
That means FIFA isn't just a helpless observer watching the secondary market get ridiculous from a safe distance. It's actively participating in the system.
That's what makes Infantino's comments seem more nefarious. He's trying to sell people on the idea that the tickets aren't that expensive, or even that some are a good deal, when he stands to benefit from selling as many tickets as possible at the highest price possible.
Again, all of this is fine. America operates on a capitalist system where the market determines prices. The part where there's a problem is the FIFA president spreading incorrect information about ticket prices while standing to benefit a great deal from higher costs.
FIFA wants American fans to view World Cup pricing as normal because U.S. sports are expensive. There's some truth in that. Big events here cost big money.
But if FIFA wants to sell that argument, it should be precise.
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The World Cup belongs in a premium-event category. Group-stage World Cup tickets do not need to be justified by pretending college football or NFL playoff tickets generally start at $300.
They don't.
And if FIFA is going to cite American sports to defend World Cup prices, it should probably understand how American sports pricing actually works.
Because American fans certainly do.
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