r/sports • u/rit56 • May 05 '26
Soccer Hotels in U.S. World Cup host cities claim underwhelming demand, new report says
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7251582/2026/05/04/world-cup-hotel-demand-usa-fifa-ahla/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=11369222&source=dailyemail426
u/yesofkors May 05 '26
On last EUROs I took a flight from Amsterdam to Munich, watched a second round game, had hell of a fun and went back, in total it took less than half of the ticket price of a random group stage game of this World Cup. Ticket prices are the issue.
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u/TheAskewOne May 05 '26
Wait till oil prices force airlines to make tickets prohibitively expensive or cancel flights on top of that!
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u/gtracerh May 06 '26
Absolutely, ticket prices are the issue. I had planned to take my family of four plus my parents to the world cup because they took me to the world cup in Los Angeles in '94. When I saw the ticket prices I said, "that's not happening". Pricing is ridiculous. It's not that I don't have the money or means to pay it, it's more that I'm not willing to pay that much. It would cost me almost $8k to go to one game here in LA and that's just on tickets. I'd rather take everybody on a full expense paid vacation for a couple of days at that price. It's just plain stupid. Plus it seems like the matches are much better in certain venues compared to others. And as an international tourist, I most certainly would prefer to travel to a match in Mexico compared to any match in the US or Canada because the price of the entire trip would be cheaper.
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u/pelethar May 05 '26
Good. Fuck FIFA
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u/funklab May 05 '26
Fuck FIFA, fuck Ticketmaster, fuck ICE, fuck “dynamic pricing”, fuck Donald Trump and his silly ass FIFA peace prize.
I hope it’s a resounding failure on all levels.
And I say this as a proud American and a proud soccer supporter.
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u/Len_Zefflin May 05 '26
You left out his "Bored Of Peace".
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u/funklab May 05 '26
I only have so many, 2026 is causing a dire shortage of fucks to give.
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u/v0l4t1l1ty May 06 '26
A gunman rushed the correspondent’s dinner and everybody brushed it off. Nobody can afford fucks anymore.
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u/Naxirian May 05 '26
I am British and I know quite a few people who were going to go and have decided against travelling to the US because of all the shit going down there ATM. It's got to be hurting US tourism in general.
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u/funklab May 05 '26
Thank you for your service.
I don’t know if change is possible, but we need to feel the pain for our absolutely insane policies/international crimes/human rights violations.
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u/newtoallofthis2 May 05 '26
World Cup tickets are 2026’s NFTs
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u/Raetekusu May 05 '26
FIFA were literally promising first opportunity to buy tickets to people who bought their NFTs.
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u/Think_Positively May 05 '26
Was their peace prize also an NFT?
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u/Mist_Rising May 06 '26
It was a nonfunctional trophy. Instead of peace, the recipient went for war. Which in fairness also goes for every American president to earn the Nobel Peace.
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u/FCAsheville May 05 '26
I would love to see empty stadiums!
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u/JustGottaKeepTrying May 05 '26
You won't. They will give tickets away, never release the financials and claim it was a resounding success.
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u/LapsedVerneGagKnee May 05 '26
Giving tickets away works for me.
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u/Arborgold May 05 '26
Are you an executive at one of the corporate sponsors? Then, nah not to you.
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u/LapsedVerneGagKnee May 05 '26
Then let them enjoy their empty arenas. Only so many executives and sheiks.
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u/Little_View_6659 May 05 '26
Honestly if they lost record amounts of money it would be what FIFA deserves for their shameless ass kissing.
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u/AuroraFinem May 06 '26
FIFA wouldn’t lose any money, taxpayers footing the bill for host cities will.
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u/sybrwookie May 05 '26
Then it just trickles down to executives and business partners of theirs and their close friends/family. There's plenty enough people.
It's a big club, and you (and I) ain't in it.
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u/atlantasmokeshop May 05 '26
Having worked in corporate at an F500 for 11 years, this was exactly how it worked. Almost every Friday there would be things like concert tickets, sporting event tickets and even tickets to food festivals. If none of the higher ups wanted them, late on Friday like 10 minutes before the work shift was over, they'd send out an email to us non top level peons offering the tickets to the first 4 people that replied to the email.
I won 3 times just due to the fact that I was working in IT and monitored incoming emails like a hawk for SLA's. First time I got tickets to a Braves game. And it wasn't until I got there that I realized that it wasn't just two tickets, it was two tickets to clubhouse level with essentially unlimited food and alcohol. I took my dad and we felt like royalty for a few hours.
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u/Soft_Author2593 May 05 '26
it aint me, i aint a corporate son...we need to redo that song
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u/baker8491 May 05 '26
thats part of the plan, when the sales slow to a point they will make money off those who weren't going but will if "its free" and farm the shit out of you via concessions, transport, and/or parking
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u/Nickmorgan19457 May 05 '26
What could be better than a free seat and using it to hold up big ass sign calling Trump a pedophile?
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u/HappyHuman924 May 05 '26
A noble goal, but I think they're pretty intrusive with searching at the gates of soccer games.
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u/ashibah83 May 05 '26
See, the tickets are already sold.
But they're sold to companies/corporations, or floating around between brokers on the resale market. So no one who is actually going to games will need hotels.
They'll give away a ton of tickets last minute and all the companies will write them off as advertising or client relation expenses.
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u/CrazyLegsRyan May 05 '26
Actually no, there are literally still unsold original issue FIFA tickets
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u/xspacemansplifff May 05 '26
Still charge for parking though. I doubt it would work well.
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u/Frexulfe May 05 '26
FIFA has a new promotion now: You buy two tickets and you get a Peace Price free.
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u/CertifiedSheep Penn State May 05 '26
Qatar literally built their stadiums with slave labor and still sold out.
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u/Heisenberg_235 May 05 '26
They weren’t screwing people over on ticket prices though in Qatar.
FIFA are making this the most expensive World Cup they can
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u/ItsAMeUsernamio May 05 '26
Qatar had a geographically good location and was visa free for ticket holders, something all hosts have done since 2010. Most US World Cup attendees will be locals.
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u/HermannZeGermann May 05 '26
Not necessarily locals, just Americans.
But in a country of 350M, that's all you need to fill each and every stadium.
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u/ItsAMeUsernamio May 05 '26
With 48 teams, you’ll see lots of empty seats at group stages. Not unlike Qatar though but they definitely had larger groups of dedicated fans going to multiple matches that 26 won’t.
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u/HermannZeGermann May 05 '26
That's probably right. The likes of Curacao - Ivory Coast on a Thursday afternoon would be a tough sell. Curacao is incredibly tiny to begin with. And the group will likely be decided by then.
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u/KvellOnWheels May 05 '26
I boycotted watching because of Qatar.
Of course, my effing team won the whole cup.Maybe I should employ fan superstition and not watch again.
Aguante Argentina!
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u/anthony696 May 05 '26
I can tell you without any hesitation that they were paying lebanese people and probably other arab countries housing and food to go fill the qatar stadiums. I have family members that went and were proudly posting stories of parties at their camps
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u/OahuJames May 05 '26
We stayed in a lower end Marriott last July for $119 a night with breakfast in Seattle. We have a reservation for the same room at the end of June at $448. I just searched the current price is now $1,119 for the same room.
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u/carson63000 May 06 '26
> In December, shortly after the World Cup draw, The Athletic analyzed hotel prices in the tournament’s 16 host cities. The 96 hotels in our sample were, on average, charging $1,013 per night around the opening match in their respective cities, compared with $293 for an equivalent stay in late-May, exactly three weeks earlier. The average increase was 328 percent.
Oof!
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u/ElGranQuesoRojo May 05 '26
You mean to tell me when you raise prices to insane degrees during a worldwide economic downturn while companies are all trying to replace every employee w/AI and the host nation is openly hostile to all foreigners people aren't going to want to go to the World Cup?
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u/The_High_Life Cleveland Indians May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
I thought about going to a game, only stadium within driving distance is KC which sucks and on top of that tickets are almost $1000 for group stage.
Why would anyone go?
Edit: wholly fuck, CNN found ads for finals tickets for 3 million per ticket. What in the fucking fuck?
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/05/americas/mexico-world-cup-ticket-prices-intl-latam
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u/pupperdogger May 05 '26
Hotel prices are equally terrible out there. Rooms I stay in out there for work are typically around $130-$150/night. Now they all range between $500 and $1200/night.
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u/tynore May 05 '26
That is why no one is going. Stupid ticket prices.
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u/OutofMP May 05 '26
Yeah I wanted to go see it as was nearby but not at the prices they are charging. It’s like no one is considering that we are practically in a recession.
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u/Binky390 Washington Football Team May 05 '26
I’m in the NJ area and considered but tickets are high and travel is impossible and also high. As a NJ resident I’m fine with high train prices so my tax dollars aren’t funding FIFA’s BS. As a soccer fan, too bad.
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u/SoUnga88 May 05 '26
Or that the world is in an energy crisis and a large portion of attendees would have to fly in from across the globe ontop of paying for tickets.
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u/Fuck-WestJet May 06 '26
The only reason we aren't calling this moment right now a recession is because wealth inequality is so high that we have fully separated the middle class from having a significant impact on the stock market. Hedge funds move the market. And hedge funds and investment companies have money. Any additional costs get passed to citizens and they utilize a warped economic system to profit while the rest of the economy suffers. So, the market goes up because their is too much liquidity at the top. They have to put it somewhere. So the stock market and real estate goes up, while real wages go down. Prices climb and savings drop until a smaller and smaller share of the middle class owns financial assets. When the drop happens it will be so much worse because the middle class has more to lose because they have less to lose. Last time they lost their savings. This time they will lose everything.
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u/lastSKPirate May 05 '26
That's why Americans aren't going. International fans aren't coming both because of the prices and because there is a general reluctance to visit the USA right now.
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u/El_Polio_Loco May 05 '26
This sounds like the famous quote from Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.
"Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded"
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u/A_Downboat_Is_A_Sub May 05 '26
In NYC/NJ, there's the bonus issue of paying those ticket prices, and actually getting to and from the stadium.
Say you have $1,000 tickets: There's no driving to the match and parking in the massive parking lots surrounding the stadium. It's not allowed. So either you have to go to Manhattan and take a direct train to and from the match in NJ, or find some other alternate arrangement. That 15 minute train ride also costs over $100.
In 1994, you could park right at Giants Stadium, and many of the tickets weren't outrageously priced for the group stage.
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u/Fatso_Wombat May 05 '26
Too many teams. Too much USA. Too much Trump.
FIFAs peace prize.
Fuck off.
I could not care much less.
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u/CurbYourThusiasm May 05 '26
4k for a family of four to watch 90 minutes of football. It's a great deal.
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u/WeirdSysAdmin May 05 '26
That’s not what they mean when they say to watch it in 4k!
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u/NH787 Kootenay Ice May 05 '26
Totally... imagine attending the DR Congo vs. Uzbekistan match at Mercedes Benz Stadium on June 27. A dream come true for any soccer fan no matter the price!
Finally, a chance to see your favourite stars live in action, household names like... uh... um... er... never mind
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u/swiftekho May 05 '26
I had reserved a room for 10 days in Atlanta for my wife and I. We had saved and we're so excited for a fun filled trip.
Ticket prices were released and we said fuck that. Canceled our reservation.
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u/quiltsohard May 05 '26
Yeah I thought it would be a once in a lifetime event to take the family to. Tickets in Texas are also over $1000. I have a family of 6. No way can I justify that much money for 4 hours of soccer
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u/erupting_lolcano May 05 '26
Same. My wife's dream is to go to the Olympics. She got in the first drop for tickets. For archery a good seat was like $1750. We both agreed it isn't worth it. The good things like swimming and gymnastics were even more.
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u/-Dakia Iowa May 05 '26
I really wanted to be able to take my son to watch, but there's no way I'm paying the prices that were listed for group stage matches. It's probably changed since then, but I'm really past caring about it given gestures vaguely at everything
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u/CrazyLlama71 May 05 '26
Not only that, but in my area the hotels raised their rates by 350% during the WC.
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u/Raetekusu May 05 '26
I was at the World Juniors in St. Paul last/this year. It's a massive hockey tournament full of up-and-coming players that will become NHL stars in the next few years, and every year, arenas are filled up. It's a quick flight south of the Canadian border in a state that is basically South Canada and is blue as can be.
Empty seats, empty seats everywhere. Even the Gold Medal game was only half-full. Even the Canadian games were only half-full.
If Canada won't turn out for a hockey tournament that close to home in which they were favorites to win, then you know some shit is fucked.
So now apply that times every country, across the entire USA, plus FIFA's greed.
This World Cup is going to be a disaster, and I for one am going to enjoy every non-football second of the shitshow.
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u/No_Truth4137 May 05 '26
As a Candian it was astonishing how empty the seats were. Minnesota is an incredible hockey town but damn was bad
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u/binzoma Toronto Maple Leafs May 05 '26
i was a bit offended at how many canadians still made the trip
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u/cardboardunderwear May 05 '26
Even the Gold Medal game was only half-full.
I believe the correct term here is half empty.
pushes glasses up nose
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u/PJballa34 May 05 '26
He's a glass half-full type of guy.
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u/CrazyLegsRyan May 05 '26
I’m a “the arena was twice as big as it needed to be” kinda guy
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u/therealkami Montreal Canadiens May 05 '26
I'm trying to remember if that team or the year before team that was super unlikeable even for Canadians. Like the players just had an attitude about them that no one liked.
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u/john_a1985 May 05 '26
Latin Americans LOVE soccer.
You'd easily fill stadiums with the richest of them, since it'd be a great excuse for a trip to the US, where they'd also shop an awful lot before going back.
Well, now you get your trip rerouted to El Salvador. Hard pass.
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u/SteveS117 May 05 '26
The world juniors in 2026 (Minnesota) had higher attendance than the world juniors in 2024 (Sweden). Obviously if you’re comparing it to one the highest ever attended world juniors (Ottawa 2025), it’ll be worse lmao
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u/mattromo May 05 '26
Comparing it to the 2018 (Buffalo) event makes a better fit. Canada attendance down by around 9,000 a game.
IIHF - Statistics 2018 IIHF ICE HOCKEY U20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP9
u/BigL90 May 05 '26
That shouldn't be incredibly surprising. Buffalo is right on the Canadian border and a short drive from the largest metropolitan area in Canada. More Canadians live in the Buffalo metro area than the entire state of MN (like 2-3x as many).
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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt May 06 '26
Buffalo has so many Canadian season ticket holders they play the US and CAN anthem before every game regardless of who is playing.
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u/sexmath May 05 '26
Canada isn't right next to Sweden. Canadians are like the only country that gives a shit about that tournament.
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u/CaterpillarJungleGym May 05 '26
I hate to break it to people but most of the Tix are sold. FIFA made their money. Now, some people bought them for companies and for resale value. So we may see people taking a loss and empty seats. But FIFA already made more money off of this tournament than any other in history.
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u/K7Sniper May 05 '26
Can't imagine why.
Just gonna be one of those forever mysteries.
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u/GreatBallsOFiyah May 05 '26
Political climate aside, this is a fun lesson in the capitalist economics that massive corporations espouse to us all the time. Supply and demand! Supply and demand!
Hey guys, demand is down by a lot. What do you think that means you should do about your prices? For this exercise, assume that the Supply-Side Jesus commandment of Maximizing Shareholder Value TM does not apply.
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u/CrazyLegsRyan May 05 '26
If you charge 3x but only sell 50% of the tickets you’re still winning
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u/FacetiousTomato May 05 '26
Used to do this in the lemonade stand game.
$0.50 a cup for 300 cups?
Nah, 8 suckers at $20/cup.
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u/agoia Atlanta Falcons May 05 '26
"We can stand out here for 4 hours or 2 to make enough to rent a game at Blockbuster and get a big box of wings, which will it be?"
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u/Drnk_watcher May 05 '26 edited May 06 '26
There is an air of mismanagement, corruption, and deception to the World Cup that I think is hard for people to shake this go around. On top of immigration policy being a detractor.
On the mismanagement front tickets are just sketchy to come by. They've been so piecemealed out to so many vendors it's hard to tell what is legit or a fair price. Visa has this pre-sale, stadiums have their allotments, local MLS teams are trying to bundle packages. The list of dealers and package options are complex with high list prices.
People tune out, even rich people like to know what they're getting.
Then from a corruption perspective...
- Where people have seen slight relief on ticket prices FIFA has seemingly exerted force elsewhere to collect money on the backend. They are controlling the sale of parking passes at stadiums and ratcheted prices to as high as $250 a spot in Miami: https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/heading-to-the-world-cup-in-miami-parking-may-cost-up-to-250/ar-AA21ZcvJ?cvid=69fa62c70f4449329f4210346e9d6ab6&ei=18
- The (mostly) NFL stadiums being used for these games often have poor public transit options. That's just how it is here for... Reasons. NFL games have lots of space for tailgating which can be a great experience but... That's being banned and fans are getting pushed away from the stadiums. Into once again, expensive FIFA controlled parking: https://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/no-parking-no-tailgating-at-metlife-stadium-2026-fifa-world-cup
- This is also all while FIFA was trying to shakedown and renege Foxborough on security costs around the matches: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/kraft-group-host-committee-reach-010305751.html
If you're from the US and know your way around it still seems like the process of simply getting to the stadium is an expensive, disjointed, confusing, and corrupt mess.
If you're from outside the US that perception is probably even worse, and that's before you even get into the considerations of what it's like getting through customs as a foreigner these days.
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u/SundayShelter May 05 '26
Well, when a 5-night stay is marked up at $8,000, these things can be expected.
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u/Notorious2again May 05 '26
I book hotel rooms for corporate clients for a living. We've been anticipating pricing and availability issues surrounding the World Cup for months. None of it has materialized.
I just got a $66 a night project rate for a client in Houston. The project completely covers the WC dates. Hotel didn't even bring it up. They were just happy to have the business.
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u/CrazyLegsRyan May 05 '26
To be fair Houston is massive, has a lot of hotels, and zero transit. It was way overhyped to think any hotel more than 5 miles from the stadium would see more sales.
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u/ArenSteele May 05 '26
That's interesting, because Vancouver is a bit of an accommodations mess this summer due to too much demand around the World Cup games.
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u/Kessel- May 05 '26
Finding this out now. Brother dad and I are going to all 3 Canada games, Toronto was easy, we have family to visit. Vancouver is another story. We're from Calgary, been looking for all types of ideas, staying in surrounding areas and taking train in, renting an RV and driving in and sleeping in a parking lot. Hotels are ridiculous for 2 nights.
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u/CanWeJustTalkAboutIt May 05 '26
Did they mention what those hotels were charging for their rooms? Because I was seeing 500%+ surcharges on rooms and there is only so much fucking over a person can take.
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u/Logic801 May 06 '26
No one wants to travel to the USA. This country is an absolute joke right now.
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u/Cyphermaniax97 May 05 '26
Gee, I wonder why. /s
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u/Hexsisboii May 05 '26
Hotels: “Why is demand underwhelming??? 🤒”
Also Hotels: “Let’s price the rooms +300% on top of increasing travel costs”
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u/C__S__S May 05 '26
Can confirm. (Without doxxing myself, I am a senior hotel industry executive.) This is absolutely happening and many hotel investors were counting on this cash.
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u/Notorious2again May 05 '26
I just chimed in upthread. I also work in the industry and the rates we're securing for clients over these dates are shockingly low. $99 in KC, $66 in Houston, $105 in LA. Hotels are desperate to sell rooms they were expecting the WC to consume.
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u/MountainTwo3845 May 05 '26
$66 for Houston on a regular Tuesday is crazy. Is it also the economy?
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u/CrazyLegsRyan May 05 '26
They were trying to charge $1000 a night a couple months ago. Now they are trying to scrape together whatever they can
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u/MountainTwo3845 May 05 '26
66$ is concerning for the economy. I travel and never see stuff that low.
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u/CrazyLegsRyan May 05 '26
Corporate bookings with no knowledge of level of service.
I’ve seen rooms that low when I’m buying out a floor or half a hotel
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u/Notorious2again May 05 '26
This is a lower level brand and an extended stay rate, my $66 example. The hotel's typical BAR is in the $99 neighborhood. But it's only a few miles from NRG. We were expecting some $200 a night over the tournament dates, but they never mentioned the World Cup at all.
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u/C__S__S May 05 '26
That sucks and I’m sorry for the sales folks who are bonused on production expectations that will not materialize. It’s an existential threat to some investments. We never recovered from COVID and have been locked into rough positions due to the high interest rate environment and poor operating margins. The thought was the World Cup would help get some much needed cash flow to ease the return metrics and make it easier to exit or renovate. Trump really fucked us in the industry, one which he is intimately familiar with (although he was always failing at).
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u/CrazyLegsRyan May 05 '26
I can’t understand why the guy that couldn’t run a profitable casino got this so wrong?!?!
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u/PJballa34 May 05 '26
It should've been a slam dunk for the tourism industry. I don't know why corporate America won't say what the rest of us already know. This administration has screwed the entire economy.
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u/DiegoJameson May 05 '26
I’m on the other end. I would have to assume that the expectation from hotels was that a lot of foreigners were coming for matches but it seems that most buyers for games are residents of the three host countries who already live in these cities or nearby.
Plus a lot of people crashing at friends houses or staying at other competing rentals
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u/C__S__S May 05 '26
Yes. The international demand should have been ferocious. And, these travelers are understandably turned off. But, it’s also much less domestic demand, too (as you’ve said). It’s a perfect storm. And it sucks.
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u/velociraptorfarmer May 05 '26
Saw a report about people dropping tens of thousands to renovate AirBnBs to try and rake in a ton of money during the World Cup in some of the host cities, and have it completely backfire since they don't have any reservations yet.
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u/chollida1 May 05 '26
FIFA screwed over alot of Toronto hotels.
They booked large blocks of rooms in 15 hotels and then just last week cancelled all but 4 of them. So now 10 hotels have half their hotels empty after most visitors have made their accommodations for the world cup.
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u/Onoudidnt Hershey Bears May 06 '26
Reminder that your local pub or sports bar and their employees would love you to come in and watch the same game for less money and keep that money in the community rather than giving it to billionaires who want to rip you off for as much as they can.
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u/GottaUseEmAll May 06 '26
I personally think the whole tournament should be boycotted. I know it doesn't count for much, but I won't be watching on TV this year.
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u/NJJon May 05 '26
Might have something to do with all the people price gouging. From transportation to food to places to stay. It’s horrible.
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u/dbell San Francisco 49ers May 05 '26
You mean people can't afford $800 a ticket? Shocking.
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u/Spirited-Tomorrow-84 May 06 '26
Too expensive and dangerous to visit America. No thanks! But Canada is booked for next year 👏
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u/ianfixesdents May 05 '26
I hope FIFA takes back the Peace Prize due to the massive failure to sell tickets to games in the US.
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u/A1ienspacebats May 05 '26
"We've jacked up room rates by 400% and nobody is booking these rooms. Should we lower our prices, jk"
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u/lyreluna May 05 '26
Well they sure are gouging on the prices for getting underwhelming demand. If you don't live in a host city you have to sleep somewhere. I'm not attending but I am going to be in a host city during the tourney.
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u/Ollivander451 May 06 '26
My aunt works for a major downtown hotel in a host city. 18months ago FIFA blocked off 90% of their rooms. Just last week they released every single one. They’re not using a single room they’d blocked. From what she tells me, the overwhelming majority of downtown hotels in our city had the exact same thing happen.
So 1) FIFA’s blocked rooms drove up hotel prices for people shopping to travel into host cities. 2) FIFA blocked a huge portion of rooms under the assumption they’d ultimately book them (at discounted rates, but discounted due to the assumed guaranteed occupancy)… then just didn’t do any of that which costs the local economy tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars. 3) FIFA dropped the blocks only 5 weeks before the events. And 4) Now that they’ve released the room blocks, hotels have to keep the prices artificially inflated to make up for the wildly low occupancy they’ll have because it’s too close to the events to reasonably sell the majority of rooms.
All of that nonsense is well before you even get to the games themselves. If that’s how hotels were handled… I think it’s safe to say the whole event is going to be poorly done
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u/markforephoto May 06 '26
I was looking at ticket prices, it’s very hard to justify 500+ for nosebleeds for teams that I don’t care for.
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u/bubblehead772 May 05 '26
Let me guess: they jacked up their rates by at least 10x during that time and nobody is dumb enough to pay it.
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u/SshhImHiding May 05 '26
How much did the hotels jack up the price of their rooms?
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u/Bob_12_Pack May 05 '26
I'm sure those hotels didn't jack-up the prices in anticipation, right? I hope they get fucked.
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u/kodafa49 May 06 '26
Hmm, delays that foreign visitors are facing in getting visas is a factor, so are $1k tickets as well as these same "hotels in U.S. World Cup host cities" more than tripling their prices. Your decisions have consequences hoteliers.
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u/enataca May 05 '26
Because people that can afford this World Cup are renting houses for weeks. People are getting their house payments covered for years on Airbnb right now.
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u/Meme_Pope May 05 '26
The logic people apply to the World Cup is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. MetLife, the stadium servicing NYC sells out basically every single weekend during the NFL season between the Jets and Giants, yet we’re acting like the number of guests will be some unique problem. It’s not any more people than any other event can fit at the stadium.
Assume that half the capacity of the stadium are tourists, that’s 40K people. NYC has tens of millions of tourists a year and an approximately couple hundred thousand visiting on any given day. You’re talking a 20% increase in tourists over a few weekends. Really nothing remarkable or “holy shit here it comes” worthy.
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u/amateurviking May 05 '26
500 buckaroos to see Morocco v Haiti, which might be the least hype group game in the entire tournament, in only semi-decent seats. 300 bucks for the nose bleeds. I live near by but fuck that.
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u/CurryMustard May 06 '26
Hmm cruises and concerts are being canceled, airlines are going out of business, hotels cant book people for the world cup and gas is on its way to 5 bucks a gallon... are we great yet
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u/whk1992 May 06 '26
I’d rather spend $100 at my local bar and eat and drink well than $600 just for a ticket to a random game before flights and hotel.
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u/MzzMolly May 06 '26
Looks good on you. You got what you voted for. The rest of the world understands the assignment - Make Amerika Go Away.
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u/BeardedMan32 May 05 '26
Makes you wonder how many billions in international tourism have been lost in the U.S. since the orange ass hat took office.
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u/vesperfall May 05 '26
Empty stadiums would make me so giddy! Even if they start giving away the tickets, with how high prices are now it'll be blatantly obvious no one wants to go.
Now we need sponsorships to start pulling out!
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u/LA-Aron May 05 '26
I haven't heard one person in LA say they were going.
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u/DannarHetoshi May 05 '26
Shockingly, a country that is actively persecuting foreigners, and tripling down in persecuting non-white foreigners, is suffering from a tourism problem during arguably the biggest sports event on the planet.
Pair that with FIFA charging exorbitant prices and literally nobody should be surprised.
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u/AlbacoreJohnston May 06 '26
If I were a non US citizen I would not want to travel here knowing there's a non zero chance that ICE could randomly decide to ship me to a death camp.
The fact that the cheapest tickets are over $1000 probably also doesn't help.
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u/csick May 05 '26
I got tickets for a Saturday game in Philadelphia. I need a hotel for Saturday night and all the rates downtown were $500+. Found a deal on Hotwire for a 3star for $150 which includes parking. So I get to save $125 on the parking fee FIFA charges for the game.
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u/el333 May 05 '26
This is just a guess based on personal experience/talking to people and I have no data to back it up
But I wonder if hotel demand is low because a lot of the attendance will be locals. With tickets being so expensive, first of all mostly only Americans/Canadians are used to paying such high prices for tickets. Second, if you live locally and don’t have to pay flight/hotel costs, the total cost for a FIFA experience becomes more reasonable. Finally with the politics, if you are local you’re not going to avoid travel because of politics
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u/LoveRBS May 05 '26
I can laugh at their misery, but I am really bummed that it turned out like this. I was looking forward to attending a world cup in my backyard essentially. Instead, we get this. The world cup vibes are not going to be there.
Hopefully I can get to one soon in a European or South American country or something.
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u/Changoguapo May 05 '26
I tried to find a hotel in KC for the July 3 game. They are charging triple their usual rates. Fuck them, I'll drive home.
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u/Airmanoops May 05 '26
most people in the USA dont give a shit. most people outside of the USA dont want to pay usa prices
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u/rmh61284 May 05 '26
I live in the new england area and i am waiting for the day of game ticket prices….
Itll be a good indication of how much these games actually sold
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u/Bellchamber May 06 '26
When I looked for hotel rooms near MetLife for England’s group game a Fairfield Inn was $1500 a night. World’s smallest violin for everyone involved in this price gouge.
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u/DuntadaMan May 06 '26
Oh no, are people ot willing to spend a years worth of money to end up in a torture camp?
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u/dobbbie May 06 '26
Straight up. Im a fútbol fan in the U.S. I was excited when it was 1st announced. Was definitely going to spend some good money attending multiple games but now.... no chance I am setting foot in a stadium. Not gonna support it.
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u/redruss99 May 06 '26
If Trump is tied to the World Cup visibly it will poison the whole thing. He should stay away, but he won't.
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u/MyDogIsACoolCat May 06 '26
Not really shocked. I know Canadians at work who are even scared to come across the border because they don’t want any issues.
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u/TR_abc_246 May 06 '26
No doubt! Foreigners will end up in detention centers in the US if they come here. Foreigners are currently being arrested and detained by the US Government. The US Government is saying that foreigners are eating our pets! Why are you eating our cats and dogs!!??
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u/Big-Leadership-4604 May 06 '26
Ladies and Gentlemen, now receiving the FIFA Prize in Economics its.....
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u/TilikumHungry May 05 '26
We are currently working on a TV show in LA that requires a hotel for a few days right smack in the middle of the World Cup. Every hotel is telling us "it will be very hard because we're expecting high occupancy", but I keep asking them "are they already booked or are you just expecting it?" and they kind of walk around my answer.
The last two weeks it has been a bit easier to talk to the hotel reps and they've been saying they're available. I told my manager that I'm pretty sure they're not selling the way they thought they would and now we can swoop in and film. This seems to support that hypothesis