Link: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7317155/2026/05/29/usmnt-paraguay-world-cup-opener-tickets-fifa/

Two weeks before the World Cup, at least 3,500 tickets remain unsold, with thousands more listed for resale and available for purchase

I don't think I have ever once in my life seen World Cup tickets available on the primary portal two weeks out from kickoff. We're doing it:

The 3,500, on the other hand, have not been sold, and there could be even more not yet listed for sale. FIFA has held back tickets throughout the sales process, and does not publicly reveal sales or availability data.

The funniest thing is based on earlier shenanigans of not releasing all the tickets to create false scarcity and drive up prices...

There's almost certainly a lot more than 3,500 unsold tickets.

There might be a lot more that were set to be released after these 3500 sold out, but that never happened. And that's not factoring in all the tickets "sold" to people with no intention of attending. They were waiting for "sold out" to be real so they could scalp at the highest price.

I'm really interested to find out how cheap tickets will be day of at the stadium.

Imagine spending 5k a ticket and the guy next to you paid $50 20 minutes before the game starts...

Please don't judge me too harshly if I'm the guy paying $50 20 minutes before kickoff. I try hard to be a good person, but the flesh is weak.

You do you...

But this is 100% going to be a "you couldn't pay me to attend" event for everyone in hindsight.

If a WC game is bucket list and you just need to check that box, this is unironically your best shot.

But it'll probably be the worst game you ever attend, shit is most likely going to start off with a terrible experience just getting to the pitch and only continue to go downhill from there.

For sure. It is a bucket list for me, and it's not really any extra risk for me personally since the stadium is just a quick bike ride from me, so I'm already getting all the risk from ICE exposure anyway.

Fuck it, might as well do it then.

Best of luck, and definitely make a post about when you do.

It's fucking sports. It's the easiest thing to just NOT go as your protest against everything happening. But people are selfish assholes.

This story is specifically about how people aren't going, just like you're saying?

I guess I don't believe it yet. I'm cynical as fuck and expecting the stands to be full. The executive leadership at my shit company in Canada are convinced this is a great opportunity with thousands of customers getting off planes to attend. Everything we're preparing for is opposite to these articles claiming unsold tickets.

I hope it's all deserted and no one tunes in, but I doubt it.

I'm torn between "I wish skalpers had bought them and feel the burn" and "good, that's less money for one of the most corrupt groups on this planet".

Look at this ad pretending to be an article. Title may as well be "BUY TICKETS".

Pretty sure the story is about how they are trying to sell more tickets through planted stories in media.

It’s pretty annoying that they put the 22 people on the field during the soccer game. Don’t they know that I’m trying to watch a ball roll around, and the people keep getting in the way?