Iran-New Zealand, Iran-Belgium and Bosnia & Herzegovina-Switzerland are all outpacing the opening game for the United States at the World Cup for ticket sales.
As fans continue to recoil against high prices for tickets at the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, recently revealed numbers show how low the interest for the US men’s national team’s opening match against Paraguay is.
A document dated April 10 that was distributed to local organizers was obtained by The Athletic, which revealed that only 40,934 tickets to USA-Paraguay had been sold up to that point.
The match, which is set to take place on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, is being under-sold by multiple other matches taking place in the same building.
For example, the outlet revealed that the Iran-New Zealand game taking place three days later has sold nearly 10,000 more tickets – with a listed sale of 50,661.
FIFA lists the venue’s capacity at 69,650. In its report, The Athletic notes that it wasn’t clear if the 40,934 tickets sold included hospitality or other tickets not sold to the public.
The USMNT home opener at SoFi Stadium is being out-sold by three other matches
FIFA president Gianni Infantino hasn’t indicated that he’ll drop ticket prices anytime soon
The United States lost its last two matches to Belgium and Portugal (above) in March
Additionally, The Athletic reports that fewer than 40,000 tickets had been purchased for the United States’ final group stage match held at SoFi Stadium against Turkiye.
Comparatively, the Bosnia-Switzerland game has sold around 47,000 tickets and Iran’s match against Belgium has surpassed 50,000, according to the outlet.
For the opening match in particular, FIFA’s extortionate ticket prices are likely the driving factor in keeping fans away.
Category 1 tickets are being sold for $2,730, Category 2 runs fans $1,940 per ticket and the majority upper-bowl Category 3 tickets run an inexplicable $1,120. There’s no indication that the federation will drop those figures any time soon.
FIFA has been slowly rolling out tickets through their platform for the World Cup. FIFA president Gianni Infantino says they’ve sold ‘around 5million’ of an estimated 6.7million available tickets.
Infantino says this was intentional, revealing the organization wanted to keep ‘a few [tickets] for continuous sale until the start of the tournament to give opportunities to latecomers.’
Meanwhile, on FIFA’s own resale platform, previous buyers are listing tickets to the opening match for under face value.
The United States has struggled in its first two matches of the year, losing to Belgium and Portugal in Atlanta last month.
