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World Cup venues may have been largely packed to capacity this summer across North America, but that hasn't stopped New Jersey attorney general Jennifer Davenport from pressing forward with the state's probe into FIFA and its ticketing policies, which priced out and potentially "exploited" ordinary fans.
The investigation will press on following the conclusion of the tournament, which wraps up with the World Cup final on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
The probe was initially launched jointly by Davenport and New York attorney general Letitia James back in May, ahead of the tournament's opening. The offices of James and Davenport issued subpoenas to FIFA, seeking information about the ticketing for MetLife's matches specifically, of which there were eight in total, including the final.
"My office, [the office of the New Jersey attorney general] and [the NYC department of consumer and worker protection] are investigating FIFA after reports of soaring World Cup ticket prices and fans not getting seats as advertised," James posted to social media at the time.
"New Yorkers have been waiting years for the World Cup to come here. They deserve a fair chance at reasonably priced tickets."
The attorneys general took issue not only with the steep pricing—driven by FIFA's new "dynamic pricing" model—but also with stadium seat maps that were reportedly deceptive to fans. FIFA reportedly altered the publicized layout of seating zones after fans had already bought tickets for a specific zone of a stadium, thereby placing fans in "less desirable seats, including seats far from the field or behind the goals," per the attorneys general's original statement.
The attorneys general planned to examine whether and how ticket holders were "misled about the locations of the seat they were purchasing" and whether FIFA's conduct "contributed to soaring prices."
N.J. Attorney General Vows to Continue Work
"Our goal is to ensure that we're protecting consumers at all times," Davenport told The Athletic this week. "The exploitation of fans and consumers is a major part of that. This began because of what we were seeing in news reports, and when we receive information like that, we want to make sure that we use our laws and our protections to look into it, especially as we're dealing with an affordability crisis."
"We are examining a few issues," she added. "The first is whether or not fans were misled about the seating location of the tickets they purchased. For the initial ticket sales, FIFA seat maps divided the stadium into four zones, categories one through four. The category one seats were the most desirable. But after fans had already purchased tickets, FIFA introduced new zones, which included a front row within a category, consisting of the most desirable seats within those categories.
"We're also examining the ticket prices themselves, which were considerably higher this year than in previous World Cup tournaments. We know that FIFA used variable pricing to adjust costs based on demand. As they released tickets in phases, prices for some of those matches skyrocketed. What we've found is that between October 2025 and April 2026, prices were raised by FIFA for more than 90 of the 104 World Cup matches."
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For the World Cup final in particular, which features Argentina and Spain going head-to-head, tickets are fetching tens of thousands of dollars, making it the most expensive U.S. sporting event on record, surpassing even NFL Super Bowls and the NBA Finals. Sunday's tickets are at least four to six times the average price of a ticket to the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.
Davenport does not yet know what penalties FIFA would face if the state's consumer protection laws were found to have been violated.