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U.S. President Donald Trump has become the latest high-profile figure to weigh in on the skyrocketing 2026 World Cup ticket prices ahead of the summer tournament.
When questioned about the $1,000-plus cost to watch the U.S. men's national team kick off their campaign against Paraguay in Los Angeles, President Trump expressed genuine surprise.
"I didn't know that number," he told The New York Post on Wednesday evening. "I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn't pay it either, to be honest with you."
Trump's remarks came just days after his close friend and ally, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, stood behind the tournament's "dynamic" pricing model.
"We have to look at the market," Infantino explained. "We are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world. So we have to apply market rates. In the U.S., it is permitted to resell tickets as well. So if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.
"And as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double our price."
The logic behind this approach is that FIFA would rather capture the revenue itself rather than leave it to resellers, as the organization channels a portion of those funds back into "the development of men's, women's and youth soccer across all FIFA 211 member associations," according to a FIFA statement. Nevertheless, the historically high ticket prices have triggered widespread backlash and driven even steeper inflation for fans looking to the secondary market for high-demand matches.
U.S. Opening Match Remains Widely Available
FIFA has set aside 100,000 tickets throughout the tournament at $60 to address affordability concerns; however, this represents less than 2% of all available seats, with the overwhelming majority of tickets running into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars—in some instances, four times the average ticket prices seen at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
For the fast-approaching World Cup opener on U.S. soil, a June 12 fixture at Los Angeles Stadium (SoFi Stadium) between co-host USMNT and Paraguay, FIFA has set the cheapest seats at $1,120, with mid-stadium Category 1 seats priced at $2,750 and front Category 1 seats reaching over $4,000.
Despite the match's significance and the excitement surrounding it, seats for the U.S. opening game remain plentiful, likely due in large part to the steep pricing. By contrast, co-host Mexico's opener at Mexico City Stadium on June 11 appears to have only tickets for wheelchair user companions remaining. FIFA, however, has pledged to release additional seats as the matches approach, in a bid to prevent all inventory from being snapped up at once.
For the U.S. opener, an immediate sellout does not appear to be a concern, as large swaths of mid-stadium Category 1 sections—sometimes spanning 12 rows—remain unsold. Whether FIFA will opt to reduce prices remains to be seen, but if they hold firm, noticeable gaps in the stands could be the result.