Ticket price crisis leaves thousands of seats empty as World Cup 2026 gets underway

FIFA’s decision to introduce variable pricing at the 2026 World Cup has produced an embarrassing opening weekend, with swathes of empty seats visible at Mexico’s Azteca Stadium during the tournament’s debut matches — a stark image for an organisation already under fire over its ticketing strategy.

Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina are set to kick off Group B at Toronto Stadium at 3pm local time (8pm BST), with the hosts hoping a partisan home crowd will drown out the controversy that has overshadowed the competition’s early days.

FIFA adopted variable pricing for the first time in World Cup history, a move that drove up average ticket costs by 34 percent in October last year. The cheapest standard finals tickets were priced at $5,785 (£4,315), with some appearing on resale platforms for close to $33,000 (£24,621). The organisation quietly reduced prices across all 104 scheduled matches earlier this month and released 70 percent of bulk-reserved hotel rooms, but the damage to attendance figures had already been done.

As of the eve of the tournament, approximately 180,000 tickets were still listed on official FIFA resale platforms, with a further 15,000 group-stage tickets available directly through the organisation’s own website.

For Canada, the match carries weight beyond the off-field noise. Jesse Marsch’s side arrive on an eight-match unbeaten run, yet the co-hosts have lost all six of their previous World Cup appearances. Bosnia and Herzegovina represent the first of three group-stage tests, with Switzerland and Qatar to follow.

Bosnia will be equally motivated, knowing a positive result in front of what is expected to be a large and vocal Canadian crowd would set the tone for their own World Cup campaign.

The tournament’s ticketing crisis has cast a long shadow over what should have been a celebratory opening. Whether attendances recover as the competition progresses — and as prices continue to fall — remains one of the defining questions of this World Cup.