Supply and demand sends World Cup ticket prices soaring
Supply and demand sends World Cup ticket prices soaring
Team USA is scheduled to take the pitch for its final group stage match. However, the team's July 1 match in Santa Clara is triggering a massive secondary-market frenzy for tickets, with prices ranging form $2,400 to $20,000.
OAKLAND, Calif. - The law of supply and demand is colliding with World Cup fever in the Bay Area, sending ticket prices for the U.S. Men’s National Team’s upcoming knockout-round match to astronomical heights.
Following a dominant run to secure the top spot in Group D, Team USA is scheduled to take the pitch Thursday for its final group stage match against Turkey. But it is the July 1 round-of-32 match at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium in Santa Clara that is triggering a massive secondary-market frenzy, despite fans not yet knowing who the Americans will play.
The cost to watch
By the numbers:
Data from four major ticket resellers show that the cheapest seats available are fetching between $2,400 and $4,000 each. For those looking for premium seating, prices are soaring between $15,000 and $20,000 per ticket.
"There have got to be a million people who would like to be at that match, including me," said Dr. Robert Chapman Wood, a strategic management professor emeritus at San Jose State University.
Wood noted that the price spike is a textbook case of economic principles playing out on the world's biggest sporting stage.
"The more supply of a product, the lower the price. The less supply of a product, the higher the price, because people bid against each other for the product," Wood said. In this case, the product is not just soccer, but the strictly limited number of seats inside the stadium.
The staggering costs have not deterred die-hard soccer fans, many of whom have already spent small fortunes to witness the tournament firsthand.
Fans' perspective
What they're saying:
Sandra Todd, a Team Canada fan who traveled to see her team play Qatar, said the steep price of admission is worth the memories. "I spent a fortune to go up to Game 2 in Vancouver," Todd said. "Best several thousand dollars I've spent in my life. Everybody everywhere in the World Cup, whether their team wins or loses, is just excited to be there."
For other fans, the rising ticket values have created an unexpected dilemma.
Zano Mahic, a Bosnia and Herzegovina soccer fan who bought two tickets to the July 1 match to attend with his wife, admitted his purchase climbed into "the five digits."
"I don’t want my wife to find out," Mahic joked.
Mahic said he is now weighing whether to cash in on the red-hot secondary market. He noted he might consider selling the tickets to make a hefty profit—unless his home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina draws the U.S. in the next round. If that happens, Mahic plans to keep the seats and go to the game, provided his wife doesn't find out how much money they could make by selling them.