If you’re looking to score tickets to any of the L.A. World Cup games this summer, then you’re probably-maybe-sort-of in luck. Of course, that luck comes with plenty of caveats, which I found out directly a few days ago when FIFA unveiled another round of tickets for sale for every game of the World Cup.
“With 22 April marking 50 days to go until the FIFA World Cup 2026™, new ticket inventory for all 104 matches will go on sale from 11:00 ET/17:00 CET on Wednesday, 22 April,” said an email sent out by FIFA on Tuesday. “Along with this set of tickets, additional tickets will continue to be released to the public on an ongoing basis through the Final on July 19 (subject to availability).”
Curious and desperate, I tried my luck and chances that Wednesday to snag a pair of tickets to the US home opener vs. Paraguay at SoFi Stadium. I logged into my FIFA account, proved my sentience as a human being by inputting a code, and then waited on a page for about 10 minutes while the ticket queue loaded up.
The next page took me to another ticket queue that moved at the breakneck speed of a drunken gerbil in a stack of hay. I gave up after 30 minutes of seeing the queue meter shift all of two millimeters.
Curiosity got the best of me again on Friday and so I tried again. I expected the website to laugh at me in some way when I logged in...but nope! The site took me straight to the ticket selection window. After a few seconds of shock, I filtered my choices to games only in Los Angeles.
There were no tickets available for the Round of 32, but there were some available for the group stage games between US & Paraguay, Iran vs. New Zealand, and Turkey vs. US. There were also tickets available for the quarterfinal match on July 10.
I snuck a peek at the opening game and the quarterfinal game. A ticket behind the goal of the opening match was on sale for $2,735.00. A ticket behind the goal on the opposite end of the stadium for the quarterfinal match cost $5,730.00.
I still couldn’t believe my luck, as it were, so I added the tickets to my cart...and just like that, I had two tickets to the opening match and two tickets to the quarterfinal waiting to be paid for and collected. That’s as far as I got before I cancelled the transaction.
FIFA claims to have sold nearly two million tickets last November before the start of the third phase of ticket sales. It’s currently anyone’s guess how many tickets are still up for grabs. It goes without saying that it all depends on the game, the location, etc.
FIFA sold a total of 3,182,406 tickets for the 2022 tournament in Qatar, which featured 16 games less than this year’s tournament. Depending on stadium capacity, this year’s ticket sales could reach the 4 million mark.
