What FIFA is getting wrong about the 2026 World Cup

Over a year ago while moderating a session on sports tourism at an event in Houston, I was asked if the 2026 FIFA World Cup would be a success or not. I replied then with what has since become my mantra: “If the tournament is a success, it’s because of the local host committees. If the tournament is a failure, it’s because of FIFA.”

Wednesday saw another run of tickets released to the public as cities promoted the 50-day countdown to the World Cup, a tournament marked by the extraordinary money grab from the organizer as it has been about the actual action.

Based in large part on the excellent reporting by The Athletic, between the drama that comes with transit costs in New Jersey, the slowdown in hotel bookings and the issues in actually selling tickets, one thing is clear: FIFA looks at the United States soccer market as uneducated, a miscalculation that has led to a PR disaster.

The United States soccer fan market is mature now, not like it was in 1994 when FIFA first visited the country. At that time, soccer fans did not have exposure to world soccer that they do now thanks to various streaming services. The organizing committee in 1994 made the pricing affordable (some matches were $25) as a way to attract fans. Back then, it was the first time fans saw worldwide stars; now, fans can see every match of Harry Kane or Christian Pulisic. Fans know what teams are contenders and what teams don’t have anyone on a Champions League squad.  

FIFA has failed to recognize the maturation of the market, perhaps ignoring that for a few years now, U.S. soccer has been criticized by fans of the men’s national team for its exorbitant pricing for matches. The same happened with the Premier League hosting summer preseason events as well as The Soccer Champions Tour that ran for several seasons with prices in the hundreds of dollars for teams that have massive names but was often a showcase for players that few heard of.

One of the latest coups de grace was when FIFA, of all organizations, criticized the New Jersey Transit for its pricing of trains after games. The idea that FIFA would be telling somebody it was price gouging and not being consumer friendly is — shall we say — ‘rich’ in irony.

(I will note that the idea of tickets being exorbitantly priced is not contained to FIFA, given The Ryder Cup announced this week it will be charging almost $600 per ticket for the 2027 event in Ireland, almost twice the previous high for a European host. I will also admit that we have tickets for four World Cup matches this summer in four different cities.)

 FIFA will make a host of claims about its success, about the number of people wanting tickets, about the amount of money it will make. None of it can be trusted. Instead of this summer being a celebration of the sport, FIFA is positioning the tournament to be a celebration of Gianni Infantino’s ego, a Faustian bargain where he thought as long as he cozied up to politicians, he would get whatever he wanted. 

I remember one thing a host city executive told me more than a year ago as FIFA started its planning, a phrase executives would message each other after dealing with what became a series of outlandish conference calls: “Remember, FIFA hasn’t had to deal with a democracy in a long time.”

Along with democracy, FIFA also forgot one of the tenants of capitalism: market dynamics are driven by various factors including income, price and consumer taste. Fans so far have shown that when it comes to taste, FIFA is sour.

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This Week’s Winners

• Joel Lamp in Huntsville, Alabama, has been innovative in getting softball tournaments and other events at Toyota Field in recent years and pulled in a big one recently as the SEC Softball Tournament will be held at Toyota Field starting next year, the first time it has been at a neutral site since 2003 after this year’s tournament will be held at the University of Kentucky. Toyota Field serves as the home of the wonderfully named Rocket City Trash Pandas, a Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels in the Southern League. 

• One of the few people who run both a city’s tourism bureau and sports commission is Kathy Nelson in Kansas City. The Kansas City Sports Commission was named Sports Commission of the Year in the large market category at the 2026 Sports ETA Symposium in Las Vegas, one of the many annual awards handed out by the organization. The award marked the first time in the organization’s 60-year history it has received the honor.

• Linda Logan and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission have worked for months to lobby the NWSL to expand the league to its destination and that came true on Tuesday as Columbus was named the 18^th franchise in the NWSL starting with the 2028 season. The franchise will play home games at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, home of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew since 2021. Women’s soccer has been a regular visitor to Columbus; the U.S. women’s national team has played 13 matches in the city all-time with a 10-1-2 record. Columbus, along with Indianapolis, have become key women’s sports strongholds in the Midwest.

• The U.S. Olympic Trials for Gymnastics was an event that Greg Fante and the Louisville Sports Commission had targeted for years, and the work paid off when USAG awarded the destination the Trials and the chance to host Gymnastics City USA 2028. Louisville had hosted the Nastia Liukin Cup from 2003 through 2025, a key event on the USAG calendar that was part of Louisville’s long-term recruitment process to earn the right to host the Trials.

This Week’s Thank Yous

Thank you to new subscribers Johanna Huybers, Justin Shaw, Frank Supovitz, Travis Murphy, Mark Jones, Collin Abrahamson, Jenica Villamor, Kayla Adams, Alex Kenzakowski, Molly Arbogast, Rich Perelman, Patrick Cansfield, Eric Engelbarts, Nick Dawes, Matt Storey, Christine Skofronick, Stacey Hepp, Igor Bakovic, Eric Nemeth, Ashley Goodrich, Brendan Fox, Kate Hudson, Lyndsey Fairburn, Lala Ismailova, Millie Osguthorpe, Jesse Ghiorzi, Ally Dorrough, Jim Brett, Pete Kirschner, Jordan Lyda, Tony Cordasco, Cameron Angus, Joey Jewell, Adam Andrasko, Janis Burke, Zayd Shehadeh, Jared Paventi, Sarah Doyle, Greg Hardy, Derek Byrne, Holly Perella, Davis Tutt, Greg Fante, Ben Nichols, Clare Clark and John Poch.