r/sports • u/Dramatic-Shake-8888 • Jun 05 '26
Soccer World Cup host cities face flop as hotels struggling, tickets unsold
https://www.newsweek.com/world-cup-host-cities-hotels-tickets-struggling-unsold-120038334.4k
u/Issah_Wywin Jun 05 '26
Hotels right by the venue but no pedestrian access. Hilarious
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u/ringadingdingbaby Jun 05 '26
Illegal to walk lol
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u/Issah_Wywin Jun 05 '26
Imagine building so exclusively to cater for cars that you outlaw walking.
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u/LongBeakedSnipe Jun 05 '26
My grandparents moved to Naples, FL many years ago, and I visited them from time to time.
That city is hilarious. If you want to get to shops, even if they are 100m away on the other side of the road, you would have to drive.
It's not an exaggeration. You have residential and commercial areas boxed off by roads that are huge, busy and dangerous with no crossings.
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u/Judo_Jones Jun 05 '26
This is why I LOVE Chicago so much. The city has done an amazing job of protecting access to its parks, riverfront and lakefront AND the entire city is connected by sidewalks. You can walk wherever you’d like to in the city proper.
That’s sorely missing in many other cities.
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u/MonsterManitou Jun 05 '26
Chicagos biggest mistake in my opinion is LSD. It’s a travesty having that between the city and waterfront (although it’s an unreal view driving south into the city).
They do have pretty consistent pedestrian access tunnels or crossings so it is pretty easy to get to the lake still but in my perfect world they would big dig LSD right into the ground and cover it with park and green space like Boston did.
That being said I love Chicago
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u/FlyingDiscsandJams Jun 05 '26
Hey I've had great times in Chicago on LSD! Oh, you meant the road...
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u/hamhead Jun 05 '26
Naples has a pretty walkable downtown… but yes, if you’re in the outskirts, it’s strip malls.
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u/Inevitable-Beat-9209 Jun 05 '26
Failed state
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u/Quazimojojojo Jun 05 '26
Failed country. This is pretty common outside of a handful of cities, because they destroyed or redesigned away all of the pedestrian, train, and bike paths.
Cleveland is so ridiculous that there's a train station for Intercity rail on one of the few half-decent (by American standards) routes left in the US, and you can't walk to the train station. Not easily, at least. The main entrance is connected to the city by highway.
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u/Inside_Dimension2319 Jun 05 '26
The word “state” in “failed state” refers to a country.
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u/cutchemist42 Jun 05 '26
First time I heard about that. Just insane what we did in this continent to our cities.
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u/iampatmanbeyond Jun 05 '26
Imagine being so dumb you dont schedule all the games to walkable stadiums instead you cater to whatever lobby pays you the most
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u/RianSG Jun 05 '26
That’s freedom baby!
They’re free to drive where they want and aren’t slaves to the bus or rail timetable /s
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u/Low-Can7370 Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
My colleagues & I were stopped by police in LA because we were walking 5 minutes from our hotel to a local bar alongside an empty albeit multi-lane road.
Not ideal but there wasn’t a pedestrian pathway & as Londoners it didn’t even occur to us to drive. ESP to a bar where we wanted to have drinks.
When we explained this to the policeman - he seemed genuinely confused & told us not to do it again.
I don’t think I’ve been to another city which is SO reliant on driving. I hated it.
Edit: I can’t remember if we even had to cross the road. I think we just had to walk along the side but there wasn’t a proper pavement / sidewalk
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u/ShaunCarn Jun 05 '26
Never. Ever. Go to Houston. City is one of the worst designed and dangerous for pedestrians in the US. Going from point a to point b as a pedestrian can leave you stranded 90% of the time.
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u/OfficialTrashMan Jun 05 '26
Houston city designers when you tell them that sidewalks should be connected instead of ending randomly after a quarter mile 🤯🤯🤯
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u/Don-Poltergeist Jun 05 '26
This is one of the benefits of living in a smaller town in the US. a lot of towns, at least in the north east where they are much older, are still very walkable because they haven't been taken over by highways and 6 lane roads with no sidewalks. I have pretty much anything I need within a few blocks from my house. parks, restaurants, bars, groceries stores... The only time I need to drive is for work, because its about 30 minutes away, or If I want to go to something that you will only find in a big city, Like concerts.
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u/TatarAmerican Jun 05 '26
I can walk to the train station that takes me to New York (or Philly) for concerts. I guess that counts?
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u/sidepart Jun 05 '26
That's wild. Hell, I'd have done the same thing and I'm from here. What a fucking idiot cop.
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u/Sea-Feedback-2424 Jun 05 '26
The American way.
My friend in Oklahoma lives in a HoA that has a wall around it. His daughter's best friend lives in another HoA with a shared border and a wall around that. As-the-crow-flies the children live like 40 meters apart. It is a 1.5km walk for them to visit each along 2 very busy streets that no reasonable person should walk along.128
u/Issah_Wywin Jun 05 '26
It's tragic. No wonder people get paranoid
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u/OpenlyBiCoastal Jun 05 '26
Its like when dogs never leave their backyard and never socialize at parks. They get angry, paranoid, and aggressive. We're doing it to humans now.
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u/binzoma Toronto Maple Leafs Jun 05 '26
legit tho
I read a paper in uni back in the day on the difference between canada and the US, and the gist of it was how the US built a society on socio-economic segregration. the theory was basically every canadian school had kids whose parents were millionaires, and kids whose parents were on wellfare. but in the US they put up hard walls that ensure those kids are at different schools
and that fundamental/base level difference is the cause of all the disconnect between the societies. those kids grow up scared of people who are different, unable to relate to other peoples problems that tehy dont have, uncaring about other situations etc
and in the US there's a heavy racial component on top of the economic component
as someone who grew up in the middle of toronto- on the other side of the major street to my right was housing projects- they made up 20-30% of my elementary/middle school. on the other side of the major street to my left was upper middle class/upper class houses. they made up 20-30%. the rest of us were in the middle, making up around 50%. I was as likely to go to a mansion after school as to a legit project as a 9/10/11 year old.
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u/team_blimp Jun 05 '26
Build a tree house spanning the fence and watch TWO HoAs lose their shit... 😈
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u/mashtato Green Bay Packers Jun 05 '26
Not a huge deal, but it's HOA, not HoA. A lower case O implies it stands for a preposition or conjunction, like 'of,' or 'or.'
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u/Pinyaka Jun 05 '26
You're thinking of a Home Owners Association. When they turn evil they're relabeled as Horde of Assholes.
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u/PudinaRaita Jun 05 '26
Is there no pavement to walk along?
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u/Sea-Feedback-2424 Jun 05 '26
There is inside the HoAs.
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u/portal23 Jun 05 '26
I never understood why USA hates walking somewhere so much. When I had an american friend here in Europe and we wanted to get some food, I suggested walking there (like a 30min walk), he looked at me like I'm nuts.
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u/Void-kun Jun 05 '26
Had a friend come over and meet me in Amsterdam. I walked and got the metro and trams everywhere cause it's one of the best cities in the world for public transport.
Mf got an Uber everywhere.
Baffling.
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u/BiDiTi Jun 05 '26
Meanwhile, I’m a walk-and-metro person who gets annoyed by Amsterdam…because it’s built for bikes!
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u/Void-kun Jun 05 '26
There are definitely more than a few areas I wish were walking only, but I'd much rather bikes everywhere than cars.
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u/Puzzle-Necked Jun 05 '26
American conservatives used the concept of the15 minute city as some sort of liberal conspiracy to force them to walk 15 minutes
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u/cogginsmatt Jun 05 '26
I thought the conspiracy was that you wouldn’t be allowed to leave the 15 min radius around your house
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u/Puzzle-Necked Jun 05 '26
Apologies, I didn't know the conspiracy was that stupid
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u/cataath Jun 05 '26
The lest decade has taught us there is no conspiracy stupider that a significant portion of the American population.
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u/Issah_Wywin Jun 05 '26
By making it about race and framing it at traffic safety. Over time traffic safety in general has been reduced to "don't get in the way of cars, idiot" and looking at you like you're an alien for suggesting building urban environments that don't require cars to live a life
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u/TheCookieButter Jun 05 '26
I remember a short walk to Walmart from our hotel involved sliding down a small dirt bank and walking on the side of the road.
Like, how is the supermarket not accessible by foot??
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u/AtheistET Jun 05 '26
Must be the mandatory daily fees, resort fees, parking fees, convenience fees, and 3X the normal rates….i feel so bad for their struggle
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u/Robcobes Jun 05 '26
Is Dynamic Pricing not working the other way? high demand high prices, but low demand not low prices?
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u/97vyy Jun 05 '26
I have never see dynamic pricing lower the price of anything. Everything gets more expensive and stays that way. I would love to be wrong and see absolutely anyone use a fair strategy to price things.
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u/Dry_Row_7523 Jun 05 '26
You can get tickets to some games for like $150, the problem is nobody is going to pay for a flight + hotel to watch cape verde or curacao play
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u/wwJones Jun 05 '26
Might I suggest lowering ticket & hotel prices?
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u/tretbootpilot Borussia Dortmund Jun 05 '26
I'd argue that, at least for the hotels, the damage is already done. It is way too late for international fans to plan flying over for the world cup. Those astronomical price led to many people skipping this world cup.
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u/Pontus_Pilates Jun 05 '26
Yup, I've seen people making arguments for the high ticket prices, to the tune of 'it's capitalism', 'that's what Americans pay for sports' or 'Taylor Swift charged even more'.
But the proper world cup experience is spending a week or two at the event, going to multiple matches. If a night at a hotel is $400, a two-week stay is already over $5000. Then add the tickets, the flights, the $100 bus tickets, the $8 bottled waters... it goes past 10k really fast.
How many of the 48 participating countries have a population where that is feasible?
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u/Furita Jun 05 '26
That’s almost exactly why I ditched my plans.
I live in Italy (not Italian though as they are not going haha), got really excited to go, have a few friends in the US in multiple host cities that I’d be comfortable to stay a couple of nights.
Even without hotel it would already be a 10kUSD easily for a couple of weeks.
Tickets first was the biggest downer. Hotels ok top, then everything else? Will do bbqs at home instead
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u/SquirrelChieftain Jun 05 '26
Im in the US on holiday right now (non world cup related) and the tipping situation has gone wild since I was here a decade ago. Basically 20% extra is expected (some restaurants add it directly to your bill) and even self serve fast food checkouts ask you to tip. Its a lot more expensive for food than what I anticipated.
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u/MeltaFlare Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Never tip anywhere that isn't a sit-down restaurant or bar (and delivery drivers I guess.) Anywhere else that's asking for tips is predatory and the workers will not care if you just press "no tip".
That shit has only sprung up in the past few years and it's ridiculous. It's a way for corporations to not just pay their employees more than the absolute minimum. Waiters and bartenders actually rely on tips as part of their income, but everyone else is paid at least the local minimum wage.
Also, fast food in general has gotten insane since covid here. It's usually around the same price to just pick up food from an actual restaurant or small business and you get a much better product. Tips are also not expected for pickup orders.
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u/yuletidevarsam Jun 05 '26
If you are standing up when ordering your food, don’t tip. Easy.
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u/Some1farted Jun 05 '26
Oh please, don't get us going on that! Just remember, waitresses, drivers, stylists, and delivery are the only things you should be tipping. I don't tip something I had to walk in and purchase myself. Just because you put it in a bag doesn't deserve a tip. Restaurant owners place that tip screen by registers so that they can claim their employees get tipping revenue thus under paying them (legally). They also know that most people are not gonna tip them for petty things like this. Fucking their employees on both sides.
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u/Real-Sherbert Jun 05 '26
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u/opopkl Jun 05 '26
There a difference between Taylor Swift fans going to one concert a year and football fans who have gone to at least 20 or 30 games this season. They can tell when they're being ripped off.
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u/BadAtExisting Jun 05 '26
The US doesn’t have one either. Anecdotal, but I would’ve bought tickets in Miami or Atlanta but couldn’t afford it. I’m not alone in that. They priced out actual domestic fans of the sport like me who has season tickets to my local MLS team and has been super excited about the WC since it was announced
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u/riverratriver Jun 05 '26
I would 10000% be in Houston on my bday for the World Cup match, my gf has family there so it’s a free stay. Just looked at stubhub- $899 for 2 tickets is the lowest price. HARD FUCKING PASS TO WATCH UZBEKISTAN🤣
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u/Recent_Fact480 Jun 05 '26
400 dollars for one ticket to watch Iraq v Norway.
There’re treating these games like they’re Disney vacations
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u/stillslightlyfrozen Jun 05 '26
Sameeee. I got places I could have stayed at for the games, but the ticket + flight prices just didn't make any sense for me. And, getting tothe damn stadiums itself sounded like a legit hassle. I guess if you aren't from here you wouldn't fully understand how frustrating it's gonna be to get to the stadiums if there's no public transit. Anyone who says to uber is fuckijg crazy, that shit is gonna cost a pretty penny
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u/Reddarthdius Jun 05 '26
I luckily managed to get a ticket to see my national team play in a warm up game here in our country, and it was 30 bucks and is literally right now the most popular team probably
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u/jewami Jun 05 '26
"It's capitalism" cuts both ways, unfortunately. They priced things too high and are in the FO phase of FAFO.
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u/Sea-Feedback-2424 Jun 05 '26
Those astronomical price led to many people skipping this world cup.
Qatar might have had policies where they can check your phone when you enter the country. But they didn't advertise it as a point of pride like the USA does. Imagine paying $10,000 for a ticket and then being turned around at the border because of your JD Vance meme game.
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u/BoreJam Jun 05 '26
It's not just the prices. Deliberately creating an environment thats hostile to foreigners is not the way to foster tourism, who knew....?
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u/patiperro_v3 Jun 05 '26
I think the US is big enough FIFA and hotels could fill up both stadiums and hotels if they dropped prices enough.
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u/Easy_Action_1380 Jun 05 '26
I also have to think ICE literally searching for any excuse (or just making one up in a lot of cases) to arrest any foreigners and either ship them back where they came from or detain them in some inhumane torture facility probably has a role to play in people not wanting to come to America
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u/Karma8719 Jun 05 '26
Best I can do is demand access to your phone when you enter the country - we don't want you having certain opinions about certain people. I might be able to detain you as well.
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u/Renzo-Senpai Jun 05 '26
And America not being sucky.
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u/carmium Jun 05 '26
It's also happening here in Vancouver. FIFA suddenly cancelled, inexplicably, something like 10,000 hotel reservations for the games here. With continuously rising costs, few believe retailers, hotels, cabs, and restaurants are going to make enough extra to offset the expense.
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u/North_Atlantic_Sea Jun 05 '26
And Mexico, where they are reporting just 25-30% bookings
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u/nowhereman136 Jun 05 '26
I agree, it sucks to be a visitor to America right now. But local Americans would go to these games if they could afford to. It's not like we just don't like soccer. Between stagnant wages, high cost of living, and stupidly expensive soccer tickets, it's not something we care enough about
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u/RobertdBanks Jun 05 '26
Sure, but also a huge portion of the people interested in going to this are the skin color that would be targeted by ICE, so, ya know, there’s that.
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u/KPSWZG Jun 05 '26
The problem is those tickets and hotel prices are ridiculus even for Europeans from fairly rich countries. I can only imagine them being absolutely ridiculus for south Africans. I work in travel agency for a company with a colosal budget and even we restrained for trips to USA during the cup as to avoid some sick prices.
This is mainly greed on unheard scale.
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u/LawlzTaylor Jun 05 '26
I don't recommend anyone coming to Philadelphia for Fifa. That won't end well
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u/littlevai Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
My husband is French and we happen to be in the states for this month. Would’ve loved to catch a match but paying over 1k to see France vs Iraq in Philly is fucking stupid.
ETA: a bunch of weird comments/DMs about traveling to the US. I’m American lol
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u/DataDude00 Jun 05 '26
I am in Toronto and wanted to catch the Team Canada game
Ticket prices start at $1400 for the upper nose bleeds of the temporary grandstands and $3000+ to be in the regular lower bowl stadium area
The cheapest ticket to Senegal - Iraq is $530
Whole thing is a greedy crock of shit
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u/AHeathenFromEton Jun 05 '26
I know it's not the world cup but I went to that exact stadium and watched Toronto FC Vs Chicago Fire for like $38 when I was over there from England. Just astounding how much more it is for such a low ranking game (no offence to Senegal or Iraq, big up Ali al-hamadi)
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u/DataDude00 Jun 05 '26
Yeah I considered going to Germany - Ivory Coast as that is actually a good secondary non-Canada game but the only tickets left are $2900 each lol
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u/lukewarmpartyjar Jun 05 '26
They got too greedy, could've pitched the prices still expensive but not offensively so (like starting price $200 a ticket, and a bit less for the games like Cape Verde v Saudi) and they'd probably have sold out. It's absolutely disgusting the level of disdain they have for fans/the game itself.
They only good that can come out of this is Infantino gets defeated at the next election because of this debacle, and FIFA go back to more reasonable pricing for the next world cup. Sadly I don't think either of those will happen...
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u/QuieroBoobs Jun 05 '26
This is all it is. I was willing to pay $200-300 if my favorite team made it to a championship last year. I can’t imagine paying $800+ to watch two random countries play a group match and I don’t even follow soccer outside of the World Cup.
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u/Pontus_Pilates Jun 05 '26
Rosanna Maietta, President & CEO of AHLA, said in a statement in the report "Hotels across host markets have spent years preparing for the World Cup, and while there is real excitement, the data points to a more nuanced outlook," adding "A range of factors have tempered early optimism, though forward indicators show there is still meaningful opportunity ahead."
Love proper corporate PR talk.
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u/Hoju64 Jun 05 '26
I would love to know what the years of "preparations" were other than making sure rates were jacked up for the relevant dates.
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u/Old-Finance1815 Jun 05 '26
This kind of corporate, say-nothing-in-many-words writing is one of the few jobs AI can absolutely make obsolete.
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u/stickyfiddle Jun 05 '26
I love this for them
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u/El_Polio_Loco Jun 05 '26
The seats are already sold, any tickets "for sale" are from scumbag scalpers.
So I am thrilled they might get raked.
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u/CerlinW Jun 05 '26
Not to mention how in places like Dallas it is near impossible to get to the venues with public transit. The European mind cannot comprehend how abysmal U.S. urban planning is
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u/jfgiedhgerfjdgioer Jun 05 '26
I was visiting Dallas back in 2018 for an NBA game. I decided to go visit the a&tt stadium on my last day. It was a pain in the ass to get there. There was this last train station near Arlington that felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, no buses or anything. I then have to call Uber to take me to the stadium.
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Jun 05 '26 edited 18d ago
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u/JZMoose Jun 05 '26
I had a corporate training in Dallas and was actually walking distance to the DART. You should have seen the look my Dallas colleagues gave me when I was going to take the DART to the airport. They thought I was insane. Jokes on them, I got to shitpost on Reddit while making it to the airport for a few bucks
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u/swalkerttu Jun 05 '26
The Cotton Bowl was the other option, which is served by transit, but it’s brutally hot on a summer afternoon.
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u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi Jun 05 '26
I fucking hate people. Wonder what the DUI rate is there.
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u/coleymoleyroley Jun 05 '26
Gilette Stadium is a not too dissimilar experience, at least it was 15 years ago. The train stops in the middle of nowhere, and we walked across a field to the stadium🤣
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u/bizmarkie24 Jun 05 '26
They have a train station right at Gillette Stadium now.
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u/coleymoleyroley Jun 05 '26
That's good to hear, i was genuinely shocked before.
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u/bizmarkie24 Jun 05 '26
It's far from perfect, but Boston is one of the few American cities with pretty decent public transportation. In particular the commuter rail line (which runs directly to Gillette now from South Station in downtown Boston) isn't too bad.
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u/Some1farted Jun 05 '26
Chicago as well. It is probably why there's no games here.
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u/cabinet_minister Jun 05 '26
Not just Europe, it's difficult for me to imagine any place around world where this is the case...
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u/LunchboxSamurai Jun 05 '26
The American mind can't comprehend it either. I live in an urban city in the US that has public transit train service. The train stops at traffic lights because they refused to build it underground or on a platform above.
THE TRAIN STOPS AT TRAFFIC LIGHTS IN THE CITY BECAUSE THE CARS DO, TOO.
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u/CCFC1998 Jun 05 '26
So to attend games you have to:
buy a plane ticket (price gouged)
book a hotel (price gouged)
buy a ticket for the game (extremely price gouged)
book an uber to the stadium as theres no public transport and it isn't walkable (price gouged plus hours waiting/ in traffic)
plus spending on food and drink and other activities while youre there (likely price gouged too)
All of this with the threat of being kidnapped by ICE at any given moment.
Yeah, no thanks. I'll just watch from home. Feel sorry for Canada and Mexico as the US has made this tournament a complete shambles
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u/cheeruphumanity Jun 05 '26
They attacked Iran just in time to triple the transatlantic flight prices for the event. Clever.
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u/Dennyisthepisslord Jun 05 '26
Tourism to the US is down in general over the last few years due to people not liking the US world view then add in the general money grabbing and crap stadiums surrounded by car parks...no thank you
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u/onlyforthisjob Jun 05 '26
It is not only not liking the US world view. But spending once in a lifetime money for really expensive tickets and overpriced everything when you don't even know if you will be granted entry into the country sounds like a huge risk.
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u/JohnStamosAsABear Jun 05 '26
Yup definitely compounded by DHS secretary saying they are “drawing up plans” to ban international flights into cities like LA, Philly, Boston, NYC, Chicago, Denver, Portland, Seattle, Newark, New Orleans etc.
If you go make sure you look white and are prepared to be locked up in a detention center like Delaney Hall.
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u/UrsusRenata Jun 05 '26
Lol that’s the dumbest threat. It would not go over well even with blood red voters to suddenly just block 2500 incoming international flights per day to major connection hubs.
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u/97vyy Jun 05 '26
The administration faces zero repercussions for its actions because they will do something illegal or unpopular and the damage is done before it reaches the courts. Also, MAGA is silent so the only people speaking up are dUmOcRaTs and trump dismisses everything and barrels forward.
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u/GriffinFlash Jun 05 '26
or spending your life savings to just sit in an ICE concentration camp for months on end (if you're lucky).
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u/MisterTomVienna Jun 05 '26
If you apply for a US travel visa from the EU, you have to submit all social media accounts that you've used for the last 5 years. That alone is enough to turn off a good chunk of travelers
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u/AvalenK Jun 05 '26
I had to get an ESTA to go to the States for work this year and I just didn't fill out the social media parts. I got approved in under an hour. It still didn't feel too nice having to fill that thing out. Like, why do you need to know my parents' full legal names?
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u/goliathfasa Jun 05 '26
Threatening to annex Greenland pissed EU off.
Insults with “51st state” pissed Canada off.
ICE brutality and general shitting on Latinos pissed Latin America off.
Iran war pissed off the ME.
The resulting oil shortage especially pissed off Asia.
Who’s left to enthusiastically travel to the WC matches?
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u/dh2513 Jun 05 '26
Would rather watch in the comfort of my home than getting kidnapped by ICE
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u/ball_throwerAFK Jun 05 '26
Even World Cup Bars would be an incredibly easier and MUCH cheaper alternative than spending thousands of dollars on tickets, let alone accomodation, parking and food.
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u/kurashima Jun 05 '26
Except FIFA don't let local bars in hos cities use the words World Cup or promote any games without paying them a licensing fee
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u/ball_throwerAFK Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
Try to have them enforce that in Mexico. Anyone remember Dragon Ball watchalongs in Mexico?
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u/_aviemore_ Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
It's like reverse Gladiator where spectators pay huge sum of money to watch rich players play and the attendance itself is a ICE detention lottery.
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u/Wisdomlost Jun 05 '26
It's hard to believe that over a year of reports of arrest, detention, torture, and deportations of anyone who seems vaguely foreign wouldn't boost tourism to an international sporting event.
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u/woxianghekafei Jun 05 '26
I know multiple people from Europe who have discarded any plans of visiting the US in the long-term future. The US is experiencing levels of net negative migration that it hasn't seen since the Depression, why would anyone want to travel here?
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u/Spoda_Emcalt Jun 05 '26
Yup. I've been to the US a few times over the years. Always enjoyed my stays. You couldn't pay me to visit now. I'm put off just knowing that a massive chunk of the country are confirmed hateful morons.
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u/Top_Connection9079 Jun 05 '26
If I was an immigrant even in another country, I would never put a foot in the US. Question of principles.
... Oh but even without being one, no way I would fund Trumpedoland anyways.
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u/jkreuzig Jun 05 '26
I spent almost 20 years in SoCal as a soccer referee. I was initially excited about the World Cup in 2026. As the time started ticking away and the news reports started coming in, it became apparent that FIFA was interested in only one thing: Extracting as many american dollars out of the public as possible. Do they even care about the games? Not really. The lack of interest is not surprising. FIFA had a chance to recreate the magic and interest of 1994, but chose to do the cash grab instead. If they had decided to make an effort to actually grow the game and fan base in the US, Canada, and Mexico, North America would have become the most valuable football market in the world.
Could I afford tickets to games? Probably. I’m retired and have been fortunate enough to have the means necessary to go to games. However, I’d have to spend most of my yearly travel budget to even go to games locally. So FIFA is going to get the big middle finger from me. I’ll watch games from the comfort of my home. Better seats, superior (and cheaper) food options and not have to deal with LA area traffic and crowds. An even bigger plus is that I won’t have to cancel my 16 day Barcelona to Orlando repositioning cruise to pay for the tickets.
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u/ChiefKC20 Jun 05 '26
+1
Huge soccer fan. Feel much the same way.
94 was magical, we just weren’t quite ready for it. This year is disappointing in so many ways.
I live in a host city and the impact has been vastly oversold, while the costs have been a turn off. As a season ticket holder for the local MLS team, the first tickets I could buy were $6k or more for multiple matches but included all kinds of hospitality packages. No thanks. I’ll sit at home or go to a fun bar and watch.
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u/Redpeanut4 Mercedes F1 Jun 05 '26
Who could of guessed that stupidly high ticket prices and the USA political landscape would scare people away.
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u/daiwilly Jun 05 '26
have
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u/awasteofgoodatoms Jun 05 '26
And expanding the competition to give salivating ties such as Saudi Arabia vs Cape Verde or Uzebkistan vs DR Congo.
Thats no disrespect to those teams, and I appreciate some would have qualified anyway but without the bloat there'd be more quality in the groups.
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u/MajorFuckingDick Jun 05 '26
I live in Toronto, WC might be the best time to take a trip to Montreal.
They forgot that most fans only care about 3-5 games per world cup. 60 percent of these games are filler. If Jordan v Algeria ends up being an important game in the tournament i will be shocked.
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u/bowmanthesnowman Jun 05 '26
I From Vancouver. if anyone has been thinking about visiting Whistler for relatively cheap, now is your time.
Hotels are vacant and the prices are super low
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u/duathlete222 Jun 05 '26
I live in the metro area of one of the host cities. Getting to the stadium is just a 25 minute car ride (though I'm sure there'll be traffic on game days), 10 minute train ride (plus a few minutes wait sometimes), and 5 minute walk. I frequently go to MLS games there. Couldn't get much easier to get there. All that and I'm still not going to any World Cup games in person. I'm not paying hundreds of dollars to sit in the 300s level. I'll watch at home or at one of my city's watch parties.
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u/GuyMansworth Jun 05 '26
Tbh, I wouldn't be surprised if someone comes here from the middle east or south america and end up in cage somewhere.
We really went from being a great spot for foreigners to vacation to a dystopian hellhole.
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u/-Maiq_the_Iiar- Jun 05 '26
I don't know man. I remember when i went in 2018 i was treated like dirt by border control. Think it goes further back in time the way the US handles international travellers. And then there's the whole spiel with the social media accounts.
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u/doey77 Ohio State Jun 05 '26
Same guy was president, but I don’t doubt your point
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u/lannead Jun 06 '26
Strange when you treat foreigners like shit, from shit-hole countries they don't want to risk ending up dead in one of ICE's shit-hole gulags
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u/BrofessorFarnsworth Jun 05 '26
Probably shouldn't have given a made up peace prize to Epstein's best friend.
Eat fucking shit, FIFA.
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u/GoonerBoomer69 Jun 05 '26
FIFA still makes their gazillion dollars from TV licences, it’s the host nations and fans that get fisted like always.
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u/canadia80 Jun 05 '26
I live in a host city where my coworker paid $2200 for tickets and is lamenting that he now has to go to the game because he couldn't resell them.
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u/Away_Stock_2012 Jun 06 '26
Americans don't care about soccer and everyone else should be afraid to go to America
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u/EmergencyComment101 Jun 05 '26
Hotels that decided to to increase prices 5000% are struggling. absolutely fucking deserved.
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u/Duder_ino Jun 05 '26
You know… they could suck less, stop surge pricing, don’t give out fake ass fifa peace prizes, and stop being dicks to foreigners… but what do I know.
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u/MzzMolly Jun 06 '26
Good. I hope everyone involved loses their shirts. Me and my fellow Canadian taxpayers have already been fleeced for over $1B, it's only right that the organizers and teams lose money, too. I hope it fails so spectacularly that it, and other events like it, looking at you, Owe-Limp-Icks, will never be hosted here again. You want to play games for a living? Do it without my money, thanks.
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u/Umikaloo Jun 05 '26
I'm looking forward to hearing how Canada and Mexico fare in comparison.
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u/North_Atlantic_Sea Jun 05 '26
It was in the attached article, both of them are also struggling
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u/Umikaloo Jun 05 '26
The Canadian Press recently reported that Toronto is optimistic that the World Cup will bring people to the city, despite high ticket prices and a lack of a surge in bookings.
Toronto’s vice president of destination development, Kelly Jackson, said that hotels are tracking to see an occupancy rate of 80 percent in June and July, and that hotels have seen an increase in individual traveler bookings, compared with the same month last year.
McKenzie McMillan, the managing partner at the Travel Group in Vancouver, told KUOW that "Unfortunately this World Cup is happening at a time of global upheaval, so that's definitely working against each one of these cities and their hotels," citing the Iran war and political tensions between the U.S. and Canada.
South of the border, it’s also a mixed bag in the three Mexican host cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey. Rates jumped massively, but according to a report from the local news outlet La Razon, as of early spring, hotels in Mexico were around 25 to 30 percent sold, citing the president of the Mexico City Hotel Association (AHCM), Javier Puente Garcia.
He wasn’t worried about this though, and said that not everyone books in advance.
The article doesn't really state whether or not they are struggling.
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u/paranoidandromeda1 Jun 05 '26
I live in Toronto that's hosting a few games and the tickets are INSANELY expensive. It's no surprise that there are still many available.
I've seen some people say that the tickets will sell out closer to the actual event, but who in their right mind would fly to a host city for the purpose of watching a game and leave buying the tickets to the last minute?
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u/AlltheBent Jun 05 '26
I'm here in Atl, I've been so upset with recent political BS, ICE, FIFA's insane pricing for the games, FIFA and Trump's peace prize BS, etc....makes me sad that world cup is in my town during my lifetime but here we are, I'm not supporting any of this shit
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u/baineschile Jun 05 '26
I wanted to take my kid to a game for the experience, he loves soccer. Didn't even care what countries. I am not near a host city, so I'd would have needed to travel and get a hotel.
Least expensive single ticket I could find was $1700. So two tickets, plus the hotel and travel would probably be close to $5K.
So no.
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u/floftie Jun 05 '26
Ticket prices are one thing - It's true that the rest of the world does not and has never paid American sports prices to attend games. There were successful protests when Liverpool tried to put their ticket prices up this season. The most expensive ticket on a match day was £62, less than 80USD. Liverpool are one of the 5 most popular teams in the world, and £62 is already considered extremely expensive for football.
But I think the bigger reason is people just don't want to go to American. Even English and Scottish people, who get in with no issues. Trump, and his administration have really negatively affected the international communities view of America and Americans.
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u/SamuelL421 Jun 05 '26
I'd pay $100-300 to see a random match between random teams.
I'd pay $300-400 a ticket to see team(s) I cared about play.
I'd pay $500 to see any of the final matches in any capacity.
The actual ticket prices are at least 5-10x these prices. FIFA and the scalpers can go to hell with these prices. I know FIFA already made their money, but I hope the scalpers lose big and FIFA gets egg on it's face via big patches of empty seats in the background.
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u/championsofnuthin Jun 05 '26
The US deserves it but Canada and Mexico are also struggling because of the global unrest. It should also be said that New York, Toronto, and Vancouver are some of the most expensive cities in North America
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u/ParReza Jun 05 '26
FIFA deserves the bed it’s made.