The ticketing process for the 2026 World Cup has been widely described as a fiasco, enraging soccer fans who find the high prices and confusing purchasing system unacceptable.

But a strange new dynamic is emerging: even as official tickets vanish for marquee matches, secondary platforms are flooded with unsold inventory, and prices for some games are starting to crater.

The result of all this? A gentrified tournament that could also feature thousands of empty seats.

Despite the steep prices, Mexico’s three first-round games — the June 11 opener against South Africa in Mexico City, June 18 against South Korea in Guadalajara, and June 24 against the Czech Republic in the capital — have all sold out through official channels, although some are still available on resale platforms at steeply inflated prices.

But Mexican fans say their stadiums will be filled only with the well-off. True fans have been priced out by FIFA’s dynamic pricing model.

After hosting two fan-friendly previous editions, in 1970 and 1986, the 2026 tournament has become gentrified, Mexican commentators are saying.

Sports journalist Marion Reimers put it bluntly: “[Football] moves further and further away from the people who once made it great, away from the working class, away from the public who can’t afford a million-peso ticket for the World Cup opening.”

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