FIFA is opening its last-minute phase of World Cup ticketing Tuesday, and apparently droves of Americans will be streaming down to South America for soccer this summer. As a matter of fact, the US is currently the No. 2 country in terms of demand for tickets — behind only the host country, Brazil — after being outside the Top Ten at the 2010 World Cup.
Four million Americans are trying to land World Cup tickets, with the demand seven times higher than the 2010 tournament. Granted, that was in South Africa, while this summer’s World Cup is in Brazil, but the numbers are surprising, with demand in the US outstripping that in Germany by 3:1 and Spain by 2:1.
According to FIFA, 2,577,662 tickets have already been allocated, and there will be 199,519 on sale for 54 of the 64 matches — including all three US games. The widest selection is available from viagogo, which is the world’s largest ticket exchange. Founder Eric Baker — who also co-founded StubHub — said demand for World Cup tickets is growing as stateside interest in soccer burgeons.
“As the summer approaches, excitement is building around the World Cup and consequently we’ve seen a huge rise in demand for tickets from fans in the United States, where soccer is definitely a sport on the rise,” Baker said in a statement.
With the US drawn into the so-called Group of Death — against Ghana June 16, Portugal June 22 and Germany June 26 — all three group stage games are hot tickets. Tickets start at $205, with US fans forking over an average of $2,800 on tickets.
That said, according to viagogo, Americans aren’t just rooting for the US. The country being the melting pot that it is, the most popular request from the United States, thanks to its large Mexican-American contingent, is actually the group stage tilt between Mexico and host Brazil.