Growing fears surrounding the sale of World Cup tickets have reached new heights after the revelation that 50,000 seats are set to be empty for a friendly in Florida next week.
The tournament, which is being staged in the US, Canada and Mexico, kicks off on June 12 (AEST) and will consist of 104 matches, finishing in New Jersey on July 20.
However, there has been widespread outrage from football fans regarding the ticket prices set by Fifa, the sport’s world governing body.
Now the notion of fans being priced out of the tournament is becoming a realistic prospect amid a report from The Sun that just 13,000 tickets have been purchased for the warm-up game between England and New Zealand in Tampa on June 7 (AEST).
The Raymond James Stadium, where the match is being held, can hold up to 69,000 people.
The cheapest tickets for the match are understood to be $100 (A$140), significantly cheaper than games at the World Cup itself.
Yet the failure to sell tickets will ring alarm bells for both Fifa and US president Trump — who has made himself a face of the tournament.
World Cup ticket prices have included Fifa’s own resale website, Fifa Marketplace, advertising four tickets to the final in New York at a cost of more than $2 million ($A2.8 million) each.
A document, dated April 10, that was sent to local organisers, obtained by The Athletic, revealed that there are 40,934 tickets purchased for the USA’s opening World Cup game against Paraguay at the Sofi Stadium on June 13 (AEST).
Fifa lists the venue’s capacity at 69,650.
Category 1 tickets are priced at $2,730, and Category 2 tickets cost $1,940. Category 3, meanwhile, runs at $1,120.
Trump recently made the shocking admission he would not pay for World Cup tickets given the prices.
In a phone call interview with the New York Post, he said: “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.
“If people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can’t go, I would be disappointed, but, you know, at the same time, it’s an amazing success.
“I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me to be able to go.”
