Empty seats at USA’s opening World Cup match after ticket price controversy

The USA’s opening match of the World Cup 2026 played out in front of more empty seats to raise further questions about Fifa’s ticket prices for the tournament.

The World Cup co-hosts played their first match against Paraguay at the 70,000-capacity SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, but it failed to sell out. Pockets of empty seats could be seen clearly in the middle and lower tiers either side of the halfway line, in some of the most expensive parts of the stadium.

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Tickets remained on sale in the hours before kick-off but at extremely high prices, ranging between $1,940 and $2,735 in the Category 1 and Category 2 tiers. Last month, US president Donald Trump even said he “wouldn’t pay” the four-figure prices fans were quoted for to attend the USA-Paraguay match.

There were thousands of empty seats in just the second match of the tournament between South Korea and Czech Republic in Guadalajara on Thursday evening. There were also empty seats at Canada’s opening match against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto early on Friday.

Only 29 matches had sold out before the start of the World Cup on Thursday, with tickets still available on Fifa’s ticketing website for 75 matches in the days before the opening match, despite Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s claim that demand has been “unprecedented”.

It comes as ticketing practices for the 2026 World Cup are to be investigated by chief legal officers in the United States. The attorneys generals of New York and New Jersey insist Fifa must answer questions after allegations of “artificially inflating prices” and “misleading fans” over the sale of match tickets, with world football’s governing body subpoenaed to provide information.

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Supporters have reported they were “misled” about the location of seats, including through the creation of more expensive ‘front’ category tickets released after the initial sales.

It is also alleged variable pricing through various phases and subject to demand had allowed Fifa to raise prices for about 90 of the 104 fixtures by an average of 34 per cent. Fifa has also been able to hold back seats before releasing them later, driving up pricing by increasing scarcity.

Infantino defended the price of World Cup tickets on the eve of the tournament, pointing towards the exorbitant cost of attending play-off matches in US sports, such as the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, and stating the World Cup is a bigger event.

The pricing of the World Cup has been a hugely controversial issue since tickets were first released in November, with the initial sales drop revealing £3,000 tickets for the World Cup final and fans with a £5,000 bill to follow their teams right through to the final. The 2026 World Cup is estimated to be up to five times more expensive than the last World Cup in Qatar, with Infantino targeting an unprecedented revenues of $13bn from the tournament.