Ticket Plan Is Announced for the World Cup
World Cup tickets will be available to the general public in record numbers, organizers say, but not until June, three months after the conclusion of a “private sale” to soccer insiders.
Officials of the 1994 World Cup on Wednesday revealed their strategy for selling 3.6 million tickets, the most ever offered for soccer’s biggest event. The 24-team tournament runs from June 17-July 17 and will be held in nine cities.
The tickets will not be cheap, but prices announced are in line with those from the 1990 World Cup in Italy, which sold 2.8 million tickets, the previous record. For 1994, ticket prices range from $25 for the cheapest seat at a first-round match, to $475 for the best seat at the final. The average ticket price is $58.
Alan Rothenberg, chairman of World Cup USA, again predicted that every ticket would be sold for all 52 matches. If that happens, ticket sales would generate more than $200 million.
“We trust our American friends when they say they will sell all the tickets and have all the seats occupied,” said Joseph Blatter of Germany, general secretary of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body.
FIFA will be watching the ticket sales carefully, monitoring the pace for signs of American interest in a game that is the most popular everywhere in the world but in North America.
The first phase of ticket sales has begun and is offered only to the U.S. soccer community--members of the U.S. Soccer Federation, registered officials and coaches and fans who have called or written requesting ticket information. It is too late to be included in this first sale. Ticket applications were sent to 1.7 million people. These members of the “soccer family” will be offered a discount--as much as 20%--on tickets bought for the first round and round of 16. No more than 10 tickets may be purchased by any one person.
All early-round tickets will be sold in strips called a stadium package. For the Rose Bowl, for example, that will include four first-round matches and one in the round of 16.
The private sale will run for two months, until March 31. The second phase, the public sale, begins in June and will be conducted by mail and phone only. Tickets will be available from Ticketmaster. All tickets for later rounds will go on sale in the fall via a computerized lottery system.
Individual tickets will be offered only if all packaged tickets are not sold.
According to World Cup officials, preference for late-round tickets will be given to those who bought tickets for early-round matches. Only an unspecified “limited number” of late-round tickets will be available for the general public.
Rothenberg said much care was taken to ensure that tickets would be “affordable for families but still high enough to pay for the greatest World Cup in history.”
Affordability may be debatable. A family of four will pay at least $560 for the cheapest tickets in the stadium series--and as much as $1,420--for matches involving teams that have yet to be determined.
Game tickets will be priced in three categories, according to seat location. Prices for most first-round games will range from $25-$65. Tickets for the stadium series, five matches, are priced at $140 for Category 3 seats, $245 for Category 2 and $355 for Category 1, the best seats.
Individual tickets for the semifinals at the Rose Bowl will cost $90 for seats behind the goals, $200 for seats in the corner of the end zones and $300 for seats between the end lines.
For the opening game in Chicago, prices range from $30-$120 per ticket. By comparison, tickets for the opening match of the 1990 World Cup ranged from $15-$120.
Sixty-five percent of the World Cup tickets will be distributed in the United States, officials said, which means about 2.3 million tickets. About 10% of the available tickets will be reserved for official sponsors, half in the United States and half to the rest of the world.
World Cup Ticket Prices
The following are the ticket prices for the World Cup soccer games, which will be available to the general public in June, three months after the conclusion of a “private sale” to soccer insiders.
Competition Per Game Ticket Prices and Approxi Phase City Endline to Endline Corners Opening Game (1) $120 $70 First Game (2) $75 $50 First-Round Games (3) $65 $46 Round of Sixteen (4) $85 $60 Quarterfinals (5) $140 $80 Semifinals (6) $300 $200 Third-Place Game (7) $125 $100 Final (8) $475 $300
Competition mate Locations Phase Behind Goals Opening Game $40 First Game $30 First-Round Games $25 Round of Sixteen $35 Quarterfinals $55 Semifinals $90 Third-Place Game $60 Final $180
(1) Chicago
(2) Pasadena, Palo Alto, Pontiac, Mich., Boston, Dallas, East Rutherford, N.J., Orlando, Fla., Washington
(3) Chicago, Pasadena, Palo Alto, Pontiac, Mich., Boston, Dallas, East Rutherford, N.J., Orlando, Fla., Washington
(4) Chicago, Pasadena, Palo Alto, Pontiac, Mich., Boston, Dallas, East Rutherford, N.J., Orlando, Fla., Washington
(5) Palo Alto, Boston, Dallas, East Rutherford, N.J.
(6) Pasadena, East Rutherford, N.J.
(7) Pasadena
(8) Pasadena
