Fans are shelling out thousands of dollars to attend FIFA World Cup games in Toronto, with some of them telling CTV News that they are committed to cutting back elsewhere to be a part of soccer history.
While some pricy tickets remain unsold with one day to go until the first World Cup game in Toronto, most of the tickets for Toronto’s six World Cup games have been bought up, despite sky-high prices that have angered many soccer fans.
Henry Gomes tells CTV News Toronto he put down $2,600 for a pair of category three tickets to Canada’s opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium on June 12.
While the 33-year-old will only have to spend a few more dollars on public transit from Brampton to Liberty Village, he says he has had to cut back on his typical spending habits to afford the purchase.
“I am avoiding buying coffee,” Gomes said, as he started to rattle off the ways he was cutting down on costs. “Probably not a lot of Blue Jays games this year or big concerts, I’ll be skipping those. I’m probably not going to be buying a whole lot of new clothes and shoes.”
Gomes doesn’t regret his purchase. He recounted the World Cup watch parties held at home with his family as a child, international flags hanging throughout the house, and pointed to his love of Manchester United and the joy he would feel just watching “the spectacle of it all.”
“Growing up, the way that it worked out was that the World Cup was usually on years where I would be graduating from elementary school, high school, university,” Gomes explained. “It was very weird how that lined up.”
Chris Franco says he wasn’t fortunate enough to score tickets to the June 12 opener in Toronto, which would have been either a drive or GO Train away from his hometown of Barrie.
“I was hoping to get tickets for the first phase (of sales) right in Toronto because the first phase wasn’t too bad,” Franco said of the prices initially offered.
“But then there were more tickets coming out and the prices continued to increase to the point where it wasn’t feasible to see a game in Toronto. It’d be better to travel and spend a couple of nights in Vancouver and watch a game there.”
Franco will see Canada take on Qatar and then Switzerland out west. He says his seats, located in category two, cost $700 per ticket through the Voyageurs fan club, while his flights and hotel cost $2,600. Comparatively, he says he could have spent $2,395 per ticket to see Canada’s opening match in Toronto, closer to home.
“For a family of four, it’s just not feasible,” Franco said during an interview with CTV News Toronto.
Don Mustard nearly spent that amount for a seat in the second level of Toronto Stadium, spending roughly $3,035 per ticket. But that’s not including upgrading his Canada Red Soccer membership to legend status to get a better chance at securing seats in the initial sales phases, which costs $1,000.
“I figured that would give me certainty in getting tickets, and then I discovered that Voyageur members are paying $88 (through a small number of cheaper supporter tickets that FIFA announced in response to criticism over its ticket prices),” Mustard said.
Mustard subsequently purchased supporter tickets for three matches in Vancouver—two games where Canada is guaranteed to play and a round of 32 match—paying $3,180 for six tickets all together. On top of that, he says he paid $1,067 for flights, and $1,490 for a car rental, adding that he is budgeting another grand towards meals and celebratory events.
All in all, Mustard says he’s putting down upwards of $13,000 towards attending World Cup matches throughout Canada.
“Look, I’m a soccer fan. I have to admit, I feel that I’ve been taken advantage of,” Mustard said.
Though the provincial government has enacted legislation banning people and scalpers from reselling seats to events within Ontario for more than face value, the cost of tickets to a World Cup match in the city has been astronomical due to the high costs imposed by FIFA.
The starting price for Canada’s first ever game on home soil, on June 12 in Toronto against Bosnia and Herzegovina, hovered at $1,300 and rose to $3,360 for front row tickets.
While some $195 tickets were offered for lower demand games, such as Ghana-Panama (June 17) and Senegal-Iraq (June 26), those seats were quickly scooped up and only more expensive Category 2 seats that cost north of $500 remain.
