Anyone thinking of attending Thursday’s World Cup match in Toronto between Portugal and Croatia better have some money saved in their piggy banks.
Some tickets for the Round of 32 match were going for more than $30,000 on ticket resale website SeatGeek as of Monday afternoon. Other tickets on SeatGeek and Stubhub were selling for thousands of dollars, with the cheapest single seats selling for more than $2,600.
When the original tickets went on sale through FIFA back in December, they were going for between $335 and $875. FIFA’s website showed no firsthand tickets available for the match as of Monday.
“It’s a crazy draw, primarily for two reasons,” says David Clement, policy director for the Consumer Choice Center and a self-described sports fan. “The first is that the GTA is home to huge Portuguese and Croatian communities, and so I don’t think there’s a better city in North America in terms of people of Portuguese or Croatian descent than that game taking place in Toronto.”
But he says the match will mark “a very historic moment” as well.
“The second factor is fans have an opportunity to see what will likely be the last World Cup game for each country’s respective greatest of all time,” Clement says. “If Portugal loses, it is very likely that that is Cristiano Ronaldo’s last World Cup game. If Croatia loses, it is most likely Luka Modrić’s last World Cup game.”
The winner of the match will progress to the Round of 16, while the loser will be eliminated.
Those factors will make the game historic, but have also driven demand for tickets “through the roof,” Clement says, possibly inviting competition not just from locals and people who were already in town for the tournament, but potentially even from a new pool of fans willing to travel from abroad for a “bucket-list” sort of match.
“I understand the frustration from fans in terms of ticket prices, but it is more than understandable that prices are going up, given what’s at stake here,” he added.
Ontario formally passed legislation to ban the reselling of tickets above face value earlier this year and that legislation is now in effect. But that hasn’t stopped people from re-selling World Cup tickets at huge markups so far.
The office of Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Stephen Crawford did not immediately respond to an email for comment on the ticket resale prices for the match. Nor did several resale sites.
But in an email Tuesday, the ministry said it expects any seller to follow the rules.
“All ticket sellers in Ontario must comply with our legislation that prohibits the resale of tickets above face value,” the ministry said. “Any seller who breaks those rules could face fines of up to $250,000 and be publicly identified on the Consumer Beware List. We will not hesitate to hold bad actors who break the rules accountable.”
Both SeatGeek and StubHub said in statements just a few weeks ago that they continue to work with the government to implement the new legislation, despite difficulties in substantiating the original price that a user paid for tickets that they are selling.
Both sites were recently added to Ontario’s “Consumer Beware” website by the government over high ticket resale prices, an addition they said was unfair.
Ticket resale websites have pointed to practical difficulties in implementing the legislation and have warned that it will simply drive the resale market underground where it is less regulated and consumers are more exposed to potential fraud.
Clement says he shares that assessment and said the government’s legislation appears to be “symbolic” with out any real enforcement measures in place for the time being.
“People start selling them (tickets) via unregulated platforms like Facebook Marketplace, and that’s where you see fraud go through the roof, and you really have consumer welfare sacrificed,” he says.
While the sky-high prices for tickets is unfortunate, Clement says, it reflects demand.
He says the Portugal-Croatia match may even be bigger than a World Series playoff in Toronto, as this same matchup is unlikely to ever occur again.
“Taylor Swift playing in Toronto is a better comparison, because that is more time limited and can’t potentially happen every year. But at the same time, with a high degree of confidence, there will never be a World Cup elimination game between Portugal and Croatia that features Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modrić again.”
The Round of 32 match between Portugal and Croatia – the last World Cup match at Toronto Stadium – will be played on July 2 at 7 p.m.
