Can you still get World Cup tickets? Here’s where prices and availability stand

As the World Cup prepares to kick off on Thursday, record-high ticket prices are drawing criticism across the 16 host stadiums in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. FIFA's dynamic pricing model has led to repeated increases since last fall, with some tickets now reaching five figures. FIFA president Gianni Infantino defended the costs on Wednesday, asserting they are appropriate for the North American market, despite the widespread criticism ahead of the tournament's opening. Here's where things stood on the eve of the World Cup opener: FIFA is using dynamic pricing and has repeatedly raised the prices since tickets first went on sale last fall (Getty Images) Several venues have sold out, but there are seats available for most games As the tournament approaches, a varied landscape of ticket availability has emerged, with 29 matches already sold out, though some wheelchair-accessible seats remain for these fixtures. Conversely, 75 games still have tickets available for purchase. These remaining tickets include both semifinals, all four quarterfinals, five round of 16 clashes, and 14 of the 16 newly introduced round of 32 matches. This count does not encompass additional knockout-stage tickets, which FIFA will release once participating teams are confirmed. A significant portion of these available tickets are situated in the higher-priced Category 1 and Category 2 tiers, which FIFA introduced in April. For specific high-demand games, several hundred four-figure seats were still available for the semifinal in Arlington, Texas. In contrast, the Atlanta semifinal had just over 20 tickets listed on FIFA's official sales platform. There aren't many relatively cheap seats left Category three seats, the lowest-priced category, remained for just three matches. Two of those were high-priced to begin with. Those lower-priced tickets for the U.S. opener against Paraguay on Thursday at Inglewood, California, could be bought for $1,120 — but just two remained. Other available prices for the game were $4,105, $2,735, $2,330 and $1,645. More than 100 tickets were listed as available. Category three also was available for Canada's opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday at Toronto for $980 along with seats at $2,240 and $1,645. Category three seats priced at $180 remained for just one match, Egypt vs. Iran at Seattle on June 26, and more than 370 were on sale. Several hundred tickets also were available at $1,000, $875 and $550. More tickets will become available closer to match days Infantino that “there are always tickets on sale.” In addition to tickets given back to FIFA, the governing body holds back seats. “We also need always to keep some tickets for those teams who qualify for the additional rounds,” he said. There are some better deals available on resale markets FIFA has its own resale marketplace, where it collects 15% from both the buyer and seller. In addition, other resale sites such at StubHub and SeatGeek have tickets for sale. FIFA's resale site has tickets for the Paraguay-U.S. game starting at $661.25 and SeatGeek starting at $920. England's game against Croatia at Arlington, Texas, on June 17 started at $880 on Seat Geek and $850 on FIFA. Tickets for the July 19 final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, started at $7,986 on SeatGeek, $8,775 on StubHub and $9,085 on FIFA.