Days Before Kickoff, the US World Cup Opener Is Still Not Sold Out
With days to go, tickets for the United States opener against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium, renamed Los Angeles Stadium for the tournament, remain unsold, and resale prices have slipped below FIFA face value. Ticketing experts point to FIFA's steep pricing, with the most expensive regular seats listed at $2,735.
W ith only days until kickoff, something unusual is happening around the United States men's team: tickets for its World Cup opener against Paraguay are still not sold out. The match is set for Friday, June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, which is being renamed Los Angeles Stadium for the tournament.
Seats still available for two host openers
FIFA's ticketing site still showed about 132 tickets left for the US opener, with thousands more listed across resale platforms including StubHub, SeatGeek and FIFA's own marketplace, NPR reported. Canada's opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto on the same day had even more, around 226 on FIFA's site. Of the three host nations, only Mexico's opener against South Africa on Thursday looked virtually sold out. Opening matches are traditionally among the hardest tickets in the tournament, which makes the unsold seats striking.
The price is the sticking point
Ticketing experts point to one reason above all: cost. FIFA raised prices sharply for 2026, especially for marquee games. The most expensive regular seats for the United States against Paraguay were listed at $2,735, more than the final cost of a ticket to the 2022 World Cup final, while the cheapest were $1,120. Even President Donald Trump said the prices were too high. "I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn't pay it either, to be honest with you," he told the New York Post.
Resale prices have fallen below face value
Not only are seats still available, many are selling below FIFA's own face value. According to Ticketdata, which tracks resale platforms, the cheapest pair for the United States and Canada openers was $951 as of Monday morning, while FIFA's resale platform listed tickets as low as $690. The two remaining US group games have far fewer seats available, in part because their prices sit well below the opener.
"Already sold out"?
The soft demand sits awkwardly with FIFA President Gianni Infantino's claim that every match in the 104-game tournament is "already sold out." Several fixtures still had plenty of inventory, including the Jordan against Algeria group game, which NPR reported still had hundreds of unsold seats on FIFA's site. Demand for higher-profile sides such as Argentina and Portugal was far stronger, with many of those games close to full.
Will the openers sell out?
It is hard to say. FIFA has closely guarded how many tickets it has actually sold throughout the process, and it can also distribute seats through third-party platforms, which further obscures the true count. Organizers are betting on a late surge of excitement once the tournament begins. Ben Shields, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said perceptions so far have been shaped by how expensive tickets and travel have been for an event spread across a continent, which "does not seem to sit well with many." The bet for FIFA, he said, is that "once the matches start, and the greatest players in the world compete for the most prestigious prize of them all, the sport as business lens will fade into the background and the World Cup will be seen and experienced as the enduring global institution that it is." As he put it: "We shall see."
Reporting: Rafael Nam, NPR, June 8, 2026.