World Cup get-in price for Spain vs. Cape Verde tops $500
The price just to get inside the temporarily named Atlanta Stadium for the city’s first ever World Cup match on Monday was less expensive than most early matches in the tournament, but it certainly wasn’t cheap.
The get-in price Monday morning to see Spain take on Cape Verde was $518, according to Ticketdata.com. That was just the price for the cheapest tickets, not prime seats, nor the cost of add-ons such as parking.
The price of admission has been a controversial subject for what’s been called the most expensive World Cup ever, which coincides with a period of increasing inflation and high fuel prices amid the conflict in the Middle East.
Fans supporting Cape Verde lined up Monday morning outside of FIFA Fan Fest downtown. Michael Howard of Douglasville said his seats inside Atlanta Stadium were in section 346, in the top deck. He said he spent $450 on his ticket.
The get-in price started to surge for the first Atlanta match earlier this month, peaking at more than $800 at times on Saturday and Sunday, before declining significantly early Monday morning, data from the ticket-tracking website shows.
On Wednesday morning, the cheapest resale tickets were nearly $450, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported at that time.
Atlanta, at least in the early days of this year’s global spectacle, has emerged as a relatively inexpensive market compared with its North American peer cities.
The average get-in price for Atlanta was $638 as of about noon Monday, according to Ticketdata.com. That ranked 14th out of the 16 host cities with only Kansas City and San Francisco being cheaper. Mexico City topped the list at $2,330.
Jaroony Monteo and Denzel Losantos arrived recently in Atlanta from the Netherlands. The men said they were fans of Cape Verde, a fandom that grew out of their time traveling as children to the island nation off the western coast of Africa. They said they were able to obtain seats in the 11th row behind a goal, paying $200 each.
“We were born and raised in the Netherlands, and we traveled to (Cape Verde),” Monteo said. “We are proud of our country and to be here.”
Brothers Achint and Navneet Eswar of Atlanta attended the fan fest with their families, and said they spent $600 each for four tickets in section 345. Achint said that he wished tickets were more affordable and accessible so that more diverse groups of people around the world would be able to attend.