The biggest World Cup, with 48 teams, 104 matches, and organized by three countries, will also be the most inaccessible for the vast majority of fans. The combination of dynamic pricing, resales reaching a million pesos, and unprecedented demand has left many regular football followers out of the stands. The popular World Cup party is a thing of the past. The one for backpackers, adventurous fans, curious onlookers, and locals. Fans who traditionally fill Liga MX stadiums—office workers, young professionals, or middle-class families—have had to crunch numbers, give up vacations, postpone major purchases, and monitor sales windows for months, even years, to aspire to a spot.
Although FIFA announced tickets starting from 60 dollars, the fans interviewed for this report never saw those prices. Instead, they encountered tickets costing tens of thousands of pesos or doubling and tripling in value as the sales phases progressed. Compared to the two previous editions, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, the World Cup in North America has seen an increase of up to 800% in the price of the most economical tickets, depending on the tournament phase. For many, attending a Mexican national team match has been impossible even living in the host city. Mexico will host only 13 of the 104 matches of the tournament, and in addition to the economic barrier, getting a ticket for those matches also depended on the luck of being selected in lotteries.
Among those who did manage to get in—a separate case from the Mexican economic elite—there are fans who saved for a long time or who have had to settle for matches different from those they dreamed of seeing. In an increasingly exclusive World Cup, Mexican fans feel they will have a reduced presence, but that it will also be the most important. “The World Cup is ours, we must not let them take that away from us,” says one of those who will be in the stands.
Carlos Morales, 32 years old: “Football is the most important thing in my life”
Originally from Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Carlos Morales is a true enthusiast. When he was 20, he scraped together just enough for a round-trip flight, with only the bare essentials in his suitcase and no reserved accommodation. That’s how he arrived at Brazil 2014. He inherited from his father, a chicken shop owner, the habit of doing business, and that first World Cup experience showed him an opportunity: he built networks on Facebook that today have become an enterprise where he plans trips, events, and complete experience packages for Mexican fans to fulfill their dream. He is, one could say, a World Cup expert.
“I start saving the day after a World Cup ends to go to the next one,” he says. He doesn’t skimp on expenses, because for him, he assures, “it’s a lifestyle.” In Qatar, he spent 200,000 pesos including flights, accommodation, meals, concerts, and tickets to 10 games. He compares it with the current experience, and the difference is notable. “For the same amount, I’m barely going to five games,” considering that the tournament is held in his own country. To date, he has spent 160,000 on tickets for all the national team’s games in Mexico, including the opening, to which he invited his father. Those tickets alone cost 55,000. He also spent on flights to Monterrey and Guadalajara, but last year, for the same price, he traveled to the other side of the world. He denounces the price increase, but he doesn’t consider spending that amount excessive. “Football is currently the most important thing in my life. As long as it’s a pleasure and doesn’t affect my daily life, it will never be an excessive expense,” he says.
With a sharp eye for FIFA logistics, Morales attributes the high costs to the inclusion of the United States and new strategies like dynamic pricing. Morales doesn’t care about the sporting result. His true motivation is to share a historic moment at home with his father: “If the World Cup returns in 20 years, maybe my dad won’t be around. We have to make the most of it.”
Rodrigo Torres, 29 years old: “It could be an excess; for me, it’s a unique opportunity”
Rodrigo Torres, a 29-year-old sports journalist from Xalapa, Veracruz, long ago turned his greatest hobby into a profession. From Mexico City, he covers Club América for TVC Deportes, but he has never been to a World Cup. It was an opportunity he couldn’t miss. He saved for a year, without vacations, outings, or other expenses, to get tickets for five matches: the opening match between Mexico and South Africa, a group stage match in Monterrey, two round of 32 matches, and a round of 16 match in Mexico City. As of the interview, he has spent 47,315 pesos, a figure that includes inviting his mother to two matches.
He only invested in travel to Monterrey and saved on accommodation because he will stay with a friend. “Evidently it’s a luxury, money I had already set aside for this purpose. Thank God it’s an expense that doesn’t unbalance my personal finances,” he says. Getting tickets required patience and some luck. After being left out of one of the presales, he had to wait to buy until the open sale. “The process is not easy; it was achieved with a little effort, being very attentive, and with a little luck for the system to let you in.”
Read more Pope Leo XIV jokes that young people prefer Bad Bunny over him
Torres rejects the idea that the tournament is becoming increasingly exclusive. “It’s an elitist World Cup, I can’t deny it, the cost is quite high.” Even so, he believes the effort has been worth it. “For many, it could be an excess, but for me, it’s a unique opportunity” to be at a World Cup opening and share it with his mother.
Arturo Partida Vázquez, 28 years old: “This expense is an emotional investment”
Arturo Partida Vázquez, 28, works at a software development company and defines himself as a “godín” (office worker). He lives in the south of Mexico City and, although he has been a football fan since childhood, he has never attended a World Cup match. His original plan was to get tickets for a Mexican national team match, but the prices pushed him away from that possibility. “Honestly, even though I really like going to the stadium, the most I would have paid for a Mexico ticket was 10,000 pesos.” Instead, luck was on his side in the first FIFA lottery. He got four tickets for the match between Spain and Uruguay in Guadalajara for just under 5,000 pesos each, tickets that later tripled in value in subsequent sales phases.
He will travel with his girlfriend and two friends. Between tickets, gas, accommodation, and meals, he estimates spending around 20,000 pesos. “This expense is within my means, it’s not like I’m going to run out of money by going,” he says. “The stadiums will be filled with people who can pay 30,000 or 40,000 peso tickets.” Despite being a passionate football fan, Arturo has clear financial priorities. He acknowledges that at another point in his life he would pay more, but today he prefers to allocate his savings to the down payment on a house with his girlfriend. For him, FIFA’s fees are excessive, and he believes that paying exorbitant sums is not worth it for 90 minutes: “With that, I’d go to Europe; I’d rather watch the games in a restaurant and spend it on food.” His greatest expectation is not the sporting result, but the experience: “Mexicans always end up disappointing us; I’m going more for the atmosphere.”
Even so, he doesn’t regret the investment. “For me, this trip is more emotional.” More than being satisfied with the score, he hopes to enjoy the atmosphere, the fans, and the experience of living a World Cup up close that he only saw on television for years.
Emilio Sánchez, 28 years old: “I’m going more for the experience than for the level of play”
Emilio Sánchez, a 28-year-old Accounting and Finance graduate, works in the financial area of an American company. He lives in Huipulco, a few minutes’ walk from the Azteca Stadium, and for years he has been a loyal fan who follows the Mexican league, international tournaments, and frequently attends América matches.
The possibility of experiencing his first World Cup so close to home finally convinced him. “Four or eight years ago, I wasn’t able to attend one on my own,” he explains. Today, with a more stable economic situation, he decided to give himself that opportunity, but he is not sure he will be able to see the Mexican national team, and his investment for one game is a leap of faith: he bought two tickets for a possible round of 32 match in Los Angeles, hoping that the team advances as second in their group. He paid 15,000 pesos for each ticket and estimates that, between flights and accommodation for him and his girlfriend, the trip could add another 25,000 pesos. “The vast majority have decided not to buy or go,” he says about his fan friends. Even so, he maintains the illusion of experiencing his first World Cup. “I’m going more for the World Cup experience than for the level of play.” If Mexico reaches that match, the trip will have a special meaning. If not, he still doesn’t know if he will pack his bags.
Read more Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos, or a wonderful ‘déjà vu’ in Paris
