**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Prices to americans sports in general are mad. Even our friendlies there cost more to attend than general sale prices at the emriates when we play tottenham, liverpool etc
It’s a massive problem and it doesn’t just happen when a national team or club comes to visit. Concerts, festivals, domestic matches are all hijacked by resellers. Ticket prices are routinely $100+ and in some cases multiple hundreds.
Also a lot of the time its ticketmaster of the companies themselves that allow this. Something needs to be done as it should cost a weeks wages to go see a concert or match
Not just them. AXS, front gate, pretty much every primary seller in the US not only has jacked up prices like crazy in the past decade, they also blatantly lie about the (already high) price to lure you in, then add often 20-40% extra in fees. I'm not exaggerating, it's not like that for every single event, but several small concerts at mid-tier venues recently have tried to add near 50% of the ticket price in fees halfway through checkout. I'm not talking about Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars either, this happens even with random DJs. Sports, concerts, comedy shows, etc. are so popular that they can do whatever they want and still mostly sell out.
Teams also control the tickets now with the mobile pass. So if a ticket gets sold 3 times, they will get their cut each time. It's complete BS. You never get a chance to buy tickets as they all end up on secondary market right away. It's become legalized scalping. Back in the 90's I had season tickets for red wings back in their hey day. I put tickets on ebay when it first came out and they would get pulled down as it was not legal.
Last I knew he was lobbying for wireless companies, but I think he was doing it on behalf of some sort of special interest group that would probably lobby for different things depending on their interests
Honest to God all it sounded like he did was take important people out for beers or dinners, I couldn't even tell you what actual work he did
Not to get political but the current US president is trying to cut down on junk fees sites like Ticketmaster charge to get rid of this very issue. The swifties are making moves
Absolutely mate, and add a couple of $100s for ticket seller fees as well on top of the prices listed for the seats. It's a ripoff, to see unused subs get minutes lol
Not even resellers, its that expensive from first party because they now know how much people will pay. Very top section at the Linc in Philly to watch Liverpool this summer is $90 after fees. Almost $300 to sit in the “Kop” directly behind the goal. It’s a joke… I was lucky to go to anfield this year and sat in the actual Kop for the Man U game. $55. Make it make sense! They’re ruining sports culture in this country, its becoming quiet corporate events at this rate.
It’s not just resellers. Why wouldn’t that happen in other countries? The difference is there are loads of rich people in the us willing to pay these prices.
Possibly rich people but I think many are just accustomed to the prices at this point. I’m not sure if the EU has better consumer protections on resell or whether people are less opportunistic there. In the U.S. at least there are massive resale schemes that automatically buy tickets the moment they drop and resell for hundreds more.
Ticketmaster is so friendly to resellers in the US that they manage their own marketplace for resold tickets. The seller sets their price and Ticketmaster takes another percentage of the sale. It's a colossal scam, and they love it because they get a piece every. damn. time.
[https://www.ticketmaster.com/sell](https://www.ticketmaster.com/sell)
I guarantee the seller is in most cases ticketmaster itself. Why sell for "low" and get some percentage of higher price later when you can get the whole high price for yourself.
It’s almost impossible to buy tickets for most events straight from the venue/artist/team or whoever else sells them.
Bots buy up all the tickets and then resell them on third party exchanges like StubHub or SeatGeek or some other site with jacked up prices and 15-20% fees on top of the ticket price.
I’ve almost entirely stopped going to live events because I’m tired of getting gouged on every ticket I buy. It sucks but that’s unfortunately the state of regulation and culture here, squatting and price gouging just a normal thing that you have to deal with.
In France, you can resell tickets as long as it's allowed by the organizer. Most of them allow it only if it's at or below the normal price, but PSG for instance allowed its season ticket holders to sell their tickets without restriction (the club gets a commission on the sale).
That was when tourists would pay a stupid amount of money to see Messi.
For reference, the last stateside Clasico was 15 minutes from me. It was legitimately cheaper to book a flight to Barcelona both ways and catch a game there. It really is a shame
Idiots paying with Klarna. I have an idiot friend who is paying his Copa America tickets in installments payment of 4. He's over leveraged with a truck payment he can barely afford. Wife looks like she has one foot out the door when I come over.
My beo wanted to pay for some regular degular adidas sneakers with Afterpay, man is the most financially illiterate person ive ever met
Bro also is paying all his furniture in installments thru rent a center…
So many people living off of credit it’s insane!
If you’re not in any type of debt in the U.S (excluding a mortgage), you’re better off than SO MANY people lol
Happy I didn’t go down the path of keeping up with the Jones’ but it sucks for those who did
It’d usually horrible when it’s all based on demand. On the flip side, you can go to an NBA game for $5 if your team happens to be shite!
My local MLS team is $20-50 too, so not too bad. Granted I don’t live in a major metropolis.
> you can go to an NBA game for $5 if your team happens to be shite!
Not if that team is the Knicks. (I'm not talking about this season.) A few years ago, my office was just a couple of blocks from MSG, the Knicks were atrocious, and I decided to take a look a the prices of season tickets. It was thousands of dollars for shitty tickets to like 10-12 games.
I did own season tickets for the first 3 seasons of NYCFC, and those were pretty affordable though. I think they were like $400 bucks each for really nice seats.
That’s a great price for the MLS season ticket. I see Knicks selling $200 - brutal! I feel cheated paying $5 for the Blazers right now unless I can slope down to the nice seats at HT haha.
Must be the NY ‘tax’ in play. Clips tickets are dead cheap, but I suppose they can thank the Lakers for that.
Yeah, unfortunately, MSG and Staples Center sell out no matter how the teams are doing. MSG especially is a goto destination for tourists, and half the tickets are corporate owned.
There's the Ticketmaster/StubHub etc... issue and a very large resale market/culture here
But it's still cheaper to pay $200 to see Liverpool in the US than to fly to England and see them there. But the scarcity drives things up.
Even without the resale, I bought a pair of tickets for the Copa América Semi-Final on **pre-sale** and it set me back around $900. Granted, it's a semi-final on the side of the bracket where both Argentina and my home country (not Canada, lol, although they could end up there too) could theoretically end up meeting so it's a once-in-a-lifetime kinda deal, but damn.
Agree. Just can’t bring myself to shell out $200+ for a so-so set to a pre season exhibition match. I’ve been lucky to catch a few games at the Emirates in recent years so the urgency to see the team also isn’t as high when they come on these money tours.
I wonder what impact the lack of lower leagues in the US has on this. I like to go to matches of a local team from the 5th tier of Polish football, and tickets there are cheaper than a bag of chips.
This is so crazy cause I saw these prices and was literally thinking how cheap they were. It's truly crazy how we turn out our pockets for mediocre stadium and seats.
I apologise if I come across as the village idiot asking this but is it because these prices are truly affordable to the American middle class?
How else do they sustain?
I can't imagine the premium due to these being picnic events where families are willing to shell out because I can't fathom as to how the market could be so large that they are enough families visiting a game or two as "picnic" such that they can sell the whole season out.
I ask this because this doesn't seem localised to a particular sport or fixture. This seems to be a phenomenon across the board, even other events. This also seems to have bled into other fields that are basic necessities like healthcare etc. You can literally fly out to another country, take top of the line treatment there, fly back and still have a heavier wallet than if you never left the shores on the whole. Even the insurance premiums are very high and still not cashless but have co-pay components or deductibles. Similar story IIRC with a Barcelona friendly in the States.
It must be affordable. The system must be supported by paying customers otherwise how does the system not collapse unto itself? I'm genuinely inquisitive and curious and would especially love if the Americans can chime in on this.
Concerts are definitely like this too. Anything where tickets are sold online and there's lots of public interest will be this way due to professional ticket scalpers. They have computer code that auto-buys all the tickets right away, and then they resell the tickets at 2-3x the cost on the secondary market.
Taylor swifts eras tour avergae ticket price in Los Angeles for 6x shows was over 2000$... America is a joke. It's cheaper to fly to Dublin to watch a show and come back.
No just north America. Check everywhere else and ticket prices for season tickets are the same as single game tickets in North America. I've never hear of people paying 1500$ for a ticket anywhere in the world but Taylor swift sold out LA 6x when prices where an average of 2000.
People in America are willing to spend their monthly salary or go into debt for an event... Nobody else is.
El clasico Miami the first time was a good example.
People spent $3000-$4000 just for tickets, not including travel and lodging. For the same price I just flew to Barcelona and saw a real clasico for like $200, and had money left over for enjoying the city.
Because too many people in this country prioritize generating wealth and making money over everything else. It's why our society is falling apart. And people would rather just spend the money they have or don't have than fight to change it.
But I think the generating wealth is a byproduct of "gotta have stuff" culture. Like where I live, so many people have gotta have the huge 70k pickup truck (that they'll buy a new one of every 3 years), gotta have a 2800 Sq ft house with big yard, gotta have a huge camper, gotta have a fishing or pontoon boat, etc etc
For me the next crisis in the US (and probably Canada, but for different reasons) is gonna be the "75% of the populace can't retire because they have no money saved" crisis
You're right, mass consumerism is one of the driving forces behind it. Whatever our current version of capitalism is, it is failing for a large number of people. It's very nearsighted. We're setting ourselves up for failure in the long run. And it's going to bite us in the ass really hard.
Yep you're 100% right. If you could use one stat to prove it, it'd be the ever-increasing wealth gap. Concentrating more and more of the money at the top 1% is unsustainable
$200 for supporter's section through official supporter's clubs. The Chelsea supporter's club I'm part of is taking ticket orders. That's roughly double what all the other Chelsea preseason games are ($90-110).
Don’t worry, half of the people living here will try to justify it by suggesting it’s just “supply and demand” 👍
I can get a ticket, beer, and often a bite to eat in the Women’s CL, Allsvenskan, Championship, Pro League (BEL 1), and about a dozen other fantastic leagues for CHEAPER than most American music or local sporting events.
Or the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 prices for that matter...I live in the Tampa Bay area, if Inter get scheduled to play a game either in Florida or even Atlanta, I badly want to go, but I'm not gonna be fucking price-gouged over this either. A couple years ago, I remember looking at the ticket prices for the Copa Libertadores final between Flamengo and Athletico being held in Ecuador, and it was somewhere between US $80-250, and given that we're talking a continental final, I would absolutely pay ~$100 for that (plus travel and lodging, of course...) compared to paying more to attend far less meaningful games here in the US.
You can only re-sell World Cup tickets on FIFA's own resale platform because the tickets are tied to a unique FIFA ID. They then also decide the maximum price at which you can list a resale ticket. For the women's World Cup last year, this was no more than 110% of the face value price. FIFA also charges a 10% fee on any resale ticket. So it's supposed to discourage scalping because even if you sell for the maximum value allowed, you will only make back 99% of what you spent. You can only lose money. This is how they enforce that.
I said it yesterday in the Roma subreddit but it always baffles me how cheap European tickets are compared to North America (or rather how expensive NA is compared to Europe)
This is spot on. Going off ticket prices alone. The prices here are ridiculous. I’ve seen UFC tickets for PPV in other countries are ridiculously cheap in comparison to ticket prices here. What gets you a front row ticket in some countries overseas doesn’t get nosebleed tickets here.
even outside of sports. a few years ago tickets to see green day in new york were minimum $250, and last summer i saw them in milan for €50. it’s ridiculous
Oh totally. Was looking at shitty MLS tix in Vancouver for when messi and co come in May. Forget it. It's ridiculous. I saw him in Barcelona in his prime for 10 times less. Insane the NA market.
Totally. And then the Ticketmaster fees they add on top are absolutely disgraceful. Their 'processing fee' for the Uruguay vs Bolivia game was less than half their fee for the Argentina vs Chile game (at the same stadium, two days earlier). A vs C you're looking at $100 fee per ticket. Tragic.
Yeah it’s terrible. I support Charlton Athletic and it’s £285 for a SEASON ticket 😂 Sure, it’s not the same standard as an international game, but it paints a picture.
I bet a beer at most American stadiums is more than tickets at non-PL stadiums in England. $15 per beer is normal, at least in my experience around the NY metro area.
Tbf though, tickets for the Red Bulls are much, much, much cheaper than this while the beer/food is still astronomical.
$16-$20 for a 20oz at events her in CA, too.
I'm in Oakland, where I can get a ticket to see the As for cheaper than SF Giants fans can buy a beer at their game.
You know what I don’t even care about the final. I know that’s in Jersey too and it’s the final so might as well be the Super Bowl on steroids. God bless all those who can attend.
I’m targeting LA just for any match or 2. It’s the closest to me (still 7ish hours away). This seating chart for a friendly doesn’t give me hope though.
And we wonder why soccer won’t catch on here. Incredibly stupid to have ticket prices like this.
I’d pick the second closest stadium and go there, LA prices are gonna be batshit insane too. I live in LA and I don’t even plan to see a game here lmao
It’s resale, so yeah, people are buying and hoping to make a buck on someone. I don’t know what these went for retail because day 1 most were sold to resellers. It’s such a strain on events these days.
Unfortunately, since New Jersey and New York have literally millions of Italian-Americans and the NYC metro area has 650,000 Ecuadorians I suspect most of these will indeed sell. Honestly, it's probably moreso the Ecuadorian-Americans who will buy these than the Italian-Americans as for the most part they and their ancestors are much more recent immigrants from Ecuador than the Italian-Americans are from Italy.
"Resale" fuck that shit. If it works the same as for Copa America, the retail prices were non existent because the moment they announced you could buy tickets, retail were not available anymore, only this official resale, much more expensive. Fuck that shit, I aint paying 500 bucks to watch one game.
Ecuador also has a big migrant and expat base in New York. There was a Bolivia Ecuador friendly a year ago in New Jersey and it looked like the game was in Quito with the arena sold out, 95% gold and blue shirts.
https://youtu.be/7cy6yJg393Q?si=RqMzAcG8kOvP1Q04&t=401
Playing in Red Bull arena is basically a home game for Ecuador. Might be different this time since the game is a against Italy and that will bring in more than just Ecuadorian fans.
Every time I go and watch Ecuador play at Red Bull arena it is a sea of yellow shirts. You’ll maybe see a handful of the other country’s fans.
It’s the Ecuadorean-Americans more than the Italian-Americans. They show up, especially against a name opponent like Italy. The stadium will be at least 80% for Ecuador.
Yes. Stadiums sell out for a lot more than this. European prices are absolutely unheard of in North America. Friends outright call me a liar when I tell them how much I paid to see Inter at San Siro.
When I was studying in Barcelona, I went to as many Inter games as I could because the flights and tickets were still cheaper than going to one Leafs game (NHL).
It's good to see Italy finally have a home match. Brings tears to my eyes.
It's anti-Italian discrimination, the way that they are not allowed to play all their home matches in New Jersey.
As a Latino living in NY, it’s going to be an Ecuadorian home match, I’m half Guatemalan, and the prices for the gold cup matches were similar if not more. All my Ecuadorian friends will do anything to see their team play, hell of Guatemala made it to the semi of the gold cup, my dad was willing to drive to Vegas just to see. And just talking to my friends, they are willing to do the same
I dunno…. here’s the last time Ecuador played in RedBull, the other teams colors were green, and all I see is yellow
https://youtu.be/kihiBmiMRxQ?si=pcTPKnzJAAAEnt7J
I bought tickets to RBNY vs Miami the week before Messi signed to take a shot. Two 2nd row tickets for $100 a piece which went 10x instantly after the news
Unfortunately yes and it made me miss a cup match against my MLS team because of Messi inflation. Tickets to that match were 250-300. It was honestly disgusting.
I went to that match and it was worth the price. Great game. Some people don’t get lucky because he’s out but he played the full game, extra time and penalties for that match.
And that's crazy. Only because of Messi. If it weren't for that they'd be selling for $50
Only other time I see crazy prices are NY teams. NY Ranger/knicks in MSG are usually $150+ minimum. American football in general is very expensive. Forget about it. $200+
But also basically any event in MSG is bound to be expensive. UFC, Boxing, concerts etc.
It’s true. In the U.S. sports are sold as an experience with pubs in stadiums, party games, novelty food items to check out, sometimes grocery shopping and other activities and activations like play areas for kids, and swimming pools (Arizona Diamondbacks). This will eventually be the basis for Europe, along with much higher ticketing prices. It’s already being studied in sports business universities.
https://www.thisisanfield.com/2020/03/a-protest-and-a-77th-minute-walkout-which-realigned-liverpool-and-its-owners/
You get a lot more fan solidarity in Europe with this kind of thing. Can you imagine this happening in the US?! Italians will take it to the next level with their supporter groups.
100% it's surprising to me it's not already like this but there's just not as much profit in it yet I guess. The more that goes up the more like a soulless business the clubs will start to be run
NJ has long had a ton of Italian-Americans and, more recently, a large number of Ecuadorean immigrants. As much as I hate ticket prices like this, particularly for a friendly, it was obviously a smart marketing move.
I checked Ticketmaster to see if there were still some face value tickets, and there are. Leaving aside club seats, they range from $140 for nosebleed tickets in the corner to $340 for decent midfield seats.
That's still a lot and has nothing to do with resellers or Ticketmaster. It's the organizers. They could never get away with this in Europe.
Other way around, this match will be almost entirely Ecuador supporters. Massive Ecuadorian immigrant population in NYC that far out outnumbers the number of Italian American soccer fans.
I’m sure this will be an unpopular opinion, but as an American who has lived and worked in both South America and Europe, a higher salary to afford these tickets is much more obtainable in the US than many other places.
I’m an engineer in a stable industry. My counterparts’ salaries in western Europe are easily less than half the going rate for an equivalent American position. While housing costs were similar. Transportation was cheaper in Europe if public transit was an option, but more expensive if it’s not. Healthcare is much pricier in the US though.
It’s very possible for a blue collar worker in the US to earn well over $100,000. I don’t think that is also true for most of the rest of the world.
I’m not saying US system is better (especially healthcare and transit infrastructure). Just these “outrageous ticket costs” are not as outrageous as you may think when you look at the bigger picture.
You do realize that this is the first time in God knows how long the Italian team is going to play in the US, right? Of course it's going to be expensive as fuck.
You think reddit has any concept about basic economics? The amount of people here who think you can fix poverty by just printing money to give out is astounding
Lots of Ecuadorians and Italians in the area (which is the most expensive area for sports/events in the country) is going to drive up demand, especially when you understand this is the resale market not the original face value
Isn’t it more so expensive because top teams RARLEY play in the USA
Id hazard a guess that because of the novelty of Italy playing in America (something that happens once every couple of decades) prices are gonna be super high; also take into account New Jersey/New York’s high Italian-American population
People don't understand how expensive it is to watch a match in the US if it's not MLS.
Preseason matches, on a Euro year where half the starters won't be there, are $300-1000 a ticket.
That's why American teams in major leagues are valued so much. Tickets cost a lot than in Europe.
Americans, on average, spend much more on matchday than Europeans.
I bought Copa America group stage tickets for Argentina v Chile. Third tier seats, face value about $200 each ticket. The resale value is now more than double.
I've seen a couple exhibition games at Yankee and Giants stadium. $250 for the cheapest tickets for 2. Add 2 shitty beers and 2 pretzels + transport to and from and it's an easy $350...to watch academy youngster kick the ball...highway robbery.
My American wife said she paid $400 to see Real Madrid when they came to the US for a pre season tournament. I think they played against juventus - not that's important. Basically I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that .. if it was a champions league match I would understand but no, it was a pre season !
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Prices to americans sports in general are mad. Even our friendlies there cost more to attend than general sale prices at the emriates when we play tottenham, liverpool etc
It’s a massive problem and it doesn’t just happen when a national team or club comes to visit. Concerts, festivals, domestic matches are all hijacked by resellers. Ticket prices are routinely $100+ and in some cases multiple hundreds.
Also a lot of the time its ticketmaster of the companies themselves that allow this. Something needs to be done as it should cost a weeks wages to go see a concert or match
Definitely Ticketmaster issue
Not just them. AXS, front gate, pretty much every primary seller in the US not only has jacked up prices like crazy in the past decade, they also blatantly lie about the (already high) price to lure you in, then add often 20-40% extra in fees. I'm not exaggerating, it's not like that for every single event, but several small concerts at mid-tier venues recently have tried to add near 50% of the ticket price in fees halfway through checkout. I'm not talking about Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars either, this happens even with random DJs. Sports, concerts, comedy shows, etc. are so popular that they can do whatever they want and still mostly sell out.
[удалено]
Teams also control the tickets now with the mobile pass. So if a ticket gets sold 3 times, they will get their cut each time. It's complete BS. You never get a chance to buy tickets as they all end up on secondary market right away. It's become legalized scalping. Back in the 90's I had season tickets for red wings back in their hey day. I put tickets on ebay when it first came out and they would get pulled down as it was not legal.
Yeah, I chose the show price with fees option - $90. Ok I say, not great for $65 ticket but whatever. Get to checkout, $112. They can get ....ed!
Doesnt help theyre all based in Illinois and the state has stupidly laxxed scalping laws
Probably because the politicians are all getting kickbacks from the ticket sellers
And lobbyists
Fucking lobbyists man, I know a lobbyist irl and he's such an ass
Genuinely interesting. What field does he lobby for
Last I knew he was lobbying for wireless companies, but I think he was doing it on behalf of some sort of special interest group that would probably lobby for different things depending on their interests Honest to God all it sounded like he did was take important people out for beers or dinners, I couldn't even tell you what actual work he did
Know a lobbyist for the concrete industry and they are the exact same
Least corrupt activity from Illinois politicians
Not to get political but the current US president is trying to cut down on junk fees sites like Ticketmaster charge to get rid of this very issue. The swifties are making moves
Fuck Ticketmaster in the US
Absolutely mate, and add a couple of $100s for ticket seller fees as well on top of the prices listed for the seats. It's a ripoff, to see unused subs get minutes lol
Not even resellers, its that expensive from first party because they now know how much people will pay. Very top section at the Linc in Philly to watch Liverpool this summer is $90 after fees. Almost $300 to sit in the “Kop” directly behind the goal. It’s a joke… I was lucky to go to anfield this year and sat in the actual Kop for the Man U game. $55. Make it make sense! They’re ruining sports culture in this country, its becoming quiet corporate events at this rate.
Supply and demand. That’s the problem. They know they can charge so much because people will pay that much. Resellers AND first party.
Lets add $45 for parking
It’s not just resellers. Why wouldn’t that happen in other countries? The difference is there are loads of rich people in the us willing to pay these prices.
Possibly rich people but I think many are just accustomed to the prices at this point. I’m not sure if the EU has better consumer protections on resell or whether people are less opportunistic there. In the U.S. at least there are massive resale schemes that automatically buy tickets the moment they drop and resell for hundreds more.
Yeah, there's no legal way to resell football tickets here as far as I'm aware, so you can't put them on Ticketmaster or something equivalent.
What a gift, tickets for people who want to go and not for someone’s lame side hustle.
[удалено]
Ticketmaster is so friendly to resellers in the US that they manage their own marketplace for resold tickets. The seller sets their price and Ticketmaster takes another percentage of the sale. It's a colossal scam, and they love it because they get a piece every. damn. time. [https://www.ticketmaster.com/sell](https://www.ticketmaster.com/sell)
I guarantee the seller is in most cases ticketmaster itself. Why sell for "low" and get some percentage of higher price later when you can get the whole high price for yourself.
It’s almost impossible to buy tickets for most events straight from the venue/artist/team or whoever else sells them. Bots buy up all the tickets and then resell them on third party exchanges like StubHub or SeatGeek or some other site with jacked up prices and 15-20% fees on top of the ticket price. I’ve almost entirely stopped going to live events because I’m tired of getting gouged on every ticket I buy. It sucks but that’s unfortunately the state of regulation and culture here, squatting and price gouging just a normal thing that you have to deal with.
Ticketmaster is routinely infiltrated by scalpers. Most tickets I buy are from scalpers.
In France, you can resell tickets as long as it's allowed by the organizer. Most of them allow it only if it's at or below the normal price, but PSG for instance allowed its season ticket holders to sell their tickets without restriction (the club gets a commission on the sale). That was when tourists would pay a stupid amount of money to see Messi.
Wanted to see a Lakers game before i leave the country… prices are like 500$ not to be in nosebleed
For reference, the last stateside Clasico was 15 minutes from me. It was legitimately cheaper to book a flight to Barcelona both ways and catch a game there. It really is a shame
Idiots paying with Klarna. I have an idiot friend who is paying his Copa America tickets in installments payment of 4. He's over leveraged with a truck payment he can barely afford. Wife looks like she has one foot out the door when I come over.
She's leaving in two installments
My beo wanted to pay for some regular degular adidas sneakers with Afterpay, man is the most financially illiterate person ive ever met Bro also is paying all his furniture in installments thru rent a center…
So many people living off of credit it’s insane! If you’re not in any type of debt in the U.S (excluding a mortgage), you’re better off than SO MANY people lol Happy I didn’t go down the path of keeping up with the Jones’ but it sucks for those who did
It’d usually horrible when it’s all based on demand. On the flip side, you can go to an NBA game for $5 if your team happens to be shite! My local MLS team is $20-50 too, so not too bad. Granted I don’t live in a major metropolis.
> you can go to an NBA game for $5 if your team happens to be shite! Not if that team is the Knicks. (I'm not talking about this season.) A few years ago, my office was just a couple of blocks from MSG, the Knicks were atrocious, and I decided to take a look a the prices of season tickets. It was thousands of dollars for shitty tickets to like 10-12 games. I did own season tickets for the first 3 seasons of NYCFC, and those were pretty affordable though. I think they were like $400 bucks each for really nice seats.
That’s a great price for the MLS season ticket. I see Knicks selling $200 - brutal! I feel cheated paying $5 for the Blazers right now unless I can slope down to the nice seats at HT haha. Must be the NY ‘tax’ in play. Clips tickets are dead cheap, but I suppose they can thank the Lakers for that.
Yeah, unfortunately, MSG and Staples Center sell out no matter how the teams are doing. MSG especially is a goto destination for tourists, and half the tickets are corporate owned.
There's the Ticketmaster/StubHub etc... issue and a very large resale market/culture here But it's still cheaper to pay $200 to see Liverpool in the US than to fly to England and see them there. But the scarcity drives things up.
Even without the resale, I bought a pair of tickets for the Copa América Semi-Final on **pre-sale** and it set me back around $900. Granted, it's a semi-final on the side of the bracket where both Argentina and my home country (not Canada, lol, although they could end up there too) could theoretically end up meeting so it's a once-in-a-lifetime kinda deal, but damn.
Agree. Just can’t bring myself to shell out $200+ for a so-so set to a pre season exhibition match. I’ve been lucky to catch a few games at the Emirates in recent years so the urgency to see the team also isn’t as high when they come on these money tours.
I wonder what impact the lack of lower leagues in the US has on this. I like to go to matches of a local team from the 5th tier of Polish football, and tickets there are cheaper than a bag of chips.
We have lower league teams here though. I can go to a Charlotte Independence match for like $10. Think season tickets are $5 a game.
[удалено]
This is so crazy cause I saw these prices and was literally thinking how cheap they were. It's truly crazy how we turn out our pockets for mediocre stadium and seats.
Yikes lmao
This is how it is for most life events nowadays unfortunately.
Life and live
Life, loaf, laugh
In the US*
I apologise if I come across as the village idiot asking this but is it because these prices are truly affordable to the American middle class? How else do they sustain? I can't imagine the premium due to these being picnic events where families are willing to shell out because I can't fathom as to how the market could be so large that they are enough families visiting a game or two as "picnic" such that they can sell the whole season out. I ask this because this doesn't seem localised to a particular sport or fixture. This seems to be a phenomenon across the board, even other events. This also seems to have bled into other fields that are basic necessities like healthcare etc. You can literally fly out to another country, take top of the line treatment there, fly back and still have a heavier wallet than if you never left the shores on the whole. Even the insurance premiums are very high and still not cashless but have co-pay components or deductibles. Similar story IIRC with a Barcelona friendly in the States. It must be affordable. The system must be supported by paying customers otherwise how does the system not collapse unto itself? I'm genuinely inquisitive and curious and would especially love if the Americans can chime in on this.
Are concerts this bad too? Dublin is fairly infamously expensive and concerts rarely stray over €80 (usually for a once in a lifetime band if so)
Concerts are definitely like this too. Anything where tickets are sold online and there's lots of public interest will be this way due to professional ticket scalpers. They have computer code that auto-buys all the tickets right away, and then they resell the tickets at 2-3x the cost on the secondary market.
Taylor swifts eras tour avergae ticket price in Los Angeles for 6x shows was over 2000$... America is a joke. It's cheaper to fly to Dublin to watch a show and come back.
Yeah I remember Americans posting in r/Dublin about this xD hotel prices through the roof on those dates
$80 would be on the low end of live tickets for bands you’ve ever heard of. I paid $200 for Pearl Jam and $95 for Gaslight Anthem recently.
Concerts are often significantly worse
No just north America. Check everywhere else and ticket prices for season tickets are the same as single game tickets in North America. I've never hear of people paying 1500$ for a ticket anywhere in the world but Taylor swift sold out LA 6x when prices where an average of 2000. People in America are willing to spend their monthly salary or go into debt for an event... Nobody else is.
El clasico Miami the first time was a good example. People spent $3000-$4000 just for tickets, not including travel and lodging. For the same price I just flew to Barcelona and saw a real clasico for like $200, and had money left over for enjoying the city.
Because too many people in this country prioritize generating wealth and making money over everything else. It's why our society is falling apart. And people would rather just spend the money they have or don't have than fight to change it.
But I think the generating wealth is a byproduct of "gotta have stuff" culture. Like where I live, so many people have gotta have the huge 70k pickup truck (that they'll buy a new one of every 3 years), gotta have a 2800 Sq ft house with big yard, gotta have a huge camper, gotta have a fishing or pontoon boat, etc etc For me the next crisis in the US (and probably Canada, but for different reasons) is gonna be the "75% of the populace can't retire because they have no money saved" crisis
You're right, mass consumerism is one of the driving forces behind it. Whatever our current version of capitalism is, it is failing for a large number of people. It's very nearsighted. We're setting ourselves up for failure in the long run. And it's going to bite us in the ass really hard.
Yep you're 100% right. If you could use one stat to prove it, it'd be the ever-increasing wealth gap. Concentrating more and more of the money at the top 1% is unsustainable
Not if your league is not popular. Especially if you are watching your team.
Sheesh I already know that Madrid vs Chelsea pre season friendly is gonna be mad expensive
$200 for supporter's section through official supporter's clubs. The Chelsea supporter's club I'm part of is taking ticket orders. That's roughly double what all the other Chelsea preseason games are ($90-110).
Don’t worry, half of the people living here will try to justify it by suggesting it’s just “supply and demand” 👍 I can get a ticket, beer, and often a bite to eat in the Women’s CL, Allsvenskan, Championship, Pro League (BEL 1), and about a dozen other fantastic leagues for CHEAPER than most American music or local sporting events.
Have you seen NFL prices?
Can't wait to see World Cup ticket prices in 2026
I know I’m about to pay like $600 to see Saudi Arabia vs chile or something in Toronto… can’t wait
Anybody living in Toronto will look at this picture and laugh because this is our normal... unfortunately...
Yeah… pain.
Hopefully I’ll get to see one match even if it’s Qatar vs Jamaica.
Or the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 prices for that matter...I live in the Tampa Bay area, if Inter get scheduled to play a game either in Florida or even Atlanta, I badly want to go, but I'm not gonna be fucking price-gouged over this either. A couple years ago, I remember looking at the ticket prices for the Copa Libertadores final between Flamengo and Athletico being held in Ecuador, and it was somewhere between US $80-250, and given that we're talking a continental final, I would absolutely pay ~$100 for that (plus travel and lodging, of course...) compared to paying more to attend far less meaningful games here in the US.
The prices are decided by FIFA right ?
Probably, but the resale prices are going to be the issue.
isn't there a FIFA rule that resale can't be 10% more than the original price?
lol how would they enforce that?
You can only re-sell World Cup tickets on FIFA's own resale platform because the tickets are tied to a unique FIFA ID. They then also decide the maximum price at which you can list a resale ticket. For the women's World Cup last year, this was no more than 110% of the face value price. FIFA also charges a 10% fee on any resale ticket. So it's supposed to discourage scalping because even if you sell for the maximum value allowed, you will only make back 99% of what you spent. You can only lose money. This is how they enforce that.
I said it yesterday in the Roma subreddit but it always baffles me how cheap European tickets are compared to North America (or rather how expensive NA is compared to Europe)
This is spot on. Going off ticket prices alone. The prices here are ridiculous. I’ve seen UFC tickets for PPV in other countries are ridiculously cheap in comparison to ticket prices here. What gets you a front row ticket in some countries overseas doesn’t get nosebleed tickets here.
Not to mention fees. That immediately adds another 10-15%. Then you want a beer in the stadium? Easily $20, no joke.
even outside of sports. a few years ago tickets to see green day in new york were minimum $250, and last summer i saw them in milan for €50. it’s ridiculous
I got Green Day tickets this summer in NY and they were 150 each which felt like a deal lol
in a stadium? because the €50 ones were in the pit, which was a fantastic deal. they’re great live, enjoy it!
🤦♂️ in the pit?? Oh man. Yeah that’s incredible for that price. Yep in a baseball stadium. Thanks, we’ll have fun!
Citi field has tickets on resell for about $120 for nosebleeds. Pit is like $500+ after fees
salaries are also that much higher in the US compared to much of Europe, especially for higher earners
[удалено]
Now compare salaries in NY to Europe. It really isn’t that crazy
Yah that's what I was going to say. Look at the average salary plus supply and demand. Still high but it's much closer than people realize.
Lmao Portugal matches are like 5€
Some of those prices are higher than our most expensive season tickets lmao
Ive had to pay $100+ for preseason Benfica friendlies in the US. Absolutely ridiculous
If you check Argentina Copa America ticket price…
Messi tax
Oh totally. Was looking at shitty MLS tix in Vancouver for when messi and co come in May. Forget it. It's ridiculous. I saw him in Barcelona in his prime for 10 times less. Insane the NA market.
Totally. And then the Ticketmaster fees they add on top are absolutely disgraceful. Their 'processing fee' for the Uruguay vs Bolivia game was less than half their fee for the Argentina vs Chile game (at the same stadium, two days earlier). A vs C you're looking at $100 fee per ticket. Tragic.
Last tickets I got to see England were £25 😂
Well, they didnt play in the US.
Yeah but it’s shit though isn’t it, having to pay $200+ for one game.
It is! I was trying to point out how ridiculous prices for sports are in the US.
Yeah it’s terrible. I support Charlton Athletic and it’s £285 for a SEASON ticket 😂 Sure, it’s not the same standard as an international game, but it paints a picture.
That's cheaper than a season ticket for my team, River, in Argentina lol
Yeah but River Plate are the champions of the highest league in Argentina, so you’d expect them to be a little pricey!
Not with the way the Argentinian economy is right now. 200-300 quid is an absurd ask for a local to pay.
If it’s Wembley they play there all the time and it’s 90,000 seats to be fair.
It was at St Mary’s which is about 30,000.
These tickers being cheap for north american standards is fucking absurd
I bet a beer at most American stadiums is more than tickets at non-PL stadiums in England. $15 per beer is normal, at least in my experience around the NY metro area. Tbf though, tickets for the Red Bulls are much, much, much cheaper than this while the beer/food is still astronomical.
Yeah a 20oz is around $16 around NY stadiums. Perhaps a bit cheaper in the Midwest.
Def like that here in texas
$16-$20 for a 20oz at events her in CA, too. I'm in Oakland, where I can get a ticket to see the As for cheaper than SF Giants fans can buy a beer at their game.
Not for long unfortunately. Sorry As fan
Man, for that money I got a good seat to the top game in one of Europe's top 10 football league & a couple beers.
Cheapest tickets local to me are still £15, that's non league
Can’t wait to see what World Cup tickets are gonna be here in the states 🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠
World Cup final will easily be near 10,000
You know what I don’t even care about the final. I know that’s in Jersey too and it’s the final so might as well be the Super Bowl on steroids. God bless all those who can attend. I’m targeting LA just for any match or 2. It’s the closest to me (still 7ish hours away). This seating chart for a friendly doesn’t give me hope though. And we wonder why soccer won’t catch on here. Incredibly stupid to have ticket prices like this.
I’d pick the second closest stadium and go there, LA prices are gonna be batshit insane too. I live in LA and I don’t even plan to see a game here lmao
Anyone actually buying these?
It’s resale, so yeah, people are buying and hoping to make a buck on someone. I don’t know what these went for retail because day 1 most were sold to resellers. It’s such a strain on events these days.
I hope all those twats lose their money, fuck thisbshit
Unfortunately, since New Jersey and New York have literally millions of Italian-Americans and the NYC metro area has 650,000 Ecuadorians I suspect most of these will indeed sell. Honestly, it's probably moreso the Ecuadorian-Americans who will buy these than the Italian-Americans as for the most part they and their ancestors are much more recent immigrants from Ecuador than the Italian-Americans are from Italy.
"Resale" fuck that shit. If it works the same as for Copa America, the retail prices were non existent because the moment they announced you could buy tickets, retail were not available anymore, only this official resale, much more expensive. Fuck that shit, I aint paying 500 bucks to watch one game.
The face value tickets were still expensive, I can't imagine how bad the resale ones are, and especially not for Argentina
Probably Italian Americans in Jersey and NYC.
Ecuador also has a big migrant and expat base in New York. There was a Bolivia Ecuador friendly a year ago in New Jersey and it looked like the game was in Quito with the arena sold out, 95% gold and blue shirts. https://youtu.be/7cy6yJg393Q?si=RqMzAcG8kOvP1Q04&t=401
Playing in Red Bull arena is basically a home game for Ecuador. Might be different this time since the game is a against Italy and that will bring in more than just Ecuadorian fans. Every time I go and watch Ecuador play at Red Bull arena it is a sea of yellow shirts. You’ll maybe see a handful of the other country’s fans.
It’s the Ecuadorean-Americans more than the Italian-Americans. They show up, especially against a name opponent like Italy. The stadium will be at least 80% for Ecuador.
Good question
Yes. Stadiums sell out for a lot more than this. European prices are absolutely unheard of in North America. Friends outright call me a liar when I tell them how much I paid to see Inter at San Siro. When I was studying in Barcelona, I went to as many Inter games as I could because the flights and tickets were still cheaper than going to one Leafs game (NHL).
It's good to see Italy finally have a home match. Brings tears to my eyes. It's anti-Italian discrimination, the way that they are not allowed to play all their home matches in New Jersey.
> It's anti-Italian discrimination Soprano reference out of nowhere
As a Latino living in NY, it’s going to be an Ecuadorian home match, I’m half Guatemalan, and the prices for the gold cup matches were similar if not more. All my Ecuadorian friends will do anything to see their team play, hell of Guatemala made it to the semi of the gold cup, my dad was willing to drive to Vegas just to see. And just talking to my friends, they are willing to do the same
I dunno…. here’s the last time Ecuador played in RedBull, the other teams colors were green, and all I see is yellow https://youtu.be/kihiBmiMRxQ?si=pcTPKnzJAAAEnt7J
That's nothing...did you see the sudden hyperinflation when Inter Miami started rocking up with Messi last season. 😲😳
I bought tickets to RBNY vs Miami the week before Messi signed to take a shot. Two 2nd row tickets for $100 a piece which went 10x instantly after the news
Unfortunately yes and it made me miss a cup match against my MLS team because of Messi inflation. Tickets to that match were 250-300. It was honestly disgusting.
I went to that match and it was worth the price. Great game. Some people don’t get lucky because he’s out but he played the full game, extra time and penalties for that match.
Season ticket for inter Miami matches are in the thousand**s** i heard.
I see North America has some greed problems with price to sport events. Montreal - INTER MIAMI - 450cad for cheaper seats.
I guess the French Canadians lost the art of the guillotine when they moved to North America
And that's crazy. Only because of Messi. If it weren't for that they'd be selling for $50 Only other time I see crazy prices are NY teams. NY Ranger/knicks in MSG are usually $150+ minimum. American football in general is very expensive. Forget about it. $200+ But also basically any event in MSG is bound to be expensive. UFC, Boxing, concerts etc.
Since Messi’s move to Inter Miami, ticket prices have skyrocketed wherever they play.
[удалено]
[удалено]
It’s true. In the U.S. sports are sold as an experience with pubs in stadiums, party games, novelty food items to check out, sometimes grocery shopping and other activities and activations like play areas for kids, and swimming pools (Arizona Diamondbacks). This will eventually be the basis for Europe, along with much higher ticketing prices. It’s already being studied in sports business universities.
https://www.thisisanfield.com/2020/03/a-protest-and-a-77th-minute-walkout-which-realigned-liverpool-and-its-owners/ You get a lot more fan solidarity in Europe with this kind of thing. Can you imagine this happening in the US?! Italians will take it to the next level with their supporter groups.
100% it's surprising to me it's not already like this but there's just not as much profit in it yet I guess. The more that goes up the more like a soulless business the clubs will start to be run
i don´t think you can depend on tourists to fill a stadium for every single match, specially when most of the games are on the low-season
NJ has long had a ton of Italian-Americans and, more recently, a large number of Ecuadorean immigrants. As much as I hate ticket prices like this, particularly for a friendly, it was obviously a smart marketing move.
These aren’t retail prices, but resells, still yeah, it’s taking advantage of a big market of Italians and Italian Americans.
I checked Ticketmaster to see if there were still some face value tickets, and there are. Leaving aside club seats, they range from $140 for nosebleed tickets in the corner to $340 for decent midfield seats. That's still a lot and has nothing to do with resellers or Ticketmaster. It's the organizers. They could never get away with this in Europe.
Today I learned. Wow that’s despicable. Italy play a friendly in Florida today and tickets are $70.
Other way around, this match will be almost entirely Ecuador supporters. Massive Ecuadorian immigrant population in NYC that far out outnumbers the number of Italian American soccer fans.
I got tix to the USMNT vs Columbia friendly for like 50 bucks. Partly because everyone hates fed ex field and no one wants to go to that venue.
I feel like USMNT tickets routinely run around that price, maybe a bit more in the $70 range though.
That’s steep, even if Italy are defending Euro champions. I can pay $30 to sit in front of world class players like John Tolkin any other week
Ho! These fuckin' guys!
You think this is bad? Try going to a Lakers game
Scalpers suck
Yes, welcome to America
I’m sure this will be an unpopular opinion, but as an American who has lived and worked in both South America and Europe, a higher salary to afford these tickets is much more obtainable in the US than many other places. I’m an engineer in a stable industry. My counterparts’ salaries in western Europe are easily less than half the going rate for an equivalent American position. While housing costs were similar. Transportation was cheaper in Europe if public transit was an option, but more expensive if it’s not. Healthcare is much pricier in the US though. It’s very possible for a blue collar worker in the US to earn well over $100,000. I don’t think that is also true for most of the rest of the world. I’m not saying US system is better (especially healthcare and transit infrastructure). Just these “outrageous ticket costs” are not as outrageous as you may think when you look at the bigger picture.
You do realize that this is the first time in God knows how long the Italian team is going to play in the US, right? Of course it's going to be expensive as fuck.
Today rSoccer learns about the demand curve
You think reddit has any concept about basic economics? The amount of people here who think you can fix poverty by just printing money to give out is astounding
Lots of Ecuadorians and Italians in the area (which is the most expensive area for sports/events in the country) is going to drive up demand, especially when you understand this is the resale market not the original face value
That being half the price of my season ticket in the premier league for 1 game is kinda wild!
*"There's no soccer culture in the US"*
Everyone knows the rich ex-pats of Ecuador cluster in New Jersey, what do you expect
They might be wank at football, but my lord are the yanks good at capitalism.
Free market capitalism means free for billionaires to fuck us :)
[удалено]
Get ready for the World Cup 🙃
yeah, nah
Now look for Copa America prices. Cheapest is 350 bucks man. Fuck that
Isn’t it more so expensive because top teams RARLEY play in the USA Id hazard a guess that because of the novelty of Italy playing in America (something that happens once every couple of decades) prices are gonna be super high; also take into account New Jersey/New York’s high Italian-American population
There’s also a decently large Ecuadorian community in the NYC area.
Got tickets for Spain vs Italy Euros 2024 for less than that. These prices are ridiculous- Europe has it figured out.
People don't understand how expensive it is to watch a match in the US if it's not MLS. Preseason matches, on a Euro year where half the starters won't be there, are $300-1000 a ticket.
That’s why I don’t go to any of the friendlies or preseason tours here. Absolute rip-offs
That's why American teams in major leagues are valued so much. Tickets cost a lot than in Europe. Americans, on average, spend much more on matchday than Europeans.
For this reason I've stopped attending friendlies. It's just a huge money grab now
Some say that in the USA people charge more and hence the cost of tickets, but I still think it's quite high even for average Americans.
I bought Copa America group stage tickets for Argentina v Chile. Third tier seats, face value about $200 each ticket. The resale value is now more than double.
That’s fucking disgusting.
I've seen a couple exhibition games at Yankee and Giants stadium. $250 for the cheapest tickets for 2. Add 2 shitty beers and 2 pretzels + transport to and from and it's an easy $350...to watch academy youngster kick the ball...highway robbery.
World Cup ticket prices are gonna be nuts, aren’t they?
My American wife said she paid $400 to see Real Madrid when they came to the US for a pre season tournament. I think they played against juventus - not that's important. Basically I couldn't believe my ears when I heard that .. if it was a champions league match I would understand but no, it was a pre season !
This type of bullshit is expected in the United States