More than seven years after FIFA named Canada, the United States and Mexico as co-hosts of the 2026 World Cup, tickets for the general public are finally about to go on sale – with a couple of hitches.
Ready, set . . . register?
If you’ve bought tickets to a concert, you know how this sort of thing works. Next Wednesday, Sept. 10, at 11 a.m. ET, FIFA will open registration for a lottery on the first batch of tickets at FIFA.com/tickets. Don’t worry about trying to log in right on the dot; fans will have until Fri., Sept. 19 at 11 p.m. ET to register. Those who are chosen through a randomized selection process will be notified starting Sept. 29 of their time slot to actually purchase tickets, starting Oct. 1.
There’s one catch: Visa is one of FIFA’s partners, so you’ll need a Visa card to register.
Fans will be able to purchase up to four tickets a match, for up to 10 matches. And yes, that includes the three group-stage matches by the Canadian men’s national team.
How much will tickets cost?
FIFA says the least expensive ticket will be US$60 – but for most fans that will be a purely theoretical price. The federation will use dynamic pricing – the algorithm-driven practice of letting market demand determine prices, which is widespread across the music concert and travel industry.
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In a press release, FIFA said tickets for the final, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, will “reach up to” US$6,730 – before the effect of dynamic pricing. That’s more than four times the US$1,607 that FIFA set for the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.
How many tickets are up for grabs?
About one million tickets will be sold during the presale.
In their 2018 bid for the games, organizers from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico estimated they would sell about 5.8 million tickets to the entire tournament. But that was when only 80 games were planned. Now, the tournament will comprise a whopping 104 matches, suggesting that the total number of tickets sold could be closer to 7.5 million.
In any case, the final number will certainly eclipse the 3.4 million sold for the 64 matches in Qatar.
If I miss out on the presale, then what?
Registration for the next batch of tickets – what FIFA is calling the “early ticket draw” – will take place Oct. 27 to 31. The tickets themselves will go on sale in the middle of November. The next and sort-of-final batch, which FIFA has dubbed a “random selection draw,” will go on sale in the middle of December, once the actual matchups are determined.
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Any tickets remaining after that window will go on sale closer to the event itself, on a first-come, first-served basis.
How will I know which teams I’ll be seeing?
Here’s the catch. If you’re buying during the presale or the early ticket draw, you won’t know who’ll be on the field unless you nab tickets to one of the nine group-stage matches of the three host countries. (Canada plays its first match June 12 in Toronto, followed by matches in Vancouver on June 18 and 24.) But their opponents won’t be known until the official draw is held Dec. 5.
Some fans will try a spray-and-pray approach, hoovering up as many tickets as possible in hopes of ending up with some for matches they actually want to attend, and then selling off the rest. FIFA says it will set up an official resale site, where fans will be guaranteed that whatever they buy will be a legitimate ticket.
How can I get tickets to Canada’s matches?
If you miss out buying tickets during the presale, the good news is that Canada’s co-host role means a segment of the tickets for the Canadian men’s games will be reserved for distribution through Canada Soccer. In July, the federation announced that it would be allotted 8 per cent of what it called “the purchasable ticket allocation for each CANMNT game, distributed across different price categories.”
How many tickets is that? Toronto’s BMO Field will have a capacity of 45,736 for the tournament and BC Place will have a capacity of 54,000, so the federation’s allocation should be somewhere in the vicinity of 3,600 for Toronto and 4,300 for Vancouver. But on Thursday, a Canada Soccer spokesperson said they were still waiting to hear from FIFA on the exact number of tickets in the allocation.
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Members of the CanadaRED supporters’ program will be able to enter a series of lotteries for the right to buy a ticket. (There are seven membership tiers, ranging in price from free to $5,000; the more you pay, the more chances you have at winning.) Separate lotteries will be held for each of Canada’s matches. If Canada makes it to the knockout rounds, CanadaRED members will also be in line for those matches.
Not surprisingly, membership in CanadaRED has soared since July, with Canada Soccer announcing on Thursday that it had signed up more than 55,000 new members and raised more than $1-million for its program through the initiative.
You can also take a chance through the usual sales channels.
I’m not sure I want to travel to the U.S. When are the World Cup games in Toronto and Vancouver?
You’re not alone. Plenty of fans have expressed anxiety over visiting our southern neighbour, and not just because the Trump administration imposed travel restrictions in June on individuals from 19 countries.
Canada will host 13 matches: six in Toronto, including the Canadian men’s first World Cup match on home soil (June 12), and seven in Vancouver, including the national team’s two other fixtures (June 18 and June 24). Each city will host five group-stage matches and one from the round of 32. Vancouver will also host a round-of-16 match on July 7.
Mexico will host 13 matches in three cities: Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey.
What if I’d like to mortgage my house to buy tickets?
If money is less of a consideration, you can guarantee yourself a seat right now through the luxury hospitality program announced in July. The Canadian matches aren’t available to purchase individually, but you can get them as part of what’s being called a venue series package – which is to say, buying all six matches in Toronto or all seven in Vancouver. The least expensive option in Toronto is $15,975 plus tax for the FIFA Pavilion accommodation, rising to $34,400 for the Pitchside Lounge option. The Vancouver matches will run you $19,860 plus tax for the FIFA Pavilion level of hospitality, escalating to $42,195 plus tax for the Pitchside Lounge experience.
To be clear: Those prices are for one ticket per match.
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