With less than a month to go until the start of the 2026 World Cup, expectations of an economic explosion seem to be deflating in the Miami area, where a sad reality is beginning to manifest itself with low ticket sales and hotels with low occupancy.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association reported that hotel reservations in the 11 United States cities where the World Cup will be held are much lower than expected.
Miami: the World Cup atmosphere is conspicuous by its absence
“You don’t see World Cup ads on the streets or highways,” said Kevin, a pathological soccer fan. “It’s as if seven Cup games were not going to be played in Miami.”
Many factors come together for this situation. First, hotels raised their rates in some cases from $200 to $800, certain that fans would pay whatever once they got the tickets and, for those who live abroad, a visa to enter the United States.
Quite the opposite happened. The visa is not a problem if you have purchased the tickets, because with the FIFA pass that is given to those who buy their tickets: the consulates give them the visa without problems.
On the other hand, Airbnb reported that reservations have increased in cities such as Fort Lauderdale and Miami.
Sky-high prices complicate attendance at the World Cup
“The issue is very complicated, what has the most impact are the air tickets,” Paz said. “Whoever comes from outside needs at least four airline tickets, and that costs between 3,500 and 5,000 dollars for a single person.”
On the other hand, Paz said that right now tickets on FIFA platforms are through the roof, no one is buying and Everyone is waiting for prices to drop so they can start purchasing their tickets.
“Tickets are very expensive. FIFA no longer uses dynamic pricing based on demand on its platform, but prices are still high,” Paz added. “Resale remains high for matches from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.”
Paz, operator of Absolut Sport, said that the cheapest tickets for the Colombia vs. Portugal at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami is around $2,500 and there are 10,000 left for sale. This means that with these prices, the collection for that concept alone would be 125 million dollars.
Meanwhile, Paz does not believe that the immigration raids will affect the World Cup.
“The situation on the planet is impacting more,” he added. “The war with Iran and the rise in oil prices are issues that affect people more directly. If ticket prices do not drop, the stadiums will not be filled, although FIFA only needs them to be filled in 18 or 19 games to obtain formidable profits like never before in its history.”
