We have been talking about for years the drift schizophrenic that has been generated around large live events, and especially music concerts. The phenomenon has led us to accept that if you want to go to a Bad Bunny concert or Radiohead The formula that never fails is to multiply the original price by three and go to the slaughterhouse from resale. Now, someone unexpected has wanted to go further by opening a parallel market to one of the most anticipated events.
The World Cup car parks… and their resale, of course.
Pay before entering. The 2026 World Cup to be held in the United States and Mexico is shaping up to be the tournament most expensive ever organized in history, and not only because of the price of the tickets, which are already supposed to be astronomical, but because of everything that surrounds the simple act of going to the stadium.
In an urban context designed for the car and not for the pedestrian such as the United States, the fan’s experience begins long before access control and becomes a sum of tolls that raise the real cost to unprecedented levels in the history of football.
Parking as a core business. The ironic thing, or perhaps not so ironic, is that it is FIFA itself that has started selling parking passes for figures that range between 75 and 175 dollars in minor games, but that in key venues like Los Angeles reach, attention, nothing less than up to 250 and 300 dollars per vehicle and match… even when those spaces are located more than a kilometer from the stadium.
In practice, parking already costs the same (or more) than many official tickets, so a round of 16 or quarterfinal match with a ticket of 400 or 500 dollars and a parking lot of 300 easily raises the total bill per person to around $1,000, a figure that redefines what it means to “go to football.”
Stadiums far away, car mandatory. It happens that, unlike in Europe, where large stadiums are usually integrated into the city and connected by subway, train or bus, many World Cup venues in the United States are located in peripheral areas and were specifically conceived to arrive by car.
This structural dependency turns the parking lot into an essential resource and allows it to be monetized as part of the show, something unthinkable in most European venues, where even when some clubs already charge for parking (as happens at Atlético de Madrid) there is always the real and massive alternative of public transport.
Planned shortages and inflated prices. Plus: the problem is not only the price, but deliberate scarcity. Many parking spaces near the stadiums will remain within security perimeters or reserved for sponsors, drastically reducing the offer for the general public.
In cities accustomed to tens of thousands of seats at NFL events, the World Cup will put only a fraction on sale, creating a bottleneck perfect to justify exorbitant prices under the argument of the “local market” and “large comparable events”.
Hello resale. Yes, this brings us to an “old acquaintance” of any massive event worth its salt: resale. They counted this week in The Athletic that, as has happened with the concert ticketsparking has fully entered the speculation circuit, with passes resold in secondary markets for even higher figures, although it may seem difficult.
In fact, this occurs even in venues where FIFA has not yet published your final offer. The result is a general feeling of abuse, in which the fan pays not only to watch the game, but for each step necessary to get there.
A deja vu. This escalation is not an isolated phenomenon and we have been counting in the last few yearsdocumenting how concerts and big events live have entered a price spiral marked by dynamic rates, uncontrollable resales and added charges that turn the luxury experience.
The 2026 Soccer World Cup adds to that logic: tickets that are difficult to get at the official price, crazy resale and peripheral costs (such as parking) that equal or exceed the show itself.
Parking as a symbol of a new frontier. The underlying message is crystal clear and deeply uncomfortable: the World Cup, a phenomenon of masses and global audiences, is going to explode. a new business without any shame, that of making parking the car cost the same (or even more) than a ticket to watch the games.
It is not a trivial detail, nor logistical, nor even collateral damage, but one more piece of the economic model of the tournament, designed to maximize income in each phase of the fan’s journey. The curious thing is that football remains the same as always on the pitch, but off it, getting to the stadium has become part of the bill.
If we are not in hell, the truth is that we are getting closer with the tips of our fingers.
Image | Ron ReiringRawPixel
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