Welcome to America, the ATM of world soccer

New York Times

a day ago

Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed guests, football (soccer) fans around the globe, welcome to America!
In just a few days, you'll descend upon the United States to cheer on your team, witness some of the planet's biggest stars gracing the world stage one more time before they head off into their summer break — albeit a brief one.
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This is an extraordinary time for soccer in this part of the world. The Copa América was here in 2024. The Club World Cup kicks off this weekend. The World Cup — the grandest soccer show of all — is in 365 days. The 2027 Women's World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games will be upon us before we know it.
But while the U.S. is going to be a summer soccer paradise, it's not going to be a cheap one for those who like to budget with caution.
Last year, MLS commissioner Don Garber told The Athletic: 'There's no question now that America has become the ATM for the soccer world. We have raised the commercial value of the sport in our country in ways where it now is perhaps the most valuable soccer market, commercially.'
Garber's comments reflect reality. Part of the reason America is such an attractive proposition for FIFA, international leagues and elite global teams is that large numbers of fans are willing to pay sky-high prices.
For decades, the U.S. was soccer's purgatory. While the rest of the world was obsessed with the jogo bonito, Americans were busy with football, basketball and baseball — their favorite pastime. But that's changed. Over the past decade, especially once American investors started putting money into soccer teams abroad, the sport's footprint and impact in the U.S. haven't just grown, but surged.
With interest in soccer at an all-time peak, clubs, leagues and governing bodies are racing to capitalize on the American fan base and to tap into the U.S.'s commercial and economic might. On top of all the global events mentioned above, there is also a continuously steady stream of high-profile summer friendlies in between, as has been the case for well over a decade.
No one is pretending soccer has the same foothold and history in the U.S. as it has in Europe or South America, but what it does have is a potential audience that is accustomed to paying top dollar for its entertainment interests.
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As FIFA tries to fill more seats for its Club World Cup opener between Inter Miami and Al-Ahly on Saturday, it was revealed Tuesday that Miami Dade College students could acquire five tickets for $20, a phenomenal deal aimed at avoiding the embarrassment of having banks of empty seats for the kickoff game. However, without your college ID card, it should be noted that regular seats still start at $69, and that figure was more than $300 when they first went on sale.
Add in parking, food and other expenses, and the total cost for a family of four could easily exceed $1,000, especially for a highly sought-after match, with the dynamic pricing model used to set costs.
'Football has been industrialized,' professor Simon Chadwick, who teaches geopolitics of sport at Emlyon Business School in Lyon, France, told The Athletic. 'Very often people talk about commercializing, but the sport has been industrialized with the objective to extract as much financial value from customers as is possible.
'Clubs and governing bodies are developing products that take advantage of the latest developments in markets, and this means that the football product now, instead of just being a game that you go and watch, or you go and buy a ticket to watch, the product is now an experience.'
Alas, soccer has become a very expensive experience in the U.S.
When you break down the costs of attending events like Copa América or marquee summer friendlies, the numbers add up fast. Last summer, tickets for Argentina vs. Chile were starting at $391 on Ticketmaster.
According to ticket resale platform TickPick, the average purchase price for the 2024 Copa América group stage was $187, a 61 percent rise from 2016, when it was $116. The most expensive group stage ticket was for the match between Argentina and Peru, with an average purchase price of $478. For the final, tickets were priced anywhere from $1,300 to $7,000 through websites such as Ticketmaster and SeatGeek. Another report from the Local 10 News claimed tickets for the final ranged from $1,670 to nearly $97,900 on resale platforms TickPick and StubHub. A year before Copa América, summer friendly games featuring European clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United saw ticket prices exceeding $200, especially in major U.S. cities.
At those prices, fans aren't just paying to watch a soccer game, they're paying to be part of a meticulously crafted entertainment experience.
FIFA and many other soccer governing bodies are curating entertainment experiences that go well beyond the game. From Coldplay's Chris Martin choosing halftime music to seamless one-touch engagement with teams and tournaments through an app, it's all very much in line with the kind of immersive, branded experiences 'you'd expect from Disney,' Chadwick said.
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'These immersive, high-touch offerings cost money to build, but FIFA knows fans are willing to pay for them. There's a clear alignment between what FIFA is offering and what consumers want. The proof? Stadiums sell out, sponsors keep lining up, and broadcast deals are still climbing. The takeaway for FIFA is simple: This model works.'
But not perfectly, it seems. Earlier this week, tens of thousands of seats remained unsold for the opening Club World Cup match at Hard Rock Stadium, which holds 65,326 fans.
The exclusivity of the Club World Cup and other FIFA events, though, goes beyond ticket prices, all the way to concession stands.
FIFA Club World Cup matches will be held in 12 NFL and MLS stadiums, including Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Miami's Hard Rock Stadium, New Jersey's MetLife Stadium (where the final of CWC and the World Cup will take place), Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, Seattle's Lumen Field and Washington's Audi Field, where DC United and Washington Spirit plays their home games. The cost of the average classic American combo — a beer and a hot dog — is approximately $15.02 across NFL stadiums, with some venues like Lumen Field charging up to $19.98, according to Food and Wine's 2024 research.
However, recent personal experience shows prices are vastly higher than that. Last week at the USWNT's match against Jamaica at Energizer Park in St. Louis, a Reuben sandwich was priced at $18.99, a bottle of water was $8 and a large beer was going for $20, with tax and tip on top.
The truth is that the beautiful game is increasingly catering most directly to those who can afford to pay more.
'Let's be brutally honest about this, people who are economically disadvantaged, they are no longer anywhere near the top of football's agenda,' Chadwick said. 'In simple terms, the yield per fan from richer members of society is going to be much higher than the yield per fan from poorer members of society. And so I guess you could say we are going through a kind of period of the gentrification of football.'
Unlike the iconic song from 'West Side Story,' nothing in America comes for free. Buying on credit sure feels like a sweet deal, just don't check your credit card statement after the game.