High ticket prices leave World Cup seats empty in Toronto and Vancouver

The first men’s World Cup on Canadian soil was supposed to arrive with a surge of national excitement. Instead, just days before kickoff, thousands of seats in Toronto and Vancouver were still unsold, with some Canada match tickets in Toronto listed at prices that put the tournament out of reach for many fans.

The 2026 World Cup begins on June 11 and runs through July 19, with 48 teams playing 104 matches across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Toronto is set to stage six matches at BMO Field, starting with Canada’s opener on Friday, June 12, against the winner of European Playoff A, later identified in schedule releases as Canada against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Vancouver’s BC Place is scheduled to host seven matches.

Yet the Canadian host cities have not matched FIFA’s global sales momentum. By late May, none of Toronto’s six matches had sold out, and thousands of tickets were still available. For Canada’s opening match in Toronto, the cheapest remaining face-value tickets were about $1,370, while the best remaining seats were just over $3,100. In a market where many supporters expected a once-in-a-generation chance to see the national team on home turf, those prices became the story.

The mismatch has sharpened the debate over whether FIFA overestimated demand in Canada, or simply priced beyond the local market. A sports economist has argued that FIFA may prefer a smaller number of higher-priced sales if that produces more revenue per ticket than a full stadium at lower prices. That logic may work on a balance sheet, but it leaves a visible cost on the stands: empty seats in some of the tournament’s showcase venues.

The backlash has also turned into a policy fight. Ontario announced on March 20 that it would move to cap ticket resale above face value for live events, and Bill 97 took effect in late April, forcing FIFA’s resale system to adjust its Toronto listings to comply with provincial law. FIFA temporarily removed Toronto resale listings from its own marketplace while it reworked the platform, while StubHub continued listing Toronto World Cup tickets above face value as it worked through compliance questions. Ontario has said non-compliant businesses could face penalties starting at $3,000 and reaching as high as $250,000.

The broader picture is not one of weak demand everywhere. FIFA said nearly two million tickets were snapped up in the first two public sales phases, and later said more than five million had been sold overall. Canada Soccer has also been using its own allotment and lottery system for some Canada-match tickets, underscoring how tightly access to the most sought-after games is being managed. But in Toronto and Vancouver, the combination of premium pricing, resale rules and uneven local enthusiasm has left the North American rollout looking far less celebratory than the branding suggests.