“Bread and Circuses”

Fifa has been accused of working with unofficial resale platforms in an effort to sell tickets for low-demand World Cup games to avoid compensation claims from supporters who have already paid face value for matches.

Florian Ederer, an economics professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, has identified how huge swathes of tickets have appeared on the resale site, SeatGeek, for Saudi Arabia’s group encounter with Cape Verde in Houston on June 27.

What a racket. I believe Toronto’s participation was a major reason Tory chose not to run.

The price of tickets has turned the World Cup into an elite spectacle and data shows just how costly tickets are for residents of the host cities.

While World Cup tickets are a hot commodity in many of the 16 host cities across North America, local economic disparities mean at least some fans would have to fork over weeks — or months — of disposable income just to attend a match.

Just a short walk away from the Toronto stadium that will host the world’s biggest soccer tournament in less than two weeks, a group of a dozen or so men in their 20s have decided to use the beautiful Sunday afternoon weather to start an impromptu soccer game at the field neighbouring their homes.

All of them are some of the biggest soccer fans you can find in the city — but none of them will be attending the FIFA World Cup matches in their own backyard.

We are gonna get soaked.

The contracts impact billions of dollars in public spending, affecting everything from policing and transit to infrastructure and tax exemptions for one of the world’s richest sporting organizations. Yet most cities have gone out of their way to keep them hidden from view.

The Host City Agreements generated by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), contracts that all 2026 World Cup host cities have been required to sign, regulate almost every aspect of the marquee soccer tournament being played on Canadian soil for the first time next month. These agreements, written by FIFA’s lawyers and often signed with minimal public debate by municipal, provincial and federal governments, help explain how this lucrative sporting tournament manages to be fabulously profitable and remarkably low‑risk – at least for FIFA.

We are going to be ripped off as usual.

A report, externally produced by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) has found that bookings are well below expectations in almost every host city.

The AHLA said this does not align with Fifa’s statement that more than five million tickets have been sold,, external and it creates a risk that “the anticipated economic lift may fall short”.

The AHLA is the largest hotel association in the US, representing more than 32,000 properties and over 80% of all franchised hotels.

Important because Toronto tax payers are on the hook for any losses sustained by the “Corporate Participants”.

PBO says Canadian governments to spend $1 billion to host World Cup

OTTAWA — The federal budget watchdog says Canada will spend just over $1 billion to host the World Cup this summer.

That includes money from all levels of government, with the federal government contributing $473 million.

h/t Mauser

Iran wants guarantees of beefed-up protection behind enemy lines and no political questions from prying journalists.

Senegal wants visas for a handful of officials from its national sporting federation who have been denied entry to the U.S.

Ghana wants fans of its national squad, the Black Stars, to promise they’ll return home, keeping the country in Donald Trump’s good graces.

People love the game. FIFA is a criminal organization.

Walking the streets of Kansas City, Houston, Miami and New York it is hard not to notice a World Cup is coming.

Billboards abound, there are signs outside bars and stores are churning out tournament-themed merchandise.

But for hoteliers checking their booking systems, the buzz is more of a murmur.

The industry body says most hotels in World Cup host cities are seeing bookings lower than this time last year, and those who spoke to the BBC said they were underwhelmed so far.

Hundreds of tickets for Canada’s June 12 World Cup opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina are still up for sale at online reselling sites for more than ten times their original asking price — despite Ontario’s new anti-scalping law.

New amendments to the Ticket Sales Act make it illegal to resell tickets to any event in Ontario, including six Toronto games which are part of soccer’s global showcase, for more than their face value.

Just over a month before the opening kick of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, warning signs suggest the tournament’s long-promised economic windfall may be far less spectacular than advertised. Hotel owners across much of the United States are confronting an inconvenient reality: The World Cup tourism boom has yet to materialize.In a report released this week by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, nearly 80 percent of surveyed hotels across the 11 Amerian host cities reported that bookings for June and July are tracking below expectations.Many markets are reporting booking levels that are not only softer than expected for a World Cup summer, but in some cases lagging behind a normal June or July.

President Trump blasted sky-high 2026 FIFA World Cup ticket prices in an exclusive interview with The Post, saying even he wouldn’t pony up the $1,000 needed to watch the US play in the team’s opening game against Paraguay next month.

In a brief telephone interview late Wednesday, the commander-in-chief reacted with surprise at how much American soccer fans were currently being asked to pay to attend the June 12 match in Los Angeles.

The United States Soccer Federation imagined that securing the rights—along with Mexico and Canada—to host this year’s World Cup would be a boon to soccer’s popularity in America. Cities and states, eyeing the payoff from a worldwide audience arriving for a once-in-a-generation event, scrambled to secure their piece of this soccer pie by winning the privilege to host games. But with only weeks remaining before the 2026 World Cup begins on June 11, many officials fear that the event could become the economic development equivalent of an “own goal.”

It’s a great big con dressed up as a sporting event.