Spain vs. France World Cup semifinal ticket prices soar as fans pay up to $10,000 in Dallas
Monday, North Texas FIFA World Cup organizers held a news conference as the region prepares for its final match of the tournament on Tuesday, when Spain takes on France.
Leaders from Arlington, Dallas, and the North Texas FIFA World Organizing Committee reflected on the tournament's successes, highlighting transportation, public safety, and regional coordination as among the biggest wins. Organizers said the tournament's estimated $2.2 billion economic impact will create a legacy for the region.
"Based off our ticket sales at least to date, we've shown about 68% of people coming from outside of the area," said Monica Paul, the president of the committee.
With one final to go on Tuesday, organizers say their focus is already shifting to the future, as they try to secure their spot to host the 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup.
"This has been a great community effort," said co-chair Dan Hunt. "And I look forward to what the next steps will be, as hopefully we welcome a Women's World Cup in 2031."
Organizers said that when Lionel Messi played in the metroplex in June and broke the World Cup scoring record, fans used 25.9 terabytes of mobile data as thousands tried to capture the historic moment on their phones.
With the big final match hours away, CBS News Texas asked fans how much they paid for tickets.
"The tickets we're like, $2,300 each," Gabriel Haddad said.
While others said they paid $4,800. Fans from across the world spent big money to see the semi-final match at Dallas Stadium.
"I don't know how much other people have spent, but it goes into the hundreds of thousands," said Julie Doughan, who purchased tickets through her football club.
CBS News Texas spotted tickets on StubHub and through FIFA, going from anywhere between $1,100 to $10,000 for one ticket. Texas Tech University economics professor Michael Noel said while it's a lot of money, it's simply supply and demand.
"It's a given with this kind of thing. It happens only every four years. It's a big deal," Noel said. "There's only so many people you can fit in one of these stadiums. There's only so many games. In that sense, it's a lot of money. It's too much money for me; having said that, compared to other games in this tournament, it's one of the most inexpensive games to go to, which is causing a lot of surprise, because it's a semifinal."
