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So you want to go to the World Cup. Well, it's going to cost you. I don't think we're going to the World Cup anymore, bro. Their cheapest $7,000. Original purchase price, $446. Resale price $22,316. It's insanity. The World Cup's return to North America will be unprecedented in more ways than one. It's the first FIFA tournament to take place across three nations with 16 host cities in the US, Mexico and Canada. This is the first tournament where we're going to have 48 countries represented instead of 32. That means there's going to be 104 matches play.
It's also the first World Cup where tickets are subject to dynamic pricing and that's changing the game so to speak. What dynamic pricing means is that prices change could be on an hourly basis, on a daily basis, or weekly basis, depending on supply and demand. This is something that we are used to seeing in the US, but around the globe this is the first time they've ever introduced something like this. The US is the ultimate market and FIFA's using that to their full advantage in this tournament. We have to apply market rates. This is the World Cup.
You have a lot of resale, a lot of speculative buyers going in there to later try to sell for a markup. And so the big question I think people have is, is this demand real? And ticket prices aren't the only obstacle of the fans. If. You're. Coming to see some. Soccer. We want them to come, we want them to celebrate. When the time is up, they'll have to go home. Don't overstay your. Visa. Trump's policies on immigration and tourism have proved to be very hard for some people from specific countries to get visas to attend the tournament.
It has said to put some people off of wanting to visit here. And if people can't or don't attend the games, then what seemed like a profitable event for host cities could turn into a financial black hole. Financial fallout could be anywhere from 100 to 200 million dollars. That's the cost for a host city. The World Cup will have a winner. One team will take away the trophy, but some of its losers may never actually set foot on the playing field. Football, well, technically soccer, since we're in North America this time round, has finally come into its own in the US.
Soccer has seen a massive growth over the last 30 years since the World Cup in 1994. Now one of the biggest stars in the world, Lionel Messi plays for Inter Miami. Their business grew an exponential amount. The league is now 30 teams. The value of the enterprise is over $20 billion. But at the same time, they aren't on the par of other sports leagues in the US. So this is really the moment that they have to capture the world audience, to capture the US audience. The US market, coupled with other advantages, makes it an attractive and lucrative location for FIFA.
FIFA comes over and they visit where people want to have the games, they visit the stadiums, and that's how they decide where it should be and if they have the right facilities and they have the right infrastructure. The good news about the United States, Mexico, and Canada is we have the facilities already. Although FIFA requires there to be some modifications to them, we didn't have to build the facilities from scratch. But hosting the World Cup is notoriously complicated. Host cities want to host the World Cup because of the economic impact that they will get back. New York alone expects about $3.3 billion in economic impact.
Dallas expects about 2.1 billion. LA around $1 billion. Expectations aren't always reality and these economic impact numbers that FIFA and the cities come up with are typically inflated numbers. They end up fronting the bill and FIFA really just takes all of the revenue from the games. Looking at costs and revenues from 14 past World Cups, shown here in blue and orange, a clear pattern emerges. Nearly every host nation lost money. Russia was the only exception. If you're host city, you sign a contract with FIFA and that host contract requires the city to take care of all of these needs. Security is one of them.
Transportation is another one. Producing fan fests in the city is another major expense. They grab a park in the city where they'll pull up some big screens and in theory, that's a place where fans can go free of charge, watch games, have a good time. But what we're already hearing is that some cities under the financial constraints they have are considering charging for the Fan Fest. The US government agreed to hand out $625 million in federal funding to help with security measures across all 11 host cities in the US. That's a good chunk of money, but it's not nearly enough to deal with the potential security problems.
If you have that cost on one side and on the other side, you have essentially zero revenues. Then you have a net loss of that amount of money. Now, some of that money will be defrayed by local sponsorship deals, private donations, but the balance would be defrayed by the taxpayer. And if the crowds do show up, this will also strain local transportation and that's another area where municipalities are trying to make up the difference. To get from New York to the stadium in New Jersey, a round trip ticket is going to cost about $100. It's been reduced from $150 after backlash.
This is up from $13 a regular price for this ticket in a non-World Cup day. Cities are somehow trying to claw back some of the investment that they've made in the tournament and it remains to be seen whether they're going to kind of squeeze the fan enough to get some of that money back and not have to pass anything on to taxpayers. FIFA's limiting parking spots so that they can have more infrastructure around the stadiums and that means that the few spots that are left are going for premium prices. For international fans, it's a whole other ballgame. Airline prices have soared and politics is not helping. For this fan in Senegal, the red tape to get into the US has reinforced a perception that it's a hostile environment for visitors.
There are already groups of thousands of people who have signed petitions that say they've gone to all of the World Cup games in the last 20 years, but they're not going to the United States because they don't like the immigration policies that have been set by the Trump government. No American president has ever had the chance. Ironically, Trump himself professes to be a soccer fan. And Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, has made a point of cultivating this interest. Infantino and President Trump have a very, very close relationship. Infantino has gone to the White House many times. Infantino created a new FIFA peace prize and he gave it to Donald Trump after Donald Trump complained about not getting the
Nobel Peace prized. And who knows, maybe such flattery helped move the way for the Iranian team to participate in the games. Iran will be participating at the FIFA World Cup 2026. Did Gianni say it? He did. Gianni Infantino, that's a piece of work. You know what? Let them play well. Gianni's fantastic. He's a. Friend of mine. For Trump, this is more publicity, right?
He's going to be there in the stands. He's going to be seen as someone who's partly responsible for putting on this massive tournament, these 104 Super Bowls as Infantino said. The equivalent of 104 Super Bowls means turbo charged revenue and for FIFA, that appears to be the point. FIFA is going to earn over this four year cycle that the current World Cup will take place in something like $13 billion. That's a fivefold increase compared to the period ending with the 2006 World Cup in Germany. To be fair, FIFA is a nonprofit.
It says the money left after operating costs gets reinvested into growing the sport around the world. They divided up amongst the world's national soccer organizations and they spread it out so those organizations can exist and can develop youth soccer and adult soccer in their countries. A huge chunk of their revenue, like with most sports, comes from broadcast rights, which are expected to generate about $3.9 billion this year. And the fact is a lot of people will be watching the games on TV because of those dynamic ticket prices. FIFA's also organized its own resale platform and they're going to take commissions from both the buyer and the seller and that's just going to add to the revenue.
Even FIFA's process of seat assignment is being questioned over concerns some who bought tickets aren't getting what they paid for. It's another yellow card for an organization that is no stranger to money scandals. FIFA hasn't been totally tone deaf to price concerns. Following a global backlash, they added a $60 ticket option for some of the World Cup teams, most loyal fans. But these cheaper tickets will make up less than 2% of the total. So attending the World Cup final may mean you have to inhabit a
certain kind of world, namely a corporate one. These World Cup packages, it's not something that normal people can really afford. Exclusivity threatens to derail the games, especially in the US, where soccer isn't necessarily ingrained in the hearts of sports fans. If you did this in a country where football is the number one sport, I dare say there'd be some kind of potential for a bloody revolt.
A lot of people I have spoken to said there are risks for some of the stadiums to be empty for games where two countries are playing each other that don't have a large diaspora of fans in that area. The reality is some of these tickets might end up dropping very close to the tournament because the last thing that FIFA wants is for the broadcast to show empty stadiums. Soccer penetrates a culture and if its presence is reduced, it becomes less desirable. And so how do you have a mass base if the masses can't afford to go to the games?
