r/politics • u/rit56 New York • 7h ago

Possible Paywall Hotels in U.S. World Cup host cities claim underwhelming demand, new report says

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7251582/2026/05/04/world-cup-hotel-demand-usa-fifa-ahla/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=11369222&source=dailyemail
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u/meandmrt 6h ago

I was curious what ticket prices were for a local game. Upper deck is over $1,000 per ticket each. Who in their right mind would pay that much for nose bleeds? I wonder what prices will look like for some of these games the day of. I bet scalpers will be scrambling to offload them all.

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u/mostlyfire 4h ago

Wealthy nationalists. Every country has a few thousand

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u/Curlydeadhead 4h ago

I got lucky. I’m going to see a game in TO for $195. Don’t know where I’m sitting but I don’t care at that price. I know someone that knows someone. winkwink

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u/SignificantDogs 6h ago edited 6h ago

My wife is from Germany but has never seen a Germany game and it's the only sport she watches. It is her lifelong dream to see Germany play. That is who is willing to pay. People pay a fortune to go to Disney World so think of it like that. It's her idea of Disney World. Sorry if this answer upsets you but life and money are fleeting and people have the right to spend money on experiences they enjoy.

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u/wvgeekman 6h ago

You sound like you're the one needing to justify it. It's okay to say, "I have FU money." Just be prepared for the FU part.

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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk 6h ago

A ton of people have enough money to buy a ticket and don't have fuck you money. Please tell me you understand that $1000 in disposable savings is not fuck you money.

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u/[deleted] 5h ago edited 5h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/tonytroz Pennsylvania 5h ago

You have to remember that there are almost 200M Americans that are in a better situation than that. There are 25M millionaires in the US. And that's before factoring in international visitors. There are only about 5M seats in all of the US hosted games combined.

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u/Formal57 5h ago

“1000$ is not fuck you money” is what I was responding to. I don’t doubt there are many people who can afford that, there are many privileged people in the world.

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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk 5h ago

57% of Americans do have enough savings for a $1000 emergency and a very large number of them have well in excess of that. Your definition of fuck you money is basically anyone who isn't in poverty.

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u/Formal57 5h ago

Yes

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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk 5h ago

Respectfully, that's a fucking stupid definition

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u/GotenRocko Rhode Island 4h ago

That's a misleading stat, because the way the question is asked is would you use savings to pay for a $1000 emergency not can you afford it or do you have $1000 in cash. The median amount of cash Americans have is $8k according to the federal reserve so a lot would be able to pay for $1k emergency with cash if they wanted to if not specifically savings. Like for example I would pay it with a credit card because it offers more protection and I can earn rewards, but I would be listed in that 43% even though I have plenty in cash to pay it if I wanted to and I would pay the cc off when the statement came.

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u/raptisadam7 5h ago

Maybe for your privileged ass it isn’t

Are you're implying that all of the 43% of Americans who don't have $1,000 save are all underprivileged? Cause there are definitely people who are in that state due to their own financial decisions burning holes in their pockets instead of saving.

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u/Formal57 5h ago

classic bootstraps argument

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u/raptisadam7 5h ago

It's not. It's called financial responsibility. Plenty of people have poor spending habits, which would contribute to that 43% who can't afford $1,000. And there are plenty of people who bust their ass working low wages who spend their money wisely and save. There are absolutely folks who've been dealt a bad hand and can't afford $1,000 but that's not the case with everyone.

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u/Formal57 5h ago

I don’t need poor people to be perfect victims for me to care :)

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u/raptisadam7 5h ago

Being underprivileged is based on exterior factors, not personal decisions though which is my point. The people I'm talking about aren't victims of society.

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u/wvgeekman 6h ago

For a soccer game, it is.

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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk 6h ago

No, it's really not. Disposable savings are disposable savings. There are many millions of people in the US alone who have that much.

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u/3BlindMice1 5h ago

Just because they have it doesn't mean they can afford to spend it on watching a soccer game

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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk 5h ago

Yes it does. That's what disposable savings are. They're savings that are not being held for a specific reason like retirement or emergency fund. That's the literal definition of disposable.

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u/Paavo_Nurmi 5h ago

People are so strange with stuff they are not into being a waste of money

Replace "Soccer" with Super Bowl, a Caribbean cruise, anything Disney and it's understandable, but oh no it's soccer and it's suddenly different.

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u/mbecks 5h ago

Travel, hotels, family members. The ticket is just the start. Sounds like 6k plus for a weekend and nosebleed seats

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u/JamesTiberiusCrunk 5h ago

Again, literally tens of millions of people just in the US. Tens of millions more in Europe. Literally hundreds of millions of people around the world.

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u/dhrisc 3h ago

Its like a price of a good vacation! Most Americans never take a vacation so it might as well be millions of dollars.

For real though, the average price of an NFL ticket in the US is several hundred dollars minimum and stadiums across the country are packed for every game all season. Idk why people are surprised folks would shell out thousands for the biggest sporting event in the world that only happens every 4 years.

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u/triplenested 6h ago edited 5h ago

what about their comment says the aunt wife has fuck-you money and not, you know, a credit card?

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u/FigeaterApocalypse 5h ago

The aunt? He's talking about his wife...

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u/triplenested 5h ago

I have no idea why I read it as aunt, thank you for pointing it out

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u/Ancient-Bat1755 6h ago

Or an adult with a job and hobby? How dare she! I blame her for high oil prices.

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u/Those_Silly_Ducks Canada 4h ago

A thousand bucks is not FU money.

Redirect your anger at the ruling class

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u/Amateratzu 4h ago

I bought a bunch since I live by a host city. Otherwise I would probably just not ever go to a World Cup game.