Soaring FIFA ticket costs deter France fans from Dallas semi-final with Spain | OneFootball

France’s spot in Tuesday’s World Cup semi-final against Spain in Arlington has lifted demand, yet high FIFA ticket prices are deterring many supporters.

According to L'Équipe, it remains unclear how many France fans will be inside the AT&T Stadium at 21:00. The federation estimates 3,000 to 5,000 per game via its channels, a figure that appears to have decreased from groups to knockouts despite the many blue shirts, some worn by non-French fans, seen across US venues.

Grégory Sevault of Mycomm said there had been several hundred enquiries since Thursday, but fewer than 100 sales, with price the main brake. Many, he added, prefer to wait for the final to manage budgets.

His firm offered return flights, hotel and match ticket from about €4,500 for Dallas, compared with €1,900 for France’s opener against Senegal. He added that stadium seats cost roughly four times Qatar levels, with potential final packages exceeding €5,000.

Thomas Lettry of On Location, the World Cup’s official hospitality agency, reported a surge from companies and wealthy VIPs, mainly following England, France and Spain. Hospitality is selling strongly in the United States despite prohibitive pricing.

Rank-and-file fans are feeling the pinch. Category three seats for France v Spain are €800, and Guillaume Auprêtre of the Irrésistibles Français says this limits their presence to about 330, down from more than 650 against Senegal and Norway. For any final they expect even fewer, and, unlike at a European Championship, they have not received extra allocations, relying only on last minute returns from members who bought earlier in the year.

Source: L'Équipe