In 1994, the last time U.S. stadiums hosted the World Cup, an average ticket cost $58. The most expensive ticket for the final could be grabbed for $475.

Adjusted for inflation, that would be $131 and $1,069, respectively, in today’s prices. Fast forward 32 years and things have become a lot pricier.

In the tournament which began on Thursday at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico, the average ticket prices have been in the region of $1,300. The cheaper tickets for the final are going for a whopping $10,000, and it is even more for the better seats.

That represents an inflation-adjusted increase in average ticket prices of about 1,000% between the two times the U.S. has hosted or co-hosted the event. As a benchmark for comparison, over that period, median household incomes in the U.S., adjusted for inflation, have risen by only 32%.

But is ticket pricing the real problem with the World Cup? As a soccer economist and co-host of the Soccernomics podcast, it is a question I have long thought about. And economic analysis can bring some clarity as to what brought about such eye-watering ticket prices, whether they are justifiable and why many think them unfair.

To start things off, let’s entertain a thought experiment. The three host nations of the World Cup – Canada, Mexico and the United States – are home to around 200,000 ultra-high net worth individuals, those sitting on fortunes in excess of $30 million. If that elite group contained 82,500 soccer fans prepared to pay $300,000 for a ticket to fill out the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for the final, it would represent a payday for FIFA of close to $25 billion. And that isn’t a fanciful price — tickets for the final have listed for far higher.

Now if FIFA vowed that all that money would go to good causes – say, eradicating malaria or ensuring that underprivileged kids had access to state-of-the-art soccer equipment and programs – would anyone really gripe that it came at the cost of making tickets affordable for all?

The problem is FIFA is not vowing any such thing. FIFA President........

© Japan Today