Shafaq News- Guadalajara

Empty seats appeared across sections of Guadalajara Stadium during South Korea and the Czech Republic's World Cup match, with ticket prices and travel costs drawing renewed attention despite FIFA's claims of strong demand for the tournament.

The venue logged an official attendance of 44,985 at its nearly 46,000-seat stadium —a figure that sat well below the competition opener in Mexico City, where more than 80,000 fans filled Azteca Stadium.

The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, carries ticket prices that dwarf those of the 2022 edition in Qatar. The most expensive final seat at that tournament was $1,604, according to BBC Sport. At the 2026 edition, the same category reached $10,990 at open sale, a price set under FIFA's dynamic pricing model, which adjusts costs according to demand at each sales phase.

Opening-match seats range from $560 to $2,735, against $55 to $618 four years ago. Group-stage tickets average around $400, compared with $11 to $220 in Qatar. Final tickets run from $2,030 to $6,370, up from a range of $206 to $1,607 for the Lusail decider.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended the pricing at his pre-tournament news conference in Mexico City earlier this week, pointing out that ticket costs were consistent with comparable sporting events and that the governing body had sold more than six million seats across the tournament.

Football Supporters Europe filed a complaint with the European Commission in March, accusing FIFA of pricing ordinary fans out of the competition and stating that the lowest-tier tickets were largely unavailable during public sales.