A VIP-heavy crowd can also dampen the crazed atmosphere that makes international soccer special. People expecting chants and songs ringing throughout a stadium may leave a game feeling quite disappointed. “We could see corporatization of a sporting space,” says Mark DiDonato, professor at Florida State’s department of sport management.
Thankfully, fans can still hack this pricey World Cup. Over the 30-day period prior to May 19, secondary-market prices dropped more than 20%, on average, for group-stage matches, according to Ticketdata.com. You could keep waiting it out for even better deals. Host cities are also staging free fan fests and watch parties at places like the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City and Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. “It’s great to be inside the stadium at a match,” says Lee Igel, a professor at NYU’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport. “Sometimes it’s equally great to be outside of the stadium, or further away from the stadium, and just be around people who are enjoying themselves around this sport, and who are there as a part of a community.” Like at the pub, that classic World Cup locale, sharing an experience with other rabid supporters in front of a big screen. Ten-buck pitchers instead of $2,000 seats? There have been far worse backup plans.
