The World Cup Comes To Atlanta: Can You Afford A Game?

By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

Eight World Cup FIFA Games are coming to Atlanta, Georgia, Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Can you afford a game ticket? This article gives you an idea of when the games are being played, what are the cheapest prices, the costs of getting closer to the action, and a little about the teams and their rankings, to get you prepared for this unprecedented event.

If you’re like me, a budget shopper, then your top pick should be June 18, Thursday at 12pm at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The cheapest ticket is $200 on TickPick, so that should be doable. South Africa plays Czechia. South Africa (#37) lost the first game to Mexico 2-0, but showed themselves to be pretty scrappy against the host team in Azteca Stadium. Many have Czechia (#28) making it to the next round, the knockout stage. South Africa is a former host, and Czechia’s been there before, even making finals against Italy in 1934 and Brazil in 1962. To get right next to the action, prices approach $4,500. VIP seating is $11,000.

The second cheapest ticket is June 27, the Democratic Republic of Congo (#43) versus Uzbekistan (#46). The lowest cost is $233. The advantage is that the game is played on a Saturday at 730pm, which should help those working 9 to 5 Monday through Friday. Neither the DRC nor Uzbekistan have much of a history in the World Cup though. The DRC did upset huge favorites Cameroon and Nigeria and Jamaica to get here. Uzbekistan did beat England in U-17 years ago in 2023, so that’s something.

For an opening round match, Atlanta was lucky to snag Morocco (#11), a semifinalist in the last World Cup, the Cinderella squad four years ago in Qatar. They play Haiti (#39), who doesn’t have much of a FIFA history, at 6pm on Wednesday, June 24. But at $430 for the cheapest ticket, that might be the best price to see a good team in the opening round.

Spain is listed as one of the favorites to win it all (#2 overall), and they play two games in Atlanta. So you could have a chance to see a potential World Cup Champion. But it won’t be cheap. The Spaniards take on Cape Verde (#41), the tiny islands of the coast of Africa, at 12pm on Monday, June 15, the first of the Atlanta games. That’s $569 for the cheapest price in the stadium, according to TickPick (though prices are pretty comparable on Ticketmaster). You could pay a little more ($650) to see them battle Saudi Arabia (#38) at 12pm on Sunday, June 21, which also happens to be Father’s Day in America. The higher price is probably due to the Sunday date. Closer in looks to be $6,628 on TickPick. While Spain won it all in 2010 and hosted the event in 1982, neither Cabo Verde nor Saudi Arabia have an extensive FIFA World Cup history.

If you’re holding out for better teams taking on each other, you’ll have to wait, and it will cost you. On July 1, Wednesday, there will be a Round of 32 Game (1L vs 3E/H/I/J/K), which means a top team will play a third place team from one of those groups. The first kick will take place at 12pm on that day, and the cheapest ticket is $752.

Then, on Tuesday, July 7 at noon, Atlanta will play host to a Round of 16 game, otherwise known as “Match 95.” The cheapest ticket is just north of $1000, if you bought tonight from TickPick.

Finally, the best game in the Southeast occurs on July 15 at 3pm, a Wednesday. On that day, Match 102 will take place, and it’s a semifinal game. Though the lowest cost for that game is a steep $2,499, that’s far cheaper than the finals in the Met Life Stadium cost of $9.635 for the cheapest game in that New Jersey stadium, with closer seats looking upwards of $44,000 as of the writing of this column.

Sure those prices can be pretty steep, but for the opening round games, Atlanta has one of the more affordable venues, with only Santa Clara, CA, Inglewood, CA and a really unheralded match (Curacao vs Qatar) being close to the Atlanta prices for opening rounds. And while those top playoff games have staggering prices, that’s to be expected in this tournament.

Years ago, I chose to skip a match in Soldier Field between Morocco and Belgium that the USA hosted in 1994 because the ticket prices were over $50. That was more than 32 years ago. When will the next chance for the USA come? If you want to see a piece of soccer history, now might be the time to catch an Atlanta World Cup game.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu or on “X” at @johntures2. His first book “Branded” a thriller novel where corporate greed, media manipulation and academic intrigue collide in a deadly game of product placement, has been published by the Huntsville Independent Press (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/branded).