Industry News

Russia 2018 scores 500K ticket requests on first day

More than half a million tickets for the Russia 2018 Fifa World Cup finals were requested on the first day of sales.

According to Fifa, most requests were from host country Russia, with significant interest from Germany, England, Brazil, Argentina, China, Mexico and Colombia.

More than 50,000 tickets have been requested for the final, which takes place at Moscow’s 81,000-seat Luzhniki Stadium.

Almost 40,000 tickets were requested for the tournament’s opening match, which will also be played at Luzhniki Stadium.

As reported by The Ticketing Business last week, ticket sales for the 2018 World Cup are divided into two phases, followed by last-minute sales. Football fans will be directed to Fifa’s website in order to submit their application for a seat during the tournament.

Fifa said: “The current sales phase, in which tickets will be allocated through a random-selection draw process and which is set to conclude on 12 October, gives fans a unique opportunity to secure individual match tickets for all matches from the opening match through to the final, venue-specific ticket series and team-specific ticket series.

“With the high demand and to ensure that as many fans as possible are successful in the random-selection draw process, Fifa advises fans to observe the traffic light system indicating the demand for tickets when applying for tickets on Fifa.com.”

Prices range from £79 (€87.60/$105) for the cheapest seats at group stage matches to £829 for the most expensive seats at the final.

Category 4 prices, which are only available to Russian residents, start at £17 and go up to £92 for the final, which is only £13 more than the cheapest group match for non-Russians.

The £829 price tag for Category 1 final ticket is the most expensive for the 2018 World Cup final, and is a £151 increase on the equivalent ticket at the Brazil 2014 final in Rio de Janeiro.

World Cup matches will be held in 12 venues spread across 11 Russian cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi and Kazan.

Concerns were raised about demand in Russia following poor sales for this year’s Confederations Cup, where not a single match sold out.

IMAGE: Fifa