CBC Lite Sections News • Canada • Toronto Hundreds of World Cup tickets are still unsold, but one expert says prices could fall 'dramatically' Alina Snisarenko | CBC News | Posted: June 8, 2026 7:22 PM | Last Updated: 18 hours ago Canada vs. Bosnia resale tickets dropped to $535 Monday Image | WORLD CUP TEAM CANADA Caption: One World Cup expert says tickets prices for Toronto matches could drop drastically as fans complain of being priced out of matches while hundreds of passes remain unsold. (Ben Nelms/CBC) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab Harp Patel’s family are huge soccer fans. So much so, the Greater Toronto Area-based family of five had plans to travel to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. They entered the draw for tickets, got in, and secured spots for four different matches — a total of 24 tickets that amounted to around $5,500. But when Toronto announced that it would be a host city for the 2026 World Cup, they decided to forgo Qatar and wait to experience the game on home turf. Now, with days to go before the global tournament comes to Toronto, Patel hasn’t been able to get a single ticket to any match, even as hundreds of them — selling at higher than ever prices — remain unsold. "Fast forward to today and number one, we can’t get tickets, we’ve missed out on several lotteries. And looking at the resale market … we’re just completely priced out,” Patel told CBC Radio's Metro Morning Monday. Dozens of soccer fans have voiced their frustrations on Reddit forums and Instagram posts about the exact same experience. But prices for Canada's matches could actually drop “quite dramatically” over the coming days in order to get fans into the stadium, said Simon Kuper, a soccer writer and columnist who’s covered eight World Cups. And with FIFA’s resale prices for Toronto’s inaugural match going down, there may still be a sliver of hope for fans like Patel to get reasonably priced tickets. * FIFA accused of 'monumental betrayal' over latest World Cup ticket prices “FIFA knows that in the U.S. in particular people pay much higher prices for sports tickets generally than in other countries. And they wanted to tap that into the World Cup,” Kuper told CBC Radio's Metro Morning Monday. “In the end, they are going to try and get people into the stadium. So prices must fall.” WATCH | World Cup tickets not selling in Toronto: Media Video | Caption: The countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is drawing closer and closer, but still thousands of tickets are still available. As CBC’s Michelle Song explains, it’s putting into question whether Toronto Stadium will have all seats filled for the tournament. Open full embed in new tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Resale tickets for Toronto match drop FIFA is the official seller and reseller of World Cup tickets. On Monday, its lowest resale ticket for Toronto's first match on June 12, Canada versus Bosnia-Herzegovina, went down to $534 on its website. Earlier this month, the lowest price was just over $1,300. Patel said that while her family was expecting to pay a premium for Toronto tickets, it feels “like it might be completely out of reach.” “We can barely afford two or three tickets for the price that we were to pay for 24 tickets back then,” she said. Kuper said experiences like Patel’s could “definitely tarnish FIFA’s brand,” but once the tournament actually begins, misgivings about the World Cup tend to diminish, he said. Image | Harp Patel family soccer fans Caption: Harp Patel and her family at a the Canada vs. Jamaica World Cup qualifying match in 2022. Harp has been unable to get tickets to the 2026 World Cup so far and says they feel 'completely out of reach.' (Submitted by Harp Patel) (BUTTON) Load image Open image in new tab Patel said she’s now looking for other ways for her family to experience the World Cup outside of Toronto Stadium. “At the end of the day we’re telling our kids you know what, if we get tickets maybe one of you can go, maybe three of us can go,” she said. “We thought, ‘what better experience for our Canadian-born children [than] to experience the World Cup here in Toronto?’” “I am counting down the sleeps now, because that’s just the number of days I have left to find tickets for my boys.” * Police from around the world are coming to Toronto to provide insight on World Cup fanbases * How to sound like you know soccer during the World Cup More Stories Like This The related links below are generated automatically based on the story you’ve just read. Loading... CBC Lite is a low-bandwidth website. 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