There aren’t likely to be huge sections and rows of open seats at Canada’s opening match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday afternoon, but it doesn’t look like Toronto Stadium is going to be sold out.
With roughly 24 hours to go before kickoff, there still are hundreds of seats available for purchase through FIFA’s official ticketing portal and even more on the resale market.
According to ticketdata.com, a website that aggregates prices on verified resale sites as well as FIFA’s official ticket portal, there were 477 tickets on sale with the lowest price listed at $975.
That “get-in” price has actually risen 4% over the past week, though the overall demand for seats still remains seemingly low. On Stubhub, many tickets are listed well below their face values — some by hundreds of dollars.
In a telling sign on FIFA’s official site, Canada vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina is the only match out of the first 20 across North America that is not listed with the tag “Limited availability.” The second match: Croatia-Panama, also taking place in Toronto.
What about other games in Toronto?
According to the Ticket Data, the average price for all games played at Toronto Stadium is $609, which is up 7.4% over the past seven days.
While Canada’s match against Bosnia and Herzegovina has been touted as a marquee event with pre-game festivities, the demand for seats pales in comparison to other matches to be played on the Exhibition Grounds.
Of the five other matches taking place in Toronto, only Canada-Bosnia has more than 200 tickets still unsold.
The group stage match with the highest get-in price remains Germany vs. Côte d’Ivoire at $1,291 and has 122 seats available, while Panama vs. Croatia has only a limited supply remaining.
What does this mean for Canada’s opener?
While it definitely might come off as a bummer to see some empty seats during such a momentous occasion, it had always been a worry since tickets initially went on sale at exorbitant prices.
FIFA’s Category 1 seats remain listed at $3,135 and Category 2 at $2,300. The so-called “cheap seats” in Category 3 are listed at $1,370 with just a handful available as of Wednesday afternoon.
Perhaps the most galling price is for the seats that FIFA has listed with obstructed views in the upper deck of the stadium’s West side. There are dozens of these seats listed for prices ranging from $1,410.00 to $1,040.00.
What does this mean for Bosnian fans?
The slow-moving tickets and falling prices could be a huge boon for the visitors.
Reports out of Bosnia and Herzegovina on social media — which should be taken with a grain of salt — say that the country could have up to 30,000 supporters at Friday’s game.
While that number does seem unrealistically high — capacity at Toronto Stadium is an estimated 45,000 — other reports indicate a strong contingent of travelling fans will be in attendance.
Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest newspaper, claims there could be a “Bosnian invasion of Toronto,” with some heavy support for the underdogs.