Seattle's World Cup ticket prices for USMNT-Australia match are skyrocketing
Now might be a good time to offer your condolences to anyone who decided to wait to buy tickets to the USA vs. Australia World Cup match in Seattle.
The coveted U.S. Men's National Team match is scheduled for noon on Friday in Seattle. It's long been the city's most expensive game to buy World Cup tickets to. And, after the USMNT dominated in their opening World Cup match last Friday, tickets have only gotten pricier.
Seattle's ticket prices were trending down in mid-May. There had been about a 30% decrease over a 30 day period, and things were looking favorable for fans hoping to score tickets. Back then, the get-in price (the cheapest ticket available) to the USA vs. Australia game was $906. The cost to attend the June 19 game has risen dramatically since the start of the tournament on June 11. Now, it will cost fans more than $2,000 to get in the door.
FIFA had no tickets listed for Friday's game on the last-minute sales portal on Tuesday afternoon and their official resale marketplace showed just over 300 tickets for sale, starting around $2,000.
Fans still considering tickets also have to ask the question of when to act. Seattle's first World Cup game took place on Monday. A few hundred tickets were still available for purchase that morning, but the Belgium vs. Egypt match was not as coveted as Friday's.
The announced attendance at Monday's Belgium vs. Egypt game was 66,775, just 150 people shy of Seattle Stadium's capacity for the World Cup.
FIFA has encouraged fans to buy directly from their site or resale platform to ensure that tickets are legitimate, but other sellers are on the market. Three days out, Ticketmaster had no listings. SeatGeek, Gametime and StubHub all had tickets available in several sections across the stadium.
Regardless of the platform tickets were purchased from, or the quantity of seats, there were no options under $2,000 with fees included that could get a fan into Friday's game. Tickets in the $2,000 to $3,000 range were likely to land you in the 300 sections. Fans hoping to sit closer to the pitch in the 100-level sections would likely need to be prepared to spend upward of $3,500.
Data from ticketdata.com, a website that compiles data from various reselling platforms, shows that prices for Friday's game began a steep climb on the first day of the tournament. Since then, they have shown no signs of returning to early June levels.
"Everyone is surprised," said Keith Pagello, the founder of ticketdata.com. "Nobody thought that this was going to happen."
Some thought prices would go down. Others thought prices might stay the same. Maybe some believed that fan enthusiasm would nudge prices up. But seeing significant increases in the cost of attending matches across the board was not expected, Pagello said. Increases between 50% to 70% have been common since the games started.
"I think that the hype is here," Pagello said. "People want to see the games … A lot of people want to go, and there are only so many tickets out there. When you've got so much demand and not so much supply, you get high prices."
The night before the opening ceremony of the World Cup on June 11, the get in price for the USA vs. Australia game was $1,150.
A few hours before the U.S. played their first game on Friday, June 12, the cheapest tickets for the June 19 game had climbed into the $1,400 range. Then, the U.S. beat Paraguay 4-1. That same evening, the cheapest tickets had climbed to $1,700.
Prices continued to increase through early Monday morning when ticketdata.com reported that the get in price hit its peak, for the time being, at $2,348.
By Tuesday afternoon, it had dipped closer to $2,000 flat. While there may still be changes to come in either direction, Pagello said the important thing for fans to recognize is that there are no signs prices will return to the $1,000 range that was seen in previous weeks.
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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 6:39 AM.