World Cup tickets are selling for as low as $9
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It may actually be cheaper to attend a World Cup game than to buy an actual soccer ball. With the games less than two weeks away, ticket prices have essentially collapsed as stadiums in northern Brazil have trouble filling seats. Marketwatch found tickets for early round games to cost between $9 and, at the "pricey" end, $15.
For example, tickets to the Nigeria vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina game on June 21 are being sold at an 80 percent discount, hovering around $15.99 a ticket on reseller Viagogo.com. And that's not even the lowest price — tickets for the Russia vs. South Korea match are selling for $9.26. Oliver Wheeler, a spokesperson for the reseller, is blaming the low prices on the country's lack of preparations and the overall wariness of fans in Brazil.
"You'll find that 4-5 stadiums won't be completed on time, the infrastructure won't be in place and those stories impact the prices of tickets," he said. "If those things don't bother you, you'll get a bargain." So far, though, it looks like many Brazilians have opted to just invest in a nice TV.
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Jordan Valinsky is the lead writer for Speed Reads. Before joining The Week, he wrote for New York Observer's tech blog, Betabeat, and tracked the intersection between popular culture and the internet for The Daily Dot. He graduated with a degree in online journalism from Ohio University.