KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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There’s a buzz in the air around Kansas City about FIFA World Cup 26, including at Westport Tattoo.
“To have something like that come to Kansas City, with being a big soccer fan all my life and all those world teams coming here, it’s just great," said soccer fan Gabe Wilkerson.
Wilkerson — who was getting work done on his right-arm sleeve Tuesday afternoon at Westport Tattoo, 1509 Westport Road in Kansas City, Missouri — wants to take his family to at least one of the six games GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium will host during next summer’s World Cup.
Assuming, of course, he can afford it.
On Location, which is handling the premium hospitality tickets for World Cup games in Kansas City, recently released the price for its high-end offerings, which range from $1,225 to $3,000 per ticket for group-stage games.
But don’t panic.
“Tickets for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ will be sold exclusively via FIFA.com/tickets, with general sales expected to begin in late 2025,” KC2026 CEO Pam Kramer said. “These tickets, which will be available to the general public, differ from the premium tickets currently being sold for FIFA's hospitality deposit program, On Location.”
They also should be cheaper — significantly cheaper — in most cases, but it still may take some familial financial planning.
“It definitely seems like a lot of those bigger sporting events are pretty expensive,” said Westport Tattoo owner Tim Johnson.
Johnson is also a soccer enthusiast and hopes his family gets to experience the World Cup in person next year.
“Whenever I heard it was coming, I wanted to go,” said Johnson, who said he and his family love attending live sporting events. “I told my son about it, and he wants to go as well.”
It seems like everyone wants to check out what all the fuss is about.
“I don't even care who's playing,” said Sarah Clark, a fellow soccer fan and tattoo artist at Westport Tattoo. “It would just be cool to go see the experience, get to meet people from all over the place and all that kind of stuff.”
As a kid, Clark played goalkeeper, and her family has always loved soccer. She remembers attending Wizards games at Arrowhead in front of sparse crowds.
“I would imagine we're gonna have a few more people involved and a few more excited fans than we did back in the ’90s,” Clark said.
Wilkerson and Johnson said they’d be willing to spend $200 to $500 per ticket to attend a World Cup game. Clark said she’s hoping to find tickets closer to the $150 to $200 range, so they aren’t the target audience for On Location’s packages.
“For the average Joe, I would imagine that's not within reach,” Clark said. “I, myself, would definitely not be able to afford that.”
Johnson said he’s paid as much as $800 for floor seats to a UFC fight before, but he's worried about the dent four tickets in that price range might put in his budget.
“If it's a big event — like a life event, where you may not be able to do it again — $200 to $500-ish wouldn't be out of the range per ticket,” Johnson said.
Still, the price tag for the upper-end of ticketing options gave the crew at Westport Tattoo hope.
“That sounds pretty reasonable for some people,” Wilkerson said. “It's more than I would probably pay to do it, but that doesn't sound like it's outlandish at all.”
He feared it might cost $1,000 or more for any ticket to a World Cup game, but now he’s hopeful general ticket sales — which will start in the third quarter of 2025, according to FIFA — should be closer to his family’s price range.
Fans seeking priority access to World Cup ticket-included hospitality experiences can place a deposit with On Location.
The rest of us have to wait a few more months for a chance to snag a once-in-a-lifetime ticket.
“FIFA encourages any fan wishing to purchase tickets for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ to be wary of non-FIFA official ticketing websites that claim to be selling tickets already and only purchase tickets from the official and legitimate source once those are made available,” FIFA said in an email to KSHB 41 News via KC2026.
Fans can sign up for email updates at the FIFA ticketing website.
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