The New York and New Jersey attorneys general subpoenaed FIFA over World Cup ticket pricing while the resale market was in freefall, and that investigation now runs against contradictory evidence 1. A subpoena is a compulsory demand for documents, here aimed at how FIFA priced and sold its inventory. The consumer-harm argument was built on a market that sat below face value on 76 of 78 United States fixtures, down 37% from peak, a week before kickoff . Low-demand fixtures had been trading at or below their $120 face value .
One full matchday reversed it. Ticketdata.com records almost every remaining match rising, several marquee fixtures by more than 100% since opening day 2. United States v Turkey, the 25 June fixture at Los Angeles Stadium, is up 109% to a $2,132 minimum (about £1,700 a seat); Belgium v Iran is up 98% to $823; England v Croatia rose 102%; a round-of-32 tie at Levi's Stadium is up 136%. More than half of the 92 remaining matches now carry a get-in price (the cheapest available resale ticket) above $1,000.
Resale prices track perceived scarcity, not face value. Before kickoff the market priced empty-stadium risk and bulk-dumped corporate inventory; the matchday-1 spectacle, and a 4-1 United States win over Paraguay, replaced that fear with organic demand. A regulator examining dynamic pricing has now watched the same seats swing from below face value to triple-digit premiums in a fortnight. The attorneys general argue inflated pricing against evidence that those seats traded below face value seven days earlier, which complicates any single-snapshot damages claim.
