The 2026 World Cup is underway in the United States, with the tournament featuring 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 cities. While FIFA President Gianni Infantino reported that over 6 million tickets have been sold, a figure he described as “unprecedented”, reports indicate that many individual matches have not sold out. For example, thousands of empty seats were visible during the Group B match between Qatar and Switzerland at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Saturday, June 13. At Levi’s Stadium, the vacant seats were concentrated on the east side, which typically becomes very hot. The stadium, which holds 68,500 for NFL games but can expand to over 70,000 for soccer, saw smooth entry on Saturday as small lines formed several hours before kickoff. This was attributed to the fact that tailgating is not permitted for World Cup matches, unlike for NFL games. Conversely, during the match between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara the previous day, FIFA attributed empty seats to fans watching from the concourses. The tournament has also been marked by logistical observations and pricing controversies. In Los Angeles, the U.S. Team defeated Paraguay 4-1 on Friday amidst “visible clusters of empty seats.” Fans attending U.S. Matches have noted high food and beverage prices, significant traffic congestion, and a heavy presence of armed law enforcement. Also, the tournament has introduced dynamic pricing for the first time, leading to complaints from fans and investigations by several U.S. State attorneys general regarding the accessibility of tickets for ordinary fans.