FIFA Tries Blockchain to Fix World Cup Ticketing Chaos Amid £2,600 Price Floor

England's fans are facing a minimum ticket price of £2,600 for resale tickets to watch their team play Mexico in the World Cup last 16. This hefty price tag is not part of any VIP package or hospitality deal, but just one seat at the match.

The issue lies with FIFA's official resale platform, which charges a 30% surcharge on transactions. This fee is split evenly between the buyer and seller, meaning that when base resale prices start at £2,600, a 15% buyer surcharge makes the ticket price even more absurd.

Things get worse when looking at unofficial platforms like StubHub, which has been plagued by delivery issues during the tournament. Fans have reported purchasing tickets that never arrived, leading to empty seats at matches and a wave of refund requests.

FIFA is attempting to address these issues with its digital collectibles platform, FIFA Collect, which runs on a customized Avalanche blockchain layer. This technology facilitates two mechanisms: Right-to-Buy (RTB) and Right-to-Ticket (RTT). Fans who engage with FIFA Collect can earn priority access to purchase match tickets, while the blockchain layer makes ticket ownership verifiable and programmable.

This means that FIFA can enforce rules about who can resell tickets, at what price, and how many times a ticket changes hands. However, this technology cannot create more seats in a stadium, and the £2,600 price floor suggests that it has not yet solved the core supply-demand imbalance.