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The United States is just one game away from its fourth Women’s World Cup title. The Netherlands stands in the way after Wednesday’s 1-0 squeaker over Sweden in the semifinals. The Americans topped England 2-1 the game before behind goals from forwards Christen Press and Alex Morgan.
The Stars and Stripes are the red, white and blue standard for the tournament, as Sunday (11 a.m Eastern time, Fox) will be their record sixth appearance in the final. Meanwhile, the Dutch didn’t even make the World Cup until 2015, reaching the knockout stage before dropping a 2-1 decision to Japan.
While not the blockbuster U.S.-France match in the quarterfinals, the ticket prices are soaring for the final. According to the Evening Standard, FIFA has run out of its ticket allotment, but plenty of options exist on the secondary market.
Per StubHub, the cheapest tickets to enter Grande Stade Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday are 275 euros ($308) and in a far corner. There are some lower deck seats on the sidelines that are going for 2,300 euros ($2,580).
Viagogo offers slightly less expensive options. The cheapest prices are $236 for corner seats. Some decent sideline and lower deck seats are going for under $500, while the most expensive are as high as $1,127.
These ticket values have skyrocketed since FIFA’s initial sale. The most expensive and highest-quality tickets (Category 1) went for just 84 euros. The cheaper Category 4 ones sold for 23 euros a pop.
Compared to the quarterfinals match against France, who is hosting this year, these tickets are nothing. The day after the matchup was announced, prices averaged $425 with some going for as much as $5,100 according to Tom Schad at USA Today.
According to data provided to USA TODAY Sports by StubHub, the average ticket price for Friday’s game was $335 as of Tuesday evening, and sales for the game had doubled since the defending-champion Americans slipped past Spain, 2-1, on Monday to advance to the quarterfinals.
Sources living in Europe told Heavy at the time that some were going as high as $11,000.
Television Ratings Up for Women’s World Cup in 2019
According to Deadline, the semifinal match against England was one of the most-watched sporting events of the calendar year.
The game in Lyon, France drew 7.03 million total viewers to the Fox’s live broadcast that kicked off in midday (3 PM ET/noon PT), making it the most watched soccer game on English-language TV since last year’s men’s World Cup final.
The game, which aired on BBC One in the UK, peaked with an audience of 11.7M, making it the country’s most-watched show of the year.
It’ll be a tough task to beat the ratings from the title-clinching win over Japan in the 2015 final. According to US Soccer, “the match clocked in at just under 23 million viewers, an increase of 77% compared to the final of the 2011 Women’s World Cup, a match between the same teams.”
FOX said the match started out with around 16 million viewers, but as the game progressed and the goals added up, the count rose to nearly 23 million. According to FOX, the top 5 markets for the game included (from highest to lowest): Kansas City, St. Louis, San Diego, Denver and Austin.
This ended up being much higher compared to the 2018 Men’s World Cup final between Croatia and France. In the U.S., 11.3 million viewers tuned into the men’s final. Without the United States present, obviously the American audience dwindled.
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