FIFA tripled the price of its best available tickets to the World Cup final, making $32,970 seats available Thursday for the July 19 match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.Soccer’s governing body listed those seats as front category one on its sales site.It previously had a high price of $10,990 for category one. The $10,990 category for the final was available Thursday night only as wheelchair and easy access amenity category one.Tickets for the July 14 semifinal at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, were listed at $11,130, $4,330, $3,710 and $2,705. Seats for the following day’s semifinal at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium were at $10,635, $3,545 and $2,725.Seats for the U.S. opener against Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, were available for $2,735, $1,940 and $1,120, while tickets for the Americans’ June 19 game against Australia at Seattle were listed at $2,715. Tickets for the Americans’ group-stage finale against Turkey at Inglewood on June 25 were $2,970, $1,345, $990 and $840.FIFA president Gianni Infantino has defended the ticket prices.“We have to look at the market. We are in a market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world, so we have to apply market rates,” he said Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. “In the U.S. it is permitted to resell tickets, as well, so if you were to sell tickets at the price which …
