Henry Bushnell

It's a complete scam.

Fans are being fleeced for basic tickets and it's not good enough.

World Cup ticketing is very complicated by necessity.

This is the most in-demand sporting event in the world.

And there are only a certain amount of games.

There are various ways that you can distribute a scarce resource, and basically FIFA has chosen to have two filters.

One is a lottery, so random luck.

They did two lotteries in the fall, and then they are currently doing their biggest one.

And the other way they are distributing this resource is with prices.

I'm sure FIFA knew all along that the prices would be controversial because they were going to be so much higher than previously.

And because American people...

are much more accustomed to paying premium prices for sports tickets than the rest of the world.

And so there was always going to be some sort of issue here that got people talking inevitably.

It's two very different visions of what sport is and what sport should be.

In the US, it is thought of as entertainment, as a commercial product that you can seek out, as an experience that you can seek out and buy.

And so the conversation about ticket prices often comes down to supply and demand.

Whereas in Europe, especially, and also other parts of the world, sport is more seen as like a public good.

And like these teams...

are seen as community institutions that shouldn't just be treating their fans as customers.

What we don't know, though, is there's a chance that 100 million of those requests are for the most popular game, which is Portugal against Colombia.