FIFA World Cup ticket resale market nosedives for Toronto opening match

With Friday's FIFA World Cup opening match in Toronto fast approaching, resale prices are dropping to see Canada take on Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to ticketdata.com, the cheapest resale tickets for Friday's match on SeatGeek and StubHub were listed at the time of publication for $885. That's $500 cheaper than tickets for the same section available through FIFA's official ticketing site.

The cheapest ticket we spotted is located in Row 39 of Toronto Stadium's temporary south stand and falls within FIFA's Category 3 pricing tier (market value $1,370.00).

Toronto FIFA World Cup resale tickets are selling for way lower than market value. (SeatGeek.com)

Tickets for Canada's opening match reached a high of roughly $2,500 on Dec. 6, the day after the World Cup draw. Since then, prices have fallen nearly 65 per cent.

After the draw, many soccer fans expected Canada's opener to be a marquee matchup against Italy. Instead, Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive men's World Cup at the end of March, while FIFA's ticket pricing did not change.

The result was a steep collapse of the resale market after April 1.

The get-in price for Canada's opening game on ticket resale sites has fallen substantially in the last three months. (ticketdata.com)

Canada's opening game will be the only group stage match in Toronto that will have a full pre-match opening ceremony and feature several performances from legendary Canadian music talent, like Michael Bublé, Alanis Morissette, and Alessia Cara.

There are currently nearly 4,000 tickets listed on FIFA's official resale marketplace, along with hundreds of listings on SeatGeek and StubHub. In some sections, entire rows of seats are still available.

There are nearly 4,000 resale tickets listed on the FIFA ticket marketplace.(tickets.fifa.com)

What makes Toronto's ticket market unique in this tournament, compared to other host cities, is that fans are prohibited from reselling FIFA World Cup tickets for higher than their original face value.