Report: World Cup tickets selling below face value

Some World Cup stadiums could have empty seats based on demand for tickets. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

With 13 days until the World Cup opens in Brazil, tickets can be purchased below face value.

Games in Brazil's northern cities are "in particular [being] shunned by soccer fans," according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

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Tickets for a match between Nigeria and Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 21 can be had for as little as $15.99 as of Friday afternoon on the website Viagogo.com, which is a discount of more than 80 percent from the face value of $90. That game will be played in the relatively isolated town of Cuiaba.

Meanwhile, the cheapest tickets to the Argentina/Bosnia-Herzegovina match in Rio de Janeiro on June 15 are $483.

“We got a really interesting piece of insight earlier this week. We could directly match the prices coming down to the news stories about the lack of confidence in the stadiums,” Viagogo's head of communications Oliver Wheeler told The Wall Street Journal. “You’ll find that 4-5 stadiums won’t be completed on time, the infrastructure won’t be in place and those stories impact the prices of tickets. If those things don’t bother you, you’ll get a bargain.”

Manaus, one of the host cities, declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, according to The Guardian, due to flooding from a tributary of the Amazon River. The cheapest tickets to a game there, according to The Wall Street Journal, are $20 for the Hoduras/Switzerland match on June 25 — a 78 percent discount from the face value.

“All the tickets are likely to sell,” Wheeler said. “It’s not unusual that when we get closer to an event that tickets come down.”

The lowest price of a ticket was for Russia/South Korea on June 17 in Cuiaba. For just $9.26, fans can purchase a ticket to the Group H match.

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