I’m not a soccer fan, but I understand that the World Cup is an important event and FIFA is horribly corrupt. US Hotel bookings and ticket sales aren’t meeting projections:
Toronto, Vancouver, Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara hotel bookings are also below projections. The tickets are ridiculously expensive and FIFA fuckery has made them even more so (some are $30K!)
Overall, this seems like a pretty extreme case of a sports organization trying to extract every cent possible from fans, and reaching the point where nobody can afford their product.
It’s fun to see how Claudia Sheinbaum and her Morena colleagues handled the obvious attempt of FIFA to bribe Mexican leaders with tickets. Claudia donated hers (ticket #1) to the winner of a nationwide soccer ball handling contest, and Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada and Tourism Minister Josefina Rodríguez also donated theirs. Winners were announced at yesterday’s mañanera, and I’ve cued up the video below to the point where they show their skills. There’s some real talent there:
Being a better host than the US is also pretty smart:
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that she has “no issue” with her country hosting Iran’s World Cup team after its training base was moved from the United States to Mexico for the summer soccer competition.
The team will still play its group stage matches in the U.S. but its base has been moved to Tijuana, Mexico, just south of San Diego, California, a move that Iran’s soccer federation announced recently and that was formally confirmed by FIFA, the sport’s governing body, on Monday.
Anyway, at least Mexicans can be proud of their leaders’ resistance to FIFA bribery, unlike some other countries:
