Ahead of the start of the 2022 World Cup, to be hosted in Qatar;

Jake Kemp, Sport Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“A potential 3.14 million fans could be attending the World Cup in Qatar if maximum capacity is reached across the 64 games, and GlobalData estimates that a tournament sell-out would see Qatar pocketing $360.26 million in ticket sales alone. However, the 2022 event is unlikely to be as successful as the 2018 Russia-hosted event because of Qatar’s small stadiums and lower ticket prices for the bulk of its games.

“The price of tickets across the tournament varies between $11 and $1,611, with the average price being $104.23. This is lower than 2018’s event, where the average ticket cost $118.84. The price of Tier 3 Group Stage matches in Qatar are down 31% on what fans paid in Russia four years ago, and it is only the deeper competition matches that have seen a 23-40% increase in price.

“Calculations as part of GlobalData’s report, ‘Business of the FIFA World Cup 2022’, have revealed that the Qatari-hosted event would have to sell 96.58% of its ticket inventory to surpass the ticket sales seen in Russia in 2018, and a shortfall of around $22 million is expected.

“Not only are ticket prices lower for the majority of games, but the stadiums are smaller. Qatar custom-built its stadiums to meet the needs of FIFA, however, they were designed to only meet the minimum permitted seating capacity—40,000 for most games and 80,000 for the final.”