Six weeks away and USA's biggest World Cup home game is still not sold out

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.This summer’s World Cup was supposed to be the triumphant return of the planet’s favorite sport to America. But as the U.S. men’s national team prepares to host the tournament for the first time since 1994, its opening game has even hardcore fans feeling left out.The first match, against Paraguay on June 12 in Los Angeles, should have been a sold-out celebration.

Instead, soaring ticket prices have left U.S. fans irate and potentially thousands of seats six weeks before the tournament begins.When Nick Rosato, who has followed the U.S. team closely since the 2002 World Cup, made his latest attempt to obtain tickets this past week, his cheapest option was a single seat in an upper-corner section for $1,120.

A better seat would set him back more than $4,000. Those weren’t resale-site prices, they were the numbers set by FIFA itself.“We’re not talking about the knockout round,” said Rosato, a software engineer in central Massachusetts. “We’re talking about a group-stage game.

That’s absolutely bonkers.”For now, Rosato is holding off—and he isn’t alone. This week, FIFA’s website showed seats available for the U.S. opener in at least a few dozen sections of the 70,000-seat stadium.The slow uptake is especially jarring considering the surge in soccer’s popularity since the last U.S.-based World Cup more than three decades ago.

But despite their increased interest in the team, fans have been left disillusioned by a ticket process that they call opaque and overpriced. FIFA never posted a full menu of what tickets would actually cost for the tournament. Instead, it has released batches of tickets on its website at different moments, with prices varying by game and over time.And the U.S.