A fan attending FIFA World Cup games in Houston is sounding the alarm after spending hundreds of dollars on tickets without knowing where he would be seated.
Click2Houston reports that Mauricio Arcos spent almost $900 on two Category 2 tickets for the June 20 match, expecting a decent view. However, his tickets are in Section 611, near the very top of the stadium.
"You don't really know which seats you are buying," Arcos told the news outlet. "It's a nosebleed section on row R, which is literally like three rows below the very top. So then my question, ok? Where are people sitting in category 3 and 4?"
“It’s not fair,” Arcos added.
To purchase tickets, fans are given a 10-minute window to choose from four tiers, Category 1 through 4, with Category 1 being the premium option. Buyers can see the game, the price, and the tier, but their specific seats are never revealed before purchase.
Arcos isn’t the only one who ended up with awful seats. A crowdsourced effort called the Seat Transparency Project found that 74% of Houston lottery winners ended up in corner or top-end-row seats, suggesting that the category labels are generally misleading.
Houston is among 11 US cities hosting World Cup games, a list that also includes East Rutherford, New Jersey; Arlington, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Atlanta, Georgia; and Inglewood, California, among other cities.
For the first time, three different countries will host the World Cup—Canada, Mexico, and the US—for a total of 16 cities. The United States will be the main host and site of most matches, including every match from the quarterfinals to the finals.
