Community Corner: Where should U.S. Soccer set ticket prices?

Over the past few years, fans of the United States Men’s and Women’s National Teams have had a lot of gripes with the U.S. Soccer Federation. One of the main complaints has been the rising costs associated with attending a match to support the teams we love. Friendlies that had supporters tickets around $20 less than a decade ago are now as high as $78, as was the case for matches against Brazil and Mexico in September. World Cup qualifiers that were $40-$50 a couple cycles ago approached $90 in a few matches in 2017. Even with the USMNT missing out on the 2018 World Cup, ticket prices remained high, with the cheapest ticket in the building averaging $43 or higher for some MNT friendlies last year. So far in 2019, ticket prices have started to come down into the $30-$40 range for home MNT friendlies.

Still, the perceived high pricing has turned a lot of fans off from the USMNT. And on the USWNT side, the rising cost of tickets has been associated with their rise in popularity since winning the 2015 Women’s World Cup. As they prepare to head to France for the 2019 Women’s World Cup this summer, they have a slate of 8 home matches, including the upcoming SheBelieves Cup, where tickets for supporters average around $42 for members of supporters groups. The highest price is $53 for the WNT’s final send-off match against Mexico.

Clearly, there are other factors involved with fans choosing to stay home other than ticket prices, but it’s the one factor that’s first recognized and first criticized. So, today’s Community Corner asks the SSFC family to cast aside the snark and tackle a question as if the answer will be read by U.S. Soccer: what is a reasonable range for ticket prices for USMNT and USWNT matches? For this question, we’re just referring to home matches that are not CONCACAF events like the Gold Cup or the CONCACAF Women’s Championship tournament that serves as World Cup qualifying for the women’s game. No away games, no FIFA tournaments like the World Cup, no Olympics. Just home friendlies and men’s World Cup qualifiers where the prices are determined by U.S. Soccer.

So, fill out the poll for the men:

Next up, the women:

Now, once you do that, hit the comments and let us know what you selected, and why. Remember, let’s tackle a serious problem with serious solutions. If we as fans can’t be serious about this problem, we can’t expect U.S. Soccer to take our concerns seriously. So, let’s hear it. What price is the mythical ticket price that U.S. Soccer needs to get fans excited about attending matches again?