Scoring tickets to watch Cristiano Ronaldo play in Toronto's last World Cup game could break the bank

Scoring tickets to watch Cristiano Ronaldo play in Toronto's last World Cup game could break the bank

Tickets to the sold-out Portugal-Croatia match are going for thousands of dollars on resale sites

Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will play in Toronto’s final World Cup match on Thursday, but if you’re looking to score tickets, soaring resale prices could get in the way.

By Monday morning, tickets for the knockout match between Ronaldo's Portuguese team and Croatia at Toronto Stadium were sold out on all official FIFA platforms.

But tickets are in high demand and are going for thousands of dollars on resale sites.

Portuguese fan Paulo Pereira bought his tickets for the match from FIFA in February. But he said he knows many other fans are now spending thousands of dollars to attend the match.

"I actually have a friend of mine today that paid almost $6,000 for two tickets," he said. "And they weren't guaranteed by FIFA. They're on a secondary platform, so he's sweating."

High-profile events like the FIFA World Cup often see reseller platform failures, where thousands of tickets are cancelled or never delivered to buyers.

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On StubHub, the cheapest tickets available for the big match were just under $3,000 Monday morning. Most tickets were between $4,000 and $5,000, and some were listed at more than $8,000. Tickets on SeatGeek ranged from about $2,600 to more than $11,000 later that day.

Prices on both platforms had come down slightly by Tuesday morning but there was still nothing available for less than $2,000.

In Ontario, it is illegal to resell tickets for concerts, cultural, and sporting events for more than their original cost. In early June, the province announced that maximum penalties for repeat offenders would increase from $10,000 to $25,000.

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StubHub Canada and SeatGeek Canada are both listed on the province’s Consumer Beware List, which identifies businesses that don't respond to consumer complaints or that have been charged for breaking the law. Both businesses have been ordered to comply with the province’s resale laws.

StubHub is also under investigation in British Columbia after a CBC News investigation revealed thousands of FIFA World Cup tickets had been cancelled for matches across North America.

Still, some fans are taking their chances.

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Pereira said the opportunity to see Ronaldo play is a significant draw for the match. “The community loves Ronaldo, there's so many people that are trying to get tickets to watch him,” he said.

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This summer, Ronaldo made history, becoming the first player to score in six different World Cup tournaments. In October, the 41-year-old striker set the record for most goals in World Cup qualifiers. There has been a long-running debate whether he or Lionel Messi is the greatest soccer player of all time.

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But with the end of Ronaldo’s career looming, there may not be many more opportunities to see him play, Pereira said. "[For] Portugal’s greatest star [to] come at the end of his career, playing his last dance against, ironically, a [Croatian] team in Toronto it’s like a storybook script."

The last time Ronaldo played in Toronto was in 2009 with Real Madrid. Luka Modrić, who joined that club a few years later, is now captain of the Croatian national team.

Pereira said Modrić may also be close to retirement, so it’s a big moment for fans of both teams. "It's a game of a lifetime," he said.

Communities want to get in on the action, says expert

Vijay Setlur, a sports marketing expert and instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, said it’s rare that European soccer stars come to Canada. "When big stars come, people know who they are and people want to see them," he said.

But he said the chance to see Ronaldo isn’t the only factor driving demand for tickets.

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Toronto has large Portuguese and Croatian communities, and this match is the last opportunity for fans of all backgrounds to see a match in the city during this World Cup.

"[People] want to be able to say they were a part of something, take pictures, share that on social media, tell other people and show that they were there," said Setlur. "That's something they can keep and cherish for the rest of their lives."