Ticket prices for Thursday's round-of-32 World Cup game in Vancouver have plummeted since it became clear Canada wouldn't be playing there — but it's a whole different ball game in Toronto.
Fans there will get to see two highly rated teams, as superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portugal squad take on Croatia on Thursday, and prices are around four times higher than at BC Place.
Canada's defeat by Switzerland last Wednesday dashed the chances of Vancouver hosting the home team in the knockout rounds and instead it will see the Swiss take on Algeria.
The TicketData website that tracks prices says the cheapest tickets for BC Place in the round of 32 plunged from around $2,100 on Wednesday to about $700 on Monday. The lowest Portugal-Croatia entry price was around $2,550.
FIFA's official resale marketplace on Monday showed Croatia-Portugal as the only round-of-32 match without any tickets available, while numerous tickets for the match in Vancouver were up for grabs, starting at $575.
As for Canada's round-of-16 match in Houston on Saturday, tickets can be had for as low as $1,200 according to TicketData, or about $1,030 on FIFA's marketplace.
Thomas Luies shelled out $3,000 for a ticket to the Portugal-Croatia match and believes seeing the sport's giants face off in person is worth the high price tag.
Luies is from India and isn't a diehard fan of any one team, but he has admired the legendary striker Ronaldo for as long as he can remember.
Thursday's game will be the sixth World Cup for the 41-year-old Portuguese captain, and Luies is eager to watch his hero go up against ace Croatian midfielder Luka Modric. For both stars, this World Cup is expected to be their last.
"I will never miss an opportunity to watch this match," said the 28-year-old from London, Ont. "It will be a very emotional moment."
Max Antunes, a Portuguese Torontonian, is struggling to find two tickets within his price range of $1,800 per entry.
"I know it seems like a crazy amount of money, and it is," Antunes said, but he reasoned that he would rack up high costs for travel and accommodations if he went after cheaper tickets at a U.S. venue.
Antunes, 21, is hoping to see "the team we've been following our whole lives" on local turf. He wouldn't dream of going to the match without his father, who immigrated from Portugal alone as a child and inspired Antunes's love of the sport.
Antunes will be downtown on Thursday, crossing his fingers that he'll come across someone who can't make it to the star-studded game.
"I'm still holding out hope," he said.
Picture Courtesy: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
