NEWS: "I Wouldn't Pay It" - Trump on Ticket Prices

Paul Schmidt-Troschke with the remarkable news of President Trump saying he wasn't aware of the cost of World Cup tickets and suggesting they are set too high. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Hello and welcome to World Cup etc. with me, Paul Schmitroschke. By examining the latest news which just came out of the White House in regards to the FIFA World Cup, we get a surprisingly deep insight into the inner workings of the Trump administration. In response to a question asked by a reporter involving the price of$1,000 for a ticket to see the US play against Paraguay on the 12th of June, the actual first game the US will play in the tournament, Trump revealed himself of being not informed about the issue at all. Or of course he is lying, which is always a possibility. But in any case, he replied, quote, I did not know that number. I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn't pay it either, to be honest with you. It seems that FIFA President Gianni Infantino intentionally left out any mentioning of ticket prices in conversations with Trump, knowing he would not like them, since he defended them just a couple of days ago, saying, quote, We have 25% of the group stage tickets which can be bought for less than$300. You cannot go to watch in the US a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game at a certain level for less than$300. And this is the World Cup. Another and not all unlikely possibility is that Trump just completely forgot about the numbers or whole conversations he had with the king of football himself, Johnny Infantino. And in his last remark, the US President played into his economic populist rhetoric, and of course, speaking of himself in the third person, as per usual. And I quote, if people from Queens and Brooklyn and all of the people that love Donald Trump can't go, I would be disappointed. But you know, at the same time, it's an amazing success. I would like to be able to have the people that voted for me be able to go. End quote. Should Trump actually never have heard anything regarding ticket prices, then this is another showcase of how information is used and purposefully mismanaged in authoritarian governments. Because due to loyalty instead of competency being rewarded by the authoritarian leader, and the last thing in this case, Trump wants to hear is stuff he or news he does not like, the people around him will just tell him what he wants to hear. But if you doubt my analysis, here is Trump explaining it in his own words.

SPEAKER_02 3:02

I always like to just hang around with losers, actually, because it makes me feel better. I hate guys that are very, very successful and you have to listen to their success stories. I like people that like to listen to my success.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

That less competent people will give you bad information is quite logical, of course. In this case, he spoke about a little different dynamic, but I think that the bottom line is uh is clear. Now I have John Bon Filio, my co-host, with me. John, what are you saying about this piece of news? And of course, that Donald Trump was not aware that the evil FIFA was ripping off his beloved US of A.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Hi, Paul. Well, there's a phrase in Spanish which is banisirco, which relates to the notion of Rome and translates as bread and circus. What you feed to the masses to keep them engaged. And that's basically my reaction to this statement, which I think comes in under two areas. The first is that FIFA and Trump have got this entire thing so badly wrong. They've completely misjudged the mood. And high prices, I think, is one thing, but being taken for a ride, being taken for fools is another entire. It's interesting that over time, ticket prices are actually statistically coming down week on week, um, maybe uh with the exception of the final. But nonetheless, they are. Uh, in contrast, direct contrast to Gianni Infantino's repeated statements about incredible, unprecedented demand and how they've sold more tickets uh now for this World Cup than in the last five World Cups put together, or something ridiculous like that. And I go back to Rome on this too, because there is a line, finally, to what people will tolerate. And it's one thing to be being taken for a ride and to know that you are in a particular system, and then it's another entirely to be taken as chumps, as idiots. Uh, there is little doubt on top of that that football has lost its soul. There is this is not new news, of course, it's been a long time coming, little doubt, but this is where we are. There's no hiding from the fact that it is a money-making machine primarily and a sport second. What's that phrase of Jules Boykoff's Jules, who's been on a podcast before and will be joining us again in a few days, he wrote that it was a money-making machine with football attached. Now, separately, what Trump said was interesting, I think, because what he said was that he wouldn't pay him. And that he hoped that those who had voted for him would be able to pay less to go to the matches. Now, this is entirely different to saying that it's a rip-off, it's a political statement by Trump to his supporters, saying that he has their backs and that it's not his fault. He is essentially, to all extends and purposes, dissociating himself from the prices because he knows that there is an issue with rising costs in the United States, well, internationally, but for him, specifically, with his base, with his electorate, uh, that's affecting them and is affecting, of course, his popularity. He's currently at uh the worst, what the highest disapproval ratings that he has had at any point in either of his two terms in office. Um, and of course, this is down to his major missteps on Iran, which have led to rising fuel prices, rising costs of anything that moves and doesn't move. And this is a major political problem for him. So he's changing tack. His statements, of course, are a joke, but ultimately they have nothing to do with the World Cup, and they are a parallel reality. Um, and then finally, what I'd say is I think it is an interesting time. There is a lot at stake in this World Cup, and the football is the least of it.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Yeah, thank you so much, John, for your comment on the issue. And you touched upon uh yeah, I think a very present issue, uh pressing issue for many World Cup fans, football fans, um, the ticket demand, which has been decreasing over um yeah the last month or so. Um at the same time, you have of course FIFA just uh announcing that the most expensive ticket for the final um was just increased from 13,000 US dollars to over$30,000. And I think that this is um yeah, is a very good case, um, or it's a very good case to draw a parallel to the rest of the um economy, um, with more and more companies abandon the so-called middle-class consumers. And that is because the spending power in that part of the population has been going down um over the last decades continuously. And on the other hand, you have the top 10% of people in terms of wealth and income become richer by the day, with the stock market, of course, hitting record highs on a frequent basis. And interestingly, already back in 2025, the top 10% of households with an income of fifty uh of 250,000 US dollars or more accounted for more than 50% of total consumer spending. So, what companies, and in this case FIFA also do, is that they see this cohort of people, the middle class, not having um enough in economic lingo residual income, so money at the end of the month, which they can then just use to um to purchase whatever they want or consume it in any any way they want. And of course, the business case for these companies is that they see this cohort uh cohort of people, the middle class, their spending power going down basically every year, and the products which the middle class uh consumer usually buys are not with uh are not equipped with the best margin, uh profit margins for the companies. So, what the companies do is they increasingly target the wealthiest people in the country, or the top 10% at least, of course, not only billionaires, but people with very, very high incomes, because they can sell them products um with much better margin margins. I mean, just imagine uh the production costs of a Gucci bag, for example, and uh which which of course is only a fraction of the selling price in the end. So the the business case for the companies is clear that um they uh sell less products to the top 10%, but with a much better margin. And lastly, coming back to FIFA, they see the exact same dynamic here. They see that the ticket prices, um, the the lowest ticket prices and mid-ticket prices have been going down over the last uh weeks, which shows that the demand also decreases. So what they did was just to basically almost triple the most expensive tickets to make up uh for the loss in this expected revenue of the uh lower priced tickets. And no worries, I am already finished with my little economics lesson for today, and we wish you a great day wherever you are or at what time of the day you are listening to this episode. So that's it from us for today.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

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SPEAKER_02 10:37

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SPEAKER_00 10:44

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