How Much Would You Have to Budget to Go to the Women’s World Cup in 2019?

Tobin Heath

Will you go to watch her pull out her bag of tricks?

“Life is complicated. Life is going to throw all kinds of obstacles in your way. All I can tell you is what works for me: be true to yourself, don’t do fake, and above all else, keep on working, because that’s what will take you where you want to go.”
–Carli Lloyd

My wife and I are went to the Women’s World Cup in Canada in 2015. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, we are probably not going to be able to go this year. To make up for the loss, my wife just finished reading Forward: A Memoir by Abby Wambach, and we’ll be going to the American Outlaws bars to cheer the team on when we can make the games.

Since I’m writing this article in August, 2018, a good 10 months before the Women’s World Cup, it’s not possible to know where the U.S. team will be playing or when. Of course, we can’t even assume that the U.S. will actually qualify (cough…U.S. Men’s team…cough), but I think it’s reasonably safe to assume that the U.S. women’s team will actually qualify for the tournament. Therefore, I assumed that we would get the nightmare schedule of the team that is drawn as C3, requiring travel from Paris to Grenoble to Montpellier, and to Valenciennes.


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How Much Would You Have to Budget to Go to the World Cup in 2022?

Kylian Mbappe celebrating - March 2018

He won the Golden Boy award for the 2018 World Cup. Will he be a star in 2022?

“Being from America, it’s great, so I always love coming home.”
–Christian Pulisic

I’ve been a soccer fan all of my life. My wife and I went to the World Cup in 2010. We didn’t go in 2014 or in 2018; instead, I spent nearly every day either at the local bar watching games (2014) or streaming the games (2018). We don’t have cable, and I had to watch somewhere. Oh, the joys of being an entrepreneur…

I suspect that 2022 will not see me watching the World Cup in person as well. Qatar isn’t high on the travel bucket list, but for many fans, particularly devout American Outlaws, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be on the bucket list. That is, of course, if the U.S. qualifies.

If you’re one of those who wants to take the trip to Qatar to watch the 2022 World Cup, you might be wondering what it would take to get yourself over there for a couple of weeks.

There are two ways of accomplishing the trip. The first is to go with a tour package and let them handle everything for you. This will give you at least a baseline for comparison with a do it yourself option.

I’m going to assume a 13 night stay, with all games and stays in Doha, given the size of the country. As of the writing, Qatar still is scheduled to host the World Cup alone, although things can change between June, 2018 and the time of the World Cup. I’m also assuming that the schedule won’t change from a November-December World Cup. Since the schedules don’t come out until December, 2021, these assumptions may not be realistic, but it should at least give us enough information to come up with a reasonable budget.

I’m also going to assume a significant increase off of current published hotel prices (see below), since there will be a tourist markup. We saw it in South Africa; I see no reason not to expect the same in Qatar.

Ticket prices, as of the time of writing this article, have not been released. I will assume a $153.73 price. 2018 prices were approximately $105 for a Group 3 group stage game, and assuming 10% annual price inflation (FIFA doesn’t run the same economics as the rest of the world, you know), that’s how I arrive at the price.

If you wind up saving too much, then you can always invest the difference!


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How Much Would You Have to Budget to Go to the World Cup in 2018?

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