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This summer's World Cup has a lot to be excited about. It's being held across three countries for the first time, and it will be the biggest ever with 48 teams. But some big soccer fans do not share that excitement. NPR's Rafael Nam has the story.
RAFAEL NAM, BYLINE: Ty Malugani is a huge soccer fan in Alabama, and he probably had the same reaction as many across North America when he heard the World Cup was coming to the U.S., Canada and Mexico this summer.
TY MALUGANI: I was so excited. We always talked about going to a World Cup, and so to be like, oh, there's one in America, that's perfect, perfect timing.
NAM: But it wasn't long before his excitement started fading away. First, it was how difficult it was to get tickets. There were lotteries, not for tickets but for a time slot to buy tickets. And then, yeah, the prices - he has a family of six with four little ones. Even going to the cheapest U.S. game would have cost him over $1,500. And those are for nosebleed seats, high up in the stadium. Then there was this moment...
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GIANNI INFANTINO: Please welcome the very first winner of the FIFA Peace Prize, the 45th and 47th president of the United States of America, Mr. Donald J. Trump. Please.
NAM: The peace prize - at the draw ceremony for the tournament held in Washington, D.C., FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented Trump with an award for individuals who have united people across the world. Malugani said it was the moment that made him question FIFA's intentions.
MALUGANI: It felt very much like we're not going to care about the fans or the event itself. We're not going to care about anything other than trying to appease this one person in the hopes that they may benefit FIFA.
NAM: Malugani is not the only fan who NPR has talked to who has been really turned off by this tournament, whether it be ticket prices, the peace prize or something else. Jan Freitag, a travel analyst at CoStar, says demand to come to the World Cup is not running as high as many expected, at least for the first half of the tournament.
JAN FREITAG: I think it's a confluence of, oh, there's a war going on. Oh, airfares are high. Oh, ticket prices are high, you know, and in the first-round stages, maybe those matches aren't super interesting. So, you know, maybe it's sort of a little bit of everything.
NAM: And that little bit of everything is leading to concerns across the travel industry. Rosanna Maietta, who leads the American Hotel and Lodging Association, still sees a lot of anticipation, even with less than two months left. The problem?
ROSANNA MAIETTA: We're not seeing that translate yet into bookings around the country. I think we're seeing that it's a little bit softer than we would have anticipated right now.
NAM: One of the people who won't be booking a hotel room is Kieran Maguire in Liverpool, England. He's a professor of sports finance, and he's been to several World Cups before. But he says even he, a white European and a political centrist, doesn't feel so welcome in the U.S., a country he loves. He talks about the crackdown on immigration with travel bans and restrictions, as well as the violence involving ICE in cities like Minnesota that make him feel unsafe.
KIERAN MAGUIRE: I think there's a feeling amongst many Europeans that perhaps we're not that welcome anymore, and so therefore, I think some of the measures which are being observed here in Europe, which are seen as being draconian, which are seen as being quite repressive, have had a negative impact upon those willing to attend the World Cup.
NAM: FIFA, though, says demand is incredible and that all games are on the verge of being sold out. And the White House says the president wants to make this an incredible experience for all visitors and the safest and most secure in history, while saying criticism of the tournament is due to ridiculous scare tactics by liberal activist groups and the left-wing media. Malugani in Alabama, though, still feels really disappointed. What stinks most is that his four little ones will not get to see the sport he loves because he feels the World Cup is not meant for people like them.
MALUGANI: That to me is the worst because I love the sport, and I want future generations to love the sport. Hopefully things can turn around, and things can maybe work out. But as of right now, it just feels like it's a missed opportunity.
NAM: A missed opportunity because the World Cup will still go on, but perhaps not with soccer fans like him from around the world. Rafael Nam, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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