Tickets for Miami’s Brightline railway will be up to six times the usual price for FIFA World Cup fans.
A round trip between downtown Miami and Aventura, the Brightline station closest to the Hard Rock Stadium, typically costs $24. On days when it hosts World Cup games, the price ranges from $76 to $151, Business Insider found when visiting Brightline’s website.
That makes it the most expensive transit system of all 16 cities hosting games during the tournament, which starts June 11.
The two stations are about 13 miles apart — or 17 minutes on a Brightline train.
Brightline’s booking site shows a $151 round-trip for June 24, when Scotland plays Brazil. It also costs $76 for the first game in Miami — Saudi Arabia vs Uruguay — and $141 for the city’s other five matches. The same ticket on other days in June and July costs $24.
Miami-Dade County is organizing free shuttle buses for ticket holders to the stadium from the Aventura station, about a 20-minute drive, a spokesperson previously told The Athletic.
It’s also running buses from a commuter rail station, a Metrorail station, and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel, they added.
Brightline did not reply to requests for comment from Business Insider.
In addition to four group-stage games, Miami is scheduled to host a round-of-32 game, a quarter-final, and the third-place playoff.
Miami joins New Jersey and Boston in hiking prices
New Jersey Transit faced criticism earlier this month when it announced $150 tickets for a round-trip journey between Manhattan’s Penn Station and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. That’s more than 11-times as expensive as the $12.90 it usually costs. The two stations are about six miles apart, as the crow flies.
And in Boston, soccer fans will pay $80 for a round-trip train ticket or $95 for a coach ticket to travel the 20 miles between downtown and Gillette Stadium. The train ride usually costs $20 for a round trip during NFL gamedays, or $8.75 on a normal day.
None of the other 13 host cities has raised transit prices during the World Cup. In Philadelphia, it is set to be $2.90, or half the usual price, because fans get a free metro ride returning from games.
In Atlanta and Houston, metro tickets will cost $2.50 for a round-trip. Dallas said it would introduce free shuttle buses between the AT&T Stadium and the nearest train station, while Kansas City is launching a $15 shuttle bus service.
This year’s World Cup is set to be hugely expensive for fans, in part because FIFA has introduced dynamic pricing for match tickets.
Group-stage tickets have ranged from $60, available to the most loyal fans, to over $4,000 for the US’s first game, against Paraguay, when FIFA released “last-minute” tickets last week.
Four nations are debuting at this year’s tournament, too, aided by its expansion from 32 to 48 teams: Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan.
Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, and Uruguay are scheduled to play in Miami during the group stage.
