Diehard football fans who were among the first to nab tickets for the Women's World Cup say they've been shafted to the nosebleeds.
Sydneysider Rachel Matthews bought tickets along with 14 friends — one who's flying in from England for the tournament — back when they first went on sale last October, but now they're considering selling up after finding out they were in the top rows.
"I've even got a friend coming from England for this game and she's paid for flights, hotel — it's going to be heartbreaking," she said.
"I don't even want to go. I don't want to sit that high up, I'm 51 years old and it's just not the experience I wanted.
"If I can't see a player and the ball I just think it's crazy, I know the atmosphere will be amazing, but it just doesn't sit right with me that those that bought six months later than us have got better seats."
It's the first time Australia has hosted the prestigious tournament, alongside co-hosts New Zealand with matches running from July through August across a number of cities.
First come, first served
Carly Mann, from Canberra, thought paying premium would secure a top seat, not a nosebleed.
She got her tickets within 20 minutes of them going on sale.
Now she's learned that better seats, closer to the action, have gone on sale since.
"It did state that first come first served, so we figured they'd be working from the front to the back of the stadium and getting pre-sale tickets within the first 20 minutes of them going on sale that I'd get something reasonable," she said.
"Most of the [tickets] are in bays 600 and onwards.
"I guess I thought if I bought tickets later on in the piece, that I'd expect to get tickets like that."
So, what's category one?
FIFA's category one tickets (the most expensive) include the middle of the pitch right up to the top of the stadium.
Category two tickets are in the corners and category three is behind the goals.
Fans like Ms Mann say category two seats much closer to the pitch are a better deal than they got buying category one.
Christy Hardy bought three category one team passes, to see the Matildas play Nigeria in Brisbane, Ireland in Sydney and Canada in Melbourne.
It was only after buying flights and accommodation she saw the seat allocation.
"They're at the very, very back of the very top tier, so right up in the nosebleeds, the very last row, which is the total opposite to what we expected," she said.
"Obviously to get into the pre-sale, I consider myself a pretty diehard fan because I had to do it straight away and lock in those tickets and pay the extra money to make sure we had good seats."
FIFA said stadium maps clearly showed where seats were allocated.
"From the very beginning of ticket sales back in October 2022, FIFA has clearly communicated through stadium maps where fans will be allocated seats based on the ticket category purchased."
