Mexican soccer teams are the most expensive to watch live in terms of U.S. dollars, according to a new ranking.
The list, crafted by specialized outlet El Míster, shows that Rayados de Monterrey and Tigres UANL hold the two top spots for the year, their tickets costing an average of almost $72 and $65.6, respectively.
Mexican soccer teams dominate the top of the list, with four taking the first five spots. The only holdout belongs to Chile's Universidad Católica, which holds the third spot with over $48 per ticket.
The site explains it took the cost of all seat categories, from the cheapest to the most expensive, for over four matches against different rivals to paint a more accurate picture. International cup matches, such as Copa Libertadores and the Concacaf Gold Cup, were also included.
Uruguayan side Peñarol is on the other side of the spectrum, with tickets costing less than $15 in average this year. Argentine giant River Plate had the sixth cheapest ticket, at $19.5. Argentina's dire economic situation played a role in this case.
The "blue" exchange rate (technically illegal but used for most transactions as the official rate is practically impossible to get) has taken the peso to its weakest level in years, to the point that Buenos Aires was considered the 10th cheapest city in the world in the latest Economist Intelligence Unit cost of living ranking. This means that even if the tickets are expensive in local currency terms, they won't be as much in U.S. dollars.
Overall, the ranking analyzed tickets for the four most popular teams of Latin America's 10 top leagues: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile and Uruguay. Palmeiras was the only Brazilian featured in the list, with tickets under $16.
Interestingly, none of the two teams from the region who qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup, Mexico's Leon and Brazil's Fluminense, are in the ranking. Both of them will play in the tournament this month. It will be the last one to feature the current seven-team format, following FIFA president Gianni Infantino's announcement last December that a new 32-team format would launch in the Summer of 2025, with plans of being held in the United States.
León will become the 9th different Mexican team to take part in the FIFA Club World Cup. León won its first CONCACAF Cup in June after defeating MLS team LAFC. León's 2023 crown comes after the Seattle Sounders snapped a 16-year dominance of Mexican clubs in the region. The best outcome of a CONCACAF team in the history of the competition came in 2020, when Mexican club Tigres reached the final and narrowly lost to German giant Bayern Munich.
Fluminense, on its end, will make its first appearance after winning its maiden Copa Libertadores against Argentina's Boca Juniors in November.
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