Former Des Moines Register assistant sports editor Ira Lacher writes about the games and business of sports for various newspapers and magazines.

I have embraced futbol — all right, “soccer” — from the time I was old enough to kick a ball. Since I could only kick it lousily as a kid, the best I could do was watch it, which there was plenty of in New York City during the Sixties and Seventies. 

There were the New York Skyliners, actually the Cerro club of Montevideo, Uruguay, one of the entire teams imported lock, stock, and shin guards from Europe and South America to populate the United Soccer Association (think of the initials). The rival and homegrown National Professional Soccer League featured the New York Generals playing teams such as the Tampa Bay Rowdies, whose memorable slogan was “Soccer is a kick in the grass.” 

Fan interest slacked off after the 1967 season when the two struggling leagues merged to form a single  struggling North American Soccer League. But in 1975, the circuit received a power surge when its New York Cosmos signed Brazil’s Pele, as well as other iconic internationals. Giants Stadium in New Jersey teemed with upwards of 75,000 futbolistas cheering on the all-universe-stars, even though they were well past their playing primes. 

Bad economics killed the NASL in 1985. But it had become clear that, given responsible ownership and financial management, a U.S. professional league was viable, enticing Americans to at long last embrace the worldwide sport. And three years later, world soccer’s governing body, known as FIFA, endorsed that proposition by declaring the U.S. would host the world’s premier single-sport event — the men’s World Cup soccer tournament — in 1994. Olé, olé, olé, olé!

Five games, and the opening ceremony, were scheduled for Chicago, down the road from Des Moines. How could this longtime futbol fan not go? 

Well, I didn’t, for three reasons: my 3-year-old twins, and my responsibility as a parent.

So, when FIFA announced June 13, 2018, that soccer’s quadrennial mega-event would be played in Canada, Mexico, and the U-S-of-A — including Kansas City, a mere jaunt down I-35! — and with our twins now married and gainfully employed, my wife and I determinedly decided:

We! Are! Going!

Now?

We. Are. Not. Sure.

This is because FIFA, individual host city committees, and the Trump administration have combined to do everything to poop a month-and-a-half-long party: 

• Tickets, as sold by FIFA, begin at $450 for satellite-orbital-elevation seats. Want to attend the final, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey? Try $10,000. 
• New Jersey Transit, which normally charges $13 for a round-trip to that stadium from midtown Manhattan, announced a hike to $150 for World Cup games. After a huge outcry against the gouge,  they lowered that to $105. That’s still the equivalent of five beers, at $19.49 a pop. Of course you could ride a shuttle bus from various locations, for $80. But you’ll still save a few bucks, since parking will run you an average $175 per stadium.
• Need a hotel room? If you don’t want to drive 25 miles or more to the game, prepare to pay $400–$1,200 — a night! — according to Hotels.com.
• The stateside games will be held in converted American football stadiums. But at least one will ban a great American football tradition: Tailgating is verboten at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. (Security, you know.) Other host cities have yet to decide to follow suit. 
• But fear not about security; a “key part” of it will be provided by those madcap masked men from ICE who brought state-sponsored violence, detention, and deportation to U.S. city after city in 2025. 
• There could be possible disruptions resulting from labor strife and official protests. In Los Angeles, SoFi Stadium workers are threatening to strike because of ICE’s presence. In Houston, which will host seven matches, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch Trump supporter, has threatened to withhold public safety funds because the city council has ordered police to minimize cooperation with federal immigration authorities. 
• And, finally, fans wanting to follow some national teams to America will be entering a country facing a “human rights emergency,” according to Amnesty International. If you’re from Egypt, Ghana, Jordan, Morocco, Uruguay, or Uzbekistan, ICE will be watching you. Closely. If you’re from Algeria or Cape Verde, you’ll have to pay a $15,000 “bond” — some might call it a bribe — to enter the U.S. And if you’re from Haiti, Iran, the Ivory Coast, or Senegal, forget it: Trump has closed the U.S. border to you and your countrymen. 

“[T]he World Cup thrives because soccer is the people’s game — played around the world, with low barriers to entry. …” sports columnist Jason Gay writes in The Wall Street Journal. “These Cups are massive opportunities to grow the sport, to cultivate new and young fans. Instead this North American one is becoming a plutocrat’s picnic. …” And this is in a newspaper that gleefully wallows in celebrating capitalism. 

Predictably, reaction from the left has been harsher. “For Trump and his administration, the World Cup is an opportunity not so much to launder his unsavory reputation as to embrace it: to take center stage as a global strongman,” Alex Shephard wrote in a piece in The New Republic titled “Trump and FIFA Have Already Broken the 2026 World Cup.”

Gratefully, no such stress seems to be coming out of Kansas City, the only host community in the Midwest. And this is probably the last time America will host the World Cup during Lisa’s and my lifetimes. So, at this point?

We! Are! Going! 

Probably.

We have constructed a three-part strategy, which I offer as a public service: 

1. We’d love to see Messi and Argentina live, but we don’t want to take out a second mortgage. So we’ll focus on a less attractive contest. 
2. We will count on what seems to be the golden rule of the secondary ticket market: Prices usually drop the closer you get to match time, as speculators try to get at least some ROI.
3. We’ll avoid penthouse hotel rates by booking at one of the many motels halfway between our home and the KC metro. 

It certainly seems that FIFA, the Trump administration, and some of the host city committees are combining to dump acid rain on one of the world’s premier picnics. But the FIFA Men’s World Cup tournament is without a doubt numero uno on the bucket list for every futbol fan who has always had to experience the enjoyment from their dens. So:

We! Are! Going! 

Probably.