Officials in Toronto say less than half of FIFA Fan Festival premium tickets were sold during the World Cup, generating an estimated $5 million in revenue.
A report on the early outcomes of Toronto’s tournament hosting duties says preliminary data shows 44 per cent of premium tickets for the flagship festival at Fort York were sold.
While the majority of fan fest tickets were free, premium tickets were listed for between $100 and $300 and included faster entry and dedicated spaces on festival grounds.
The city says approximately 350,000 people attended the fan festival over the course of the tournament.
The report says staff remain confident that the cost of hosting six World Cup matches will be within the city’s approved budget of $380 million.
A full financial report is expected early next year once staff finish verifying revenues and budget offsets.
The federal government committed up to $45 million toward World Cup policing and security costs in April, which the report says may help offset some of the city’s costs.
The report also says about 85,000 riders used local transit routes to go to the stadium and the fan festival, and nearly 160,000 total ridership was reported at Exhibition GO station located near the stadium on match days.