The World Cup final just created the most expensive armchairs in human history
You'll need a few golden boots to afford these seats
With $2.4m you could buy a top-spec three bedroom condo in New York or a Ferrari Daytona. The more artistically-minded might pick up a small painting by Picasso or Degas, or a Shakespeare First Folio. And music fans might buy a Gibson J0160E electric guitar - specifically the one previously owned by John Lennon.
On the other hand, the same money will buy you a couple of armchairs.
They’re not exceptional chairs in themselves, though, as Stuart McNeill notes, “they’re not IKEA” either. What makes them so valuable is that they will be pitch-side at next month’s World Cup final in New Jersey, the culmination of what’s been dubbed the most expensive football tournament in history.
Those sitting there will be able to mingle with the elated/dejected players at full time. They’ll be at the trophy presentation. They are, in short, the best armchairs in the house.
"We told them that was insane”
“This World Cup is such a big deal: because it’s in America, which is a place where wealthy people are interested in staying for a long time while the tournament is on; because FIFA has really opened the doors [to special access]; but also because there’s been a lot of controversy about ticket prices,” says McNeill, the founder of London's Knightsbridge Circle, a concierge company that’s making these seats available to its membership of some 100 families, seven of which, funnily enough, include world famous footballers.
There’s been no controversy about these eye-watering ticket prices though. Knightsbridge Circle has already sold another four seats. And it’s even managing to offer a discount. FIFA originally wanted $3m per pair - the money goes not to Knightsbridge Circle but to the association’s programmes supporting grassroots football - “but we told them that was insane,” says McNeill, with maybe just a hint of irony.
That there are those willing to pay quite so much to watch 90 minutes of sport (note the ticket price doesn’t include private jet travel, hospitality or security, which the concierge company will also arrange) is a prime example of a post-Covid shift in mentality, says McNeill.
“People sat down [during the pandemic] and thought, ‘I already have dozens of watches or handbags’ and maybe had a sense of not being able to take any of it with them,” he explains.
“The shift has been towards having experiences. And money can buy you access to once in a lifetime experiences. Once the first ball is kicked interest in the World Cup suddenly picked up, though [buying tickets] can be very last minute as clients find out how their team does.”
Sit with the stars
FIFA’s byzantine lottery system and the long wait to see if your application is successful? Fuggedaboudit, as Not Yoikers might have it. Having to peer around a pillar at the MetLife Stadium? Get the F outta here!
Indeed, for those unable to stretch to $2.4m, Knightsbridge Circle — which is the kind of company that can get Elton John to sing at your Christmas party, and has — is also offering some middle-tier seats at the final, with “pre-match hospitality”, for $48,000 a pair.
Nor is it alone among businesses aiming to make July a month to remember for the well-heeled. New York hotel The Mark, for instance, has a million-dollar package including penthouse stay and tickets to the final. Some are even providing swanky ways to watch a match on TV. Around $25,000 gets you four hours on a yacht cruising Biscayne Bay, off Florida, plus a meet-and-greet with 1997 FIFA World Player of the Year (...runner-up) Roberto Carlos.
That, presumably, is if Brazil doesn’t make it to the final, in which case he probably has his own armchair to fill.
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