When I first saw it, I figured this was just another “credit card perk” flex.
FIFA World Cup 2026 tickets — early access, just for Chase Sapphire cardmembers. Coming soon. February 10–24. Very exclusive. Very “look what we can do.”
And honestly? That part didn’t surprise me at all.
Banks attach themselves to major sporting events the way airlines attach fuel surcharges to award tickets. F1. The US Open. The Super Bowl. Somebody pays a mountain of money for the right to plaster their logo everywhere… and then turns around and calls it a “benefit.”
But then a funny thing happened. Capital One started offering early access.
This isn’t a Chase thing. It’s a Visa thing.
Read the fine print, and the story changes.
This “exclusive access” isn’t being provided by Chase or Capital One out of the goodness of their rewards-program hearts. It’s courtesy of Visa — FIFA’s partner — and the banks are basically picking which Visa cardholders get invited to the front of the line.
So the perk isn’t really “Sapphire gets you World Cup tickets.” The perk is: Visa has tickets, and issuers get to hand out access like party wristbands.
Which leads to the first obvious question: If Visa is holding the keys, how many different “exclusive” presales will we see?
At this point, “exclusive access” starts to sound less like a special perk and more like… Visa doing what Visa does.
Because once the perk is coming from Visa, the word “exclusive” gets a lot squishier. Visa isn’t some niche partner with a tiny list — it’s one of the biggest payment networks on the planet. So what looks like a tight little Sapphire-only offer in a banner ad starts to feel more like a giant pool of “Visa cardholders,” sliced into smaller marketing windows depending on which bank you happen to use.
- Chase promotes it to Sapphire cardholders.
- Capital One follows with its own version for Venture X cardholders, also “courtesy of Visa.”
- Bank of America has a similar access window tied to eligible cardholders (and even framed it as part of its FIFA partnership perks).
- Wells Fargo uses the same playbook through its entertainment portal — verify you’re a Wells Fargo Visa cardholder, access limited inventory, and you must pay with the eligible card.
And that’s the point: it’s early access, sure — but it’s not exactly a velvet rope when the rope is attached to Visa’s customer base.
The snarky question: how weak is demand if they need to promote this this hard?
Yes, I know: the World Cup is enormous — maybe the biggest sporting event in the world. It’s also the one time every four years that a certain portion of American sports fans suddenly remember soccer exists… and confidently explain the offside rule incorrectly. So I’m not arguing this event needs help.
That’s exactly why the presale marketing feels so loud. If demand is a guaranteed tidal wave, why are we seeing “exclusive access” pushed this aggressively — this early — and through multiple banks? Maybe it’s just modern ticketing: segment inventory, manufacture urgency, and make everyone feel like they’re in a special club. But when the event is literally called the World Cup, there’s a bigger, more uncomfortable layer beneath all of this that’s hard to ignore.
The World Cup invites the world… but are we inviting the world?
Nothing happens in a vacuum.
Hosting an event like this isn’t just about stadiums and match schedules — it’s about whether people feel like visiting is feasible, welcoming, and predictable.
International fans don’t just need tickets. They need flights, hotels, time off work… and, in many cases, visas and confidence in border entry. If the perception (fair or not) is that visiting the U.S. will be a headache—or a gamble—that changes the demand math.
And if international demand softens even a little, the pressure shifts to the domestic market. Which is where you get the weird feeling that we’re being “sold” on the idea of buying tickets… for what should be a once-in-a-generation slam dunk.
Final thought
I’m not saying the World Cup won’t sell. It probably will. Eventually.
I’m saying that watching multiple banks roll out “exclusive” early access — that’s apparently coming from Visa — makes this feel less like a once-in-a-lifetime ticket drop… and more like a carefully staged effort to make sure the line looks long.
Because when something is truly unstoppable, it usually doesn’t need quite this much help.
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