North America is four months away from what's being billed as the biggest sporting event in world history — and North Texas is preparing to be one of the host cities.
FIFA previously announced that, starting Thursday, it will begin notifying the winners of its random selection ticket draw to get tickets to the World Cup.
After the random selection lottery ran from Dec. 11 to Jan. 13, FIFA will notify fans if they won the tickets of their choosing, whether it be all of the tickets they selected or just some.
FIFA has said it will notify the random winners of the draw by email "no earlier than" Feb. 5. Should fans acquire tickets, FIFA will begin automatically charging their listed credit cards on Feb. 9.
"We recommend regularly checking your inbox and spam folders and adding FIFA Ticketing's email address ... to your safe sender list to avoid missing important updates," FIFA's ticketing site reads.
Record-breaking demand
More than 500 million ticket requests were submitted for the World Cup, FIFA announced in January, "setting a new benchmark for demand in the history of world sport," the organization said.
That averages to about 15 million ticket requests per day, across the 33-day application process.
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Aside from the three host countries — the United States, Mexico and Canada — most applications came from Germany, England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Colombia. Germany and Portugal are among the teams that will play group-stage matches in Houston.
Most popular matches
Though Texas is hosting more matches than any other state between Houston and Dallas, none of the matches in Texas fall within the top five most-requested matches.
The most-requested match is Colombia vs. Portugal in Miami on June 27, according to FIFA.
Other popular matches are Mexico vs. South Korea (Guadalajara, June 18); the final match in New York (July 19); the opening match, Mexico vs. South Africa (Mexico City, June 11); and a round-of-32 match in Toronto on July 2.
Want to see the World Cup trophy?
Not only is the World Cup coming — the World Cup trophy is coming to North America. And it will go beyond just the host cities.
The World Cup trophy will come to Texas in April. The tour starts in Dallas from April 25-26; then moves to Austin from April 28-29; San Antonio on April 30; and Houston from May 2-3.
Your next shot at tickets
FIFA will have one final sale for World Cup tickets, beginning in early April, aptly labeled as their "last-minute sales phase."
At that point, tickets will go on sale on a first-come, first-served basis, like a traditional ticket sale.
Resale tickets are available on FIFA's website as well as third-party ticket sellers — at a hefty price. Some tickets are on sale for triple their listed price or more.
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