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Getting tickets for a major sporting event is not decided on the day sales open, but months earlier, when you register for the presales. Seats are released in successive phases, and each phase has its own rules. Understanding the sequence matters more than being fast on the keyboard.
The sequence is broadly the same from one competition to the next: a presale reserved for a partner card, one or two random draws, then a first-come, first-served sale. The official resale platform opens afterwards and stays active until the end of the tournament.
This article explains each phase, what it asks of you and when to act. For the rest of the trip, see our guide on how to attend a sporting event with your points.
Before you go looking for a ticket, identify the model. It decides when you need to act and what you can realistically hope to get.
The third model is by far the most favourable to a traveller, and it is the one people plan for the least. When ticketing stays open all season, you pick the date, which means you control the price of the hotel and the flight.
Organisers never release every seat at once. They spread distribution over several months, starting with the most captive audiences and holding back a volume for the end. That lets them adjust prices along the way, and it gives you several chances rather than one.
The 2026 World Cup serves as the documented example, because its four phases ran exactly to this pattern. Upcoming competitions will follow the same logic, with different dates.
Two habits pay off at every edition. Register for each phase as soon as it is announced, even before you know which match you want: your place in the queue matters more than the choice of fixture. And never buy outside the official platform, because fraud multiplies as the date approaches.
Local supporters’ associations also receive allocations, outside the federation’s official channels. They are often the simplest route to a home match for the national team.
No program sells match tickets as an award. The only way to bring the bill down is to pay with a card that earns flexible points, then apply those points as a statement credit after the fact.
That is what separates a flexible program from an airline or hotel one. Airline points only buy that airline’s flights. A program like Scene+ from Scotiabank reimburses any expense, match tickets included.
You earn up to 3 points per dollar on an affiliated card such as the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite +* Card, then choose what to reimburse once the expense has posted.
Two kinds of flexibility matter here. You have up to 12 months after the purchase to apply your points, and you can cover only part of the expense. In other words, you do not need the full balance at the time you book.
In a knockout tournament, group stage seats cost a fraction of quarter-final or semi-final ones. If your goal is the atmosphere rather than a specific fixture, targeting a group match cuts the spend without taking anything away from the experience.
Conversely, seats released on the resale platform mostly arrive in the final days, when holders give up on the trip. Waiting is workable if you are already on site and you accept leaving without a ticket.
One simple rule to decide: register for every phase, buy at the first one that gives you a seat, and keep your points for the flight and the room rather than the ticket. The ticket is paid in cash, the rest of the trip is paid in points.
To organise the rest of the trip, see our guides on the flight in points and on accommodation for a sporting event.
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