Executives at the taxpayer-backed agency that owns Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium secretly blew over $600,000 on VIP World Cup seats — even as they fretted that ticket prices were “crazy” and “not the most prudent use of public funds,” The Post has learned.
As regular soccer fans get frozen out by FIFA’s sky-high dynamic pricing, executives at the Georgia World Congress Center Authority (GWCCA) used an exclusive backchannel to land a sweetheart deal for a luxury suite and 270 premium World Cup seats to entertain clients at the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, according to internal emails.
Behind closed doors, the GWCCA’s top brass knew the optics were terrible, according to the emails obtained through a public records request.
In January 2025, chief commercial officer Joe Bocherer issued a red flag, warning colleagues against dropping $442,750 on a 22-seat all-inclusive suite after executives learned their regular VIP memberships did not include World Cup games.
“We are starting to believe a suite at this time is not the most prudent use of public funds,” he wrote in an email, predicting the boxes “will get cheaper as we get closer” in an apparent dig at FIFA’s prices.
Bocherer went on to note that a cheaper alternative would come out at $21,000 per seat compared to the $37,000 per seat in the VIP box — although he nevertheless expressed disbelief at the stratospheric prices, according to one emailed breakdown.
“Wow.. this is still crazy,” Bocherer wrote of the $21,000 seats.
Nevertheless, by March of last year, the bosses agreed to split an $885,500 suite tab 50/50 with the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, a nonprofit that promotes the city worldwide.
“Per direction (of) our board, the desire is for GWCCA to stay within a $3-400k-ish expense for FIFA 2026,” Bocherer said in a later message on March 3, 2025.
The emails obtained by The Post fail to spell out a reason for the change of heart, and a GWCCA spokeswoman declined to comment when asked.
The revelations come just over three weeks after President Trump told The Post exclusively that regular Joes are being unfairly locked out of the global tournament that is being hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico.
“We don’t have an agreement or a contract for the FIFA suite,” Pargen Robertson, the chief legal officer at the Atlanta-based agency, told The Post in an e-mail exchange without elaborating.
A GWCCA spokeswoman confirmed that bosses had still gone ahead and paid up, claiming the entertainment of VIPs in the exclusive box would help with “attracting future conventions, trade shows, events, and tourism business.”
But the suits did not stop there — returning in February to exploit their ties to the World Cup host committee to score another 270 premium seats across the eight games to be played in Atlanta for $170,000, invoices show.
That second haul, personally signed off by CEO Kevin Duvall, included blowing $70,000 on just 36 tickets for a blockbuster semifinal match that amounts to an average of $1,944 per seat.
Premium tickets for that same July 15 game currently costs $10,000, according to a Post analysis of FIFA’s official resale platform. Resellers such as Ticketmaster offer similar lower-bowl seats close to the pitch for just over $8,200.
The Post has filed a series of freedom-of-information requests with 11 US host cities and the US government about the World Cup ticketing fiasco. Georgia officials, who are required to respond to such requests within three business days, were the first to provide documents.
The released emails show how FIFA gives top officials and business executives the red-carpet treatment. The global soccer body, a Swiss non-profit based in Zurich, has often granted exclusive allotments to reward the local insiders who deliver the stadiums, security, and hype.
Georgia record custodians said they were unable to provide a list of the VIPs set to benefit from the allocation despite repeated requests by The Post.
An agency spokeswoman said the swanky seats would be used “to engage current and prospective customers, strengthen relationships, and support efforts to attract future events and business to the state.”
The rep did not answer this outlet’s questions about how the seats were distributed or directly address the total amount spent by its top brass.
She described the GWCCA as “a self-sustaining state authority,” adding the tournament is “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” that can help boost business for the state of Georgia.
That reality is more complex, according to its latest 2025 financial report.
The budget shows a one-off allocation of just over $25 million in taxpayer money on its books, specifically earmarked for the World Cup, while raking in more than $10 million in hotel and motel taxes from tourist properties it operates.
The GWCCA also gets rent-free access to state-owned venues such as the Georgia World Congress Center and the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It is asking for $72 million from taxpayers in 2027 for maintenance work, according to documents posted by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget.
Aside from being the home of the Atlanta Falcons, the sporting arena also hosts games involving Major League Soccer outfit Atlanta United and the Georgia Bulldogs.
The World Cup ticket furor has exploded into outright scandal in recent weeks, with President Trump exclusively telling The Post that even he would not pay the $1,000 resale prices for the USMNT’s opener against Paraguay on June 12.
“I did not know that number,” the billionaire real estate mogul said. “I would certainly like to be there, but I wouldn’t pay it either, to be honest with you.”
A FIFA spokesman told The Post the governing body is “focused on ensuring fair access” and offered 1,000 tickets at just $60 for every group game that he called “a very competitive price point for a major global sporting event in the US.”
The organization also defended its “dynamic pricing” and resale model as standard practice for big US sports events.
But foreign fans are boycotting in droves anyway, furious over the sky-high prices. The backlash threatens to torpedo the $40 billion economic windfall US host cities were banking on, according to an industry study by the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Nearly 80% of operators in nine of the 11 host cities say reservations are running well behind projections, even though more than 5 million tickets have already been sold. Those empty rooms suggest that vulture-like scalpers have scooped up many of the seats.
Whether Americans are pumped for the spectacle or not, they’re still footing the bill.
The feds have labeled every game as a ‘national special security event’ owing to heightened fears that terrorists or criminals could strike.
More than $1 billion in federal taxpayer money has already been earmarked by FEMA to address potential threats.
