Football fans who watch World Cup matches from box seats at the Mexico City stadium face extremely hefty food and beverage bills.
Last month, a federal judge granted box owners an injunction against a FIFA prohibition on taking food and beverages into the stadium on World Cup match days.
However, another federal judge overrode that injunction, ruling that box owners must respect FIFA rules and therefore cannot take their own food and beverages into the stadium, and cannot park their cars in the stadium precinct. The ruling, which came in response to a challenge filed by stadium owner Ollamani, and which favors FIFA, was published by the federal judiciary on Tuesday, just two days before the World Cup opening ceremony and first match — Mexico vs. South Africa — will take place at Mexico City Stadium.
Thus, as the Bloomberg news agency recently reported, box owners have to purchase hospitality packages — including food and beverages — directly from FIFA, which took control of Banorte Stadium (aka Azteca Stadium and currently called Mexico City Stadium) last month. The packages certainly aren’t cheap.
Bloomberg reported that FIFA’s “Premium Package,” which includes chips, chicken wings, a cheese table, salads, hamburgers, sandwiches, premium brand alcoholic beverages and soda, costs US $75,000 for 12 people for all five World Cup matches at Mexico City Stadium. Thus, the per-head, per-match price is $1,250, or around 22,000 pesos.
Bloomberg reported that “the cheapest package includes food and water but no alcohol and costs $35,400 for 12 people for all five games.”
“Prices are adjusted on a per-seat basis,” noted the news agency. In other words, hospitality packages for larger 20-seat or 27-seat boxes, for example, are considerably more expensive.
Box owners face large bills, but at least they’ll be in the stadium
As Mexico News Daily reported last month, FIFA requires full and complete control of stadiums during the World Cup, and therefore box seat owners were informed they would not be permitted to use them during the tournament.
Mexico sought to arrange compensatory payments to box owners who ceded their rights to FIFA, but a large group resisted and in September 2025 Banorte Stadium management reached a deal with FIFA to grant box owners full access to their seats during the World Cup.
Azteca Stadium box owners won’t forfeit seats for World Cup 2026
A sanguine assessment of the situation by box owners — among whom are very wealthy people whose families purchased 99-year ownership contracts to the suites in the 1960s — might be something along the lines of: “We have to cough up a small fortune to eat and drink during the World Cup matches, but at least we’re not locked out of the stadium.”
However, Roberto Ruano, the head of a box owners’ association, wasn’t in a particularly positive mood after he was blocked on Tuesday from taking food and beverages into the stadium ahead of Thursday’s match.
“[Stadium officials] approached to say ‘We have an injunction’ and we’re not going to allow the entry [of provisions]. That’s all they said,” he told reporters.
“… We will try [again] to take in food and drinks because we’re not going to pay a million pesos for sandwiches for five days,” said Ruano, who asserted that box owners have the legal right to take their own provisions into the stadium.
The cost of FIFA’s “Premium Package” for 12 people on five match days is actually 1.3 million pesos at the current exchange rate.
Balfre Morales, a lawyer for the box owners’ association headed up by Ruano, said on Tuesday that the association had not been formally notified of the ruling that overrode the injunction allowing box owners to take food and beverages into the stadium.
“We’ll have to look at how this suspension is set out,” he said, adding that he believed that the injunction granted last month remained valid.
Ruano asserted that a prohibition on taking food and beverages into stadium boxes is a “flagrant violation of our contracts,” and indicated that box owners would seek compensation if they are ultimately unable to do so.
All other World Cup stadiums turned over their boxes to FIFA
Bloomberg reported on May 30 that “Mexico City Stadium is the only one of the 16 venues across Mexico, the U.S. and Canada that didn’t have to turn over coveted boxes to FIFA for the World Cup games this summer.”
The news agency also reported that some box owners were attempting to rent out their boxes on World Cup match days.
“A 27-seat suite that has one of the best views of the pitch is asking 27 million pesos, or $1.6 million, for all five games being played at Banorte Stadium, according to a post seen by Bloomberg News. Another 15-person suite is asking 7.5 million pesos,” Bloomberg wrote.
“… WhatsApp groups and a Facebook group are ablaze with ads for the suites, and brokers are writing up contracts between box owners and soccer fans willing to shell millions of pesos,” the report said.
“Word of the underground market has reached FIFA and Ollamani, which on May 11 sent out notices to box owners warning them that any ticket found to be a transfer or sale that goes against the rules can be canceled,” Bloomberg wrote.
With reports from El Financiero, Bloomberg, El Universal, UNO TV and Claro Sports
