Demand for the 2023 World Cup has skyrocketed and FIFA is now rushing to figure out how to deal with it.

According to Just Women's Sports, the complications of the sport's increasing appeal has made it seem like FIFA wasn't ready to handle the event after a successful 2019 World Cup turnout. The previous World Cup sold over one million tickets four days into ticket sales opening up while 14 of the 52 matches were sold out.

After the Oct. 22 draw, which showed fans the participating nations’ paths through the tournament, Visa users again got early access. From Oct. 25-31, Visa cardholders could buy tickets before general sales began in November. Both the Visa pre-sale and the general sale ticket releases were done by time zone, meaning the middle of the night for some fans.

Fans were upset by the timing of tickets going on sale and those who missed out will have to wait until April of 2023 for the “finals sales phase,” according to Just Women's Sports. 

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“It is my understanding that there will be other opportunities to purchase tickets specifically for those matches that have been extremely popular among the domestic fans in Australia,” Arijana Demirovic, the FIFA Director of Women’s Football Development said. “Because they’re having some big matches in their group stage, and there’s quite a hype around those matches.”

FIFA is expecting to hit 1.5 million ticket sales, a sign there is growth for the women's World Cup and expanding its venue in the future.

“The reality is there is a capacity at the stadium that we will reach at one point,” Demirovic said, “and hopefully those fans are then just glued on their screens and are finding different opportunities to also follow the game rather than to get discouraged, in case they cannot join some of the matches.”