GUADALAJARA, June 13 -- The giveaway was where the gaps were. As South Korea beat the Czech Republic on Thursday, the empty seats at the Estadio Akron were not scattered in the upper corners where empty seats usually hide. They were down by the pitch, in the expensive rows, the VIP sections where a general-admission ticket ran around $400. A World Cup match announced at 44,985 in a stadium that holds nearly 46,000 had its most conspicuous holes in its most costly seats, and the image traveled faster than either goal.

That is the signature of a pricing model, not a scheduling fluke. For the first time at a World Cup, FIFA is selling tickets through dynamic pricing, the airline-style system it trialed at last summer's Club World Cup, where...