I generally agree, but we did get our first sub-20K figures yesterday: 11,974 @ Seattle for River Plate - Urawa 3,412 @ Orlando for Ulsan - Sundowns I'm aware of the Orlando storm delay but that number surely includes tickets sold? @HomietheClown - I thought such attendance figures weren't possible in the US, the best host nation of any sports game played ever? The reality is NFL venues are much too large for most CWC games. Certainly in the group stage.
Indeed. Only the fourth time in CWC history that the score is tied after 90 minutes between a UEFA club and team that's not from Conmebol. Will we see the very first regulation defeat of a UEFA club later today between Pachuca and Salzburg? Also, today is one of two historical final replays in the group stage. 2001: Bayern Munich - Boca Juniors 1:0 AET 2022: Real Madrid - Al Hilal 5:3
Well, you were wrong as usual then. I never said that this Club World Cup would have the best attendance for every game combination possible known to mankind. Just that it is better to host than most other countries for most matches. And so far it has been great.
Anybody could have predicted that Ulsan vs. Sundowns would not draw a crowd anywhere. That was not in an NFL stadium. The Seattle match was another 3 pm weekday start. They should have scheduled the group stage with simultaneous matches in order to have most games in the evenings.
That makes sense, especially given the crazy size of the WC now. Certainly true that with FIFA nothing is given, all is possible.
Brah, what anti-CWC agenda are you talking about? FIFA adopted price-gouging practices during CWC ticket sales. Fans responded accordingly by not buying overpriced tickets: sales were bad enough that FIFA gave away "5 tickets for USD 20" for its inaugural 2025 CWC match. 12 CWC matches were played until yesterday: 7 matches had attendance below 50% capacity. - Ulsan-vs-Mamelodi; 13.37% - River-vs-Urawa; 17.42% - Chelsea-vs-LAFC; 31.18% - Flamengo-vs-Esperance; 38.16% - Fluminense-vs-Borussia; 42.10% - Botafogo-vs-Seattle; 43.86% - Monterrey-vs-Milan; 44.94% - Palmeiras-vs-Porto; 56.09% - Bayern-vs-Auckland; 81.35% - Boca-vs-Benfica; 85.81% - PSG-vs-AtlMadrid; 89.87% - AlAhly-vs-Miami; 94.07% So go ahead and blame dissenting opinions/facts, while putting lipstick on this pig.
I know Orlando wasn’t a NFL stadium. That was more of a general comment. So far only three matches had crowds larger than 50K. And I fully agree with your second point. For a “new” tournament the hosting market should be accommodated the most. Glad to see Infantino in the Ulsan-Sundowns “crowd”. That should hopefully put an end to any 48-team expansion ideas.
in a news release Tuesday “close to 1.5 million tickets” have so far been sold. Across 63 games, that would be less than 40% of the roughly 4 million cumulative capacity.
It's disingenuous to look at % capacity of stadiums since soe of these stadiums are huge. Better to look at actual attendance.
Man City up 1:0 already after two minutes. As defending champions, they are still wearing the old 2023 CWC winner badge. I therefore think we finally have statistical clarity. The FIFA Intercontinental Cup counts as a new competition. Not a continuation of the old format CWC. That means Real Madrid has eight club world titles (not nine), and Tigres remains the only Concacaf CWC finalist. @Paul Calixte @jared9999
Wydad are looking good @pogoss And another good fan turnout as well. Should be eye-opening to some in the Americas to see just how big some clubs are in the Arab world.
As disingenuous as actual attendance, perhaps? By using actual attendance, a well-attended TQL match (21.1K, 85.8%) is ranked worse than a poorly-attended Mercedez-Benz match (22.1K at 31.1%). If seat occupancy percentages are disingenuous, then why FIFA moved River-Urawa fan seating to places where the TV broadcast could find them?
You can point some of these matches were poorly attended by citing actual attendance. 40k fans in a 80k stadium in a game not involving the big globalized European teams for example is good attendance. Yet as a % value, it's only 50%.
HT: Man City - Wydad 2:0 The second City goal a bit anti-climatic after some good Wydad moments, but there you go.
Pretty close to the attendance for Peru-Haiti in the 2016 Copa América Centenario at that same venue... all due respect to Seattle, but that venue tends to be a poor draw for international games not involving a home team (Sounders/USMNT). We'll see how River/Inter does... Shoulda been 3,416 but I couldn't get the time off
Conmebol fans: Bring back the Intercontinental! FIFA: **brings back the Intercontinental, with no seeding privileges for the Libertadores winner** Conmebol fans: No, not like that!
Which 40K fans attended a non-UEFA CWC match so far? All I see is AlAhly-vs-InterMiami (60.9K at 94.0%), where tickets were given away by FIFA.