The magical atmosphere of the Club World Cup: From a large number of empty seats to "dead enemy" and maybe just one day

This article is compiled from "AP", author James Robson

As the kickoff time approaches, the situation is already obvious - the fans are not all here. This happened at the FIFA Club World Cup, a new and glamorous event in the football world, and was promoted as an event that injects new vitality into the world's most popular sport.

This situation began in the United States a week ago. There, the stadiums are large in scale and high in ticket prices, which welcomes the noisy crowds common in stadiums around the world.

However, in Orlando City Stadium in Orlando, Florida, rows of empty seats tell another story.

A fan commented on social media: "It's like playing football during the lockdown."

For days, FIFA has not announced the number of spectators in the match between Mamelodi Sunset and Ulsan Hyundai on its official website. It wasn't until Friday that the site confirmed the audience of 3412, but roughly estimates were less than 1,000 in the stands at the start of the game.

On the other end, more than 80,000 people watched the Champions League champion Paris Saint-Germain against Atletico Madrid at the huge Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. In the first week of the one-month National Tour, the number of spectators fluctuated significantly.

Mamerodi Sunset's match against Ulsan Hyundai is a trough that FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, has been hoping that the Club World Cup will become one of the most popular and valuable events in the sports world.

The audience was so scarce that the words "Orlando" spelled out with yellow seats in a main stand in Orlando City Stadium were almost completely visible. Staff responsible for maintaining order stood on the sidelines, monitoring the large open spaces in the venue, which can accommodate 25,500 people.

Although ticket prices have dropped to $23, the home of the Major League Soccer (MLS) Orlando City — the smaller one of the stadiums that were chosen to host the event — is still oversized for the game.

This group match between two unknown teams in South Africa and South Korea is unlikely to attract a large number of spectators. The storm delayed the game for more than an hour, which may have caused some viewers to simply fail to come.

However, the number of spectators present was still unsettlingly small, which was a game with less than 10,000 in the opening three games.

Chelsea's match against Los Angeles FC was held in Atlanta, and there were also a large number of empty seats in the stands. Although the game was kicked off on a weekday afternoon, one of the Premier League’s most popular teams failed to attract more than a third of the audience, with only 22,000 spectators, and the stadium had a capacity of 71,000.

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca said: "I think the environment there is a bit strange. You know, the stadium is almost empty." Even in the second game in Atlanta, Lionel Messi came to the scene - International Miami will play Porto in the city - but the audience was still far from full, with only 31,783 people.

During the preparations for this event, there has been uncertainty in ticket sales, which was once the focus of debate. Ticket prices fell sharply ahead of last Saturday’s opening match between Miami and Cairo Nationals. Nearly 61,000 spectators watched the game at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, but it’s unclear how many of them paid the $349 price tagged in December.

As of Tuesday, FIFA said 1.5 million tickets had been sold and more than 340,000 fans watched the first eight games.

Infantino proudly declares that the Club World Cup is growing into "an undisputed peak football event for the world club".

Miami's attendance rate has always been good - at the lowest level of 55,000, and at the highest level of nearly full, reaching 63,587, against both sides at the time were Bayern Munich and Boca Youth Team. Bayern striker Harry Kane described the atmosphere in the stadium dominated by Boca fans as "hostile".

And the crowds will follow in a week, and the Florida Panthers (NHL team) will compete in the Stanley Cup finals here. Fans of Boca Youth and Real Madrid also arrived early, queuing up for hours in the heat to watch the game.

The most crowded game in the opening week was Paris Saint-Germain vs. Atletico Madrid in Los Angeles, with 80,619 spectators present.

As background information, this number is slightly lower than the 84,163 people watching the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, but far higher than the 64,327 people in the Champions League final – the Champions League final is the largest game in European club football events.

Although there were no sold-out matches in the opening week, 10 of the first 24 games exceeded 40,000 spectators, an average of about 36,000.

According to the football data website "Transfermarkt", the average attendance rate of the Champions League last season was slightly lower than 46,000 people, but since this time it is a brand new competition system, bringing club teams from all over the world to the United States, it is difficult to make a direct comparison.

Average audiences per game were slightly less than 50,000 in the first week of the 2022 World Cup men’s event. The 20 games played during that period were the largest audience of 88,103, with the rest of the games exceeding 40,000 for all but two.. There are more than one reason why the Club World Cup has received so much attention.

There is still uncertainty about how enthusiastic fans are about another elite football match, and it is not clear how many people are willing to follow the team to the United States. According to FIFA, the largest ticket bookings from abroad are Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

Perhaps more importantly, what is the reference significance of the holding of this event for the Men's Football World Cup to be held in the United States next year. The Club World Cup can be seen as a measure of the growth in the United States' interest in football since the last time the United States held the world's biggest sporting event in 1994.

In this sense, this is not only about statistics, but also about image. This is why FIFA wants to avoid the scene like Mamelodi Sunset vs Ulsan Hyundai again.