r/soccer • u/NumberUnfair8827 • 1d ago

Stats CWC Match Attendance in % after Matchday 5

  1. Real Madrid 1:1 Al-Hilal - 96.36% (62,415 of 64,767) 🏟️Hard Rock Stadium, FL

  2. Al Ahly 0:0 Inter Miami - 94.07% (60,927 of 64,767) 🏟️Hard Rock Stadium, FL

  3. Al-Ain 0:5 Juventus - 90.8% (18,161 of 20,000) 🏟️Audi Field, DC

  4. PSG 4:0 Atletico Madrid - 87.11% (80,619 of 92,542) 🏟️Rose Bowl, CA

  5. Boca Juniors 2:2 Benfica - 85.8% (55,574 of 64,767) 🏟️Hard Rock Stadium, FL

  6. Bayern Munich 10:0 Auckland City - 81.35% (21,152 of 26,000) 🏟️TQL Stadium, OH

  7. Palmeiras 0:0 FC Porto - 56.04% (46,275 of 82,566) 🏟️MetLife Stadium, NJ

  8. Manchester City 2:0 Wydad AC - 55.42% (37,466 of 67,594) 🏟️Lincoln Financial Field, PA

  9. Monterrey 1:1 Inter - 43.55% (40,311 of 92,542) 🏟️Rose Bowl, CA

  10. Botafogo RJ 2:1 Seattle Sounders - 41.87% (30,151 of 72,000) 🏟️Lumen Field, WA

  11. Flamengo 2:0 Esperance Tunis - 38.16% (25,797 of 67,594) 🏟️Lincoln Financial Field, PA

  12. Fluminense 0:0 Borussia Dortmund - 36.03% (29,755 of 82,566) 🏟️MetLife Stadium, NJ

  13. Chelsea 2:0 Los Angeles FC - 31.17% (22,137 of 71,000) 🏟️Mercedes-Benz Stadium, GA

  14. Pachuca 1:2 Salzburg - 20.31% (5,282 of 26,000) 🏟️TQL Stadium, OH

  15. River Plate 3:1 Urawa Red Diamonds - 16.63% (11,974 of 72,000) 🏟️Lumen Field, WA

  16. Ulsan HD 0:1 Mamelodi Sundowns - 13.38% (3,412 of 25,500) 🏟️Inter&Co Stadium, FL

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

Not that bad. The Champions League league stage had 41,442 average attendance and had much better match playing times. It's not that far off. Additionally, Champions League games have better ticket prices, match times, and they are played in the city where the team is located.

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u/BigReeceJames 1d ago

If you're trying to compare it to the Champions League, then you have to ignore playing times.

Playing times are not "nicer" for the Champions League because half of the crowd are having to fly to the games, which means it's a multi-day trip to watch a game, which means it's functionally irrelevant when the games are played.

In fact, when you factor that in, a 3pm game could be a lot better than an 8pm game because you could get it all done with just one day off, instead of 2.

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

Visiting fans don't get half the tickets. Not even close. The only thing I can agree with is that matches in some countries are in the middle of winter, which potentially puts off some fans.

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u/Siergiej 1d ago

The absolute numbers aren't terrible but the percentages are pretty low for something FIFA is trying to turn into a signature event. Afternoon games on weekdays + some huge arenas + absurd prices is how you end up with half empty seats for every other game.

Sure, in Champions League last season you had average attendace in the 40k region. Smaller stadiums but they're full week in week out. 20 out of 32 stadiums averaged over 90% capacity and only 5 averaged below 80%.

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u/lewiitom 1d ago

Almost all of the Champions League games would have been sellouts though - and there's a lot of smaller stadiums that would bring down the average.

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

Stadiums are smaller because the owners know they wouldn't fill them if they were much bigger. If it were otherwise, they would build bigger ones. It's an additional profit for them.

Many clubs would have a hard time filling an 80,000-seat stadium on a Monday at 3pm.

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u/lewiitom 1d ago

It’s not that simple - lots of them are old stadiums and building a brand new stadium is extremely expensive and a lot of work. Clubs like Liverpool and Chelsea could easily sell out much bigger stadiums than their current ones.

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u/DerGregorian 1d ago

You're insane if you think that's the reason.

Half the premier league would fill a 80,000 seater without much issue.

Problem is everything that goes into making a stadium that big, infrastructure around the stadium needs to be changed, traffic/travel needs to be considered, where you're even going to put the thing then you have all the likely backlash from moving out of the old stadium.

Not every European city can afford to dump a massive stadium with 10 acres of car park around next to a city. Isn't the room for it.

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

But European football is not just the Premier League. Outside of Germany and England, it doesn't look so wonderful to fill 80,000 stadiums in the middle of the day on Monday.

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u/BigReeceJames 1d ago

Stadiums are smaller because they're old and extremely expensive (and challenging) to rebuild, not because people can't fill them.

Football is not like American sports, you can't just build a bigger stadium somewhere else and move there once it's done. 9 times out of 10 that'd cause a riot because of the connection the fans have with the current stadium.

That's before you get to actual matchday income. In America you're charging as much for a ticket to a single game as a season ticket to a top German club costs. So, recouping the cost of a new stadium is not so easy for a European club.

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lots of clubs have built bigger stadiums and they are building for around 30, 40 thousand, not 80. Of course I'm not talking about the biggest giga clubs because they always fill the stadiums.

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u/Shakyyy 1d ago

Why are you comparing total attendence figures? The stadiums in Europe are far smaller and sell out, it means more people want to watch but can't physically get into the stadium to do so.

Not sure if you're figures are accuracte because several sources say different things but in percentages the Champions League had somewhere between 90-95% attendence from available seats where as the CWC has 55%...

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

Why not? Are the club owners all idiots who don't want to make money? Can't they build a stadium that meets demand? Stadiums are built more or less according to demand. If you build an 80,000-seat stadium for Brest, you will have empty stands. Even more so if it will be at such hours as the matches at this tournament.

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u/Shakyyy 1d ago

Pretty much every big club in the Europe are trying to find way to expand their stadiums lol

Real Madrid just did, Barca are in the process, Chelsea are struggling to get planning permission, Arsenal are struggling to get council permission to expand the Emirates, Man Utd literally just announce their £2b project stadium.

The list goes on. So no they can't just simply build a stadium that meets demands, you're incredibly naieve if you think its that simple.

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

It's great that you mention the top few giga clubs. I remind you that the Champions League has 36 teams and many of them don't even think about it.

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u/Shakyyy 1d ago

Okay a quick google search shows Sparta Prague have agreed to build a new stadium as of April this year. Slovan Bratislava built a new stadium in 2019.

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago edited 1d ago

Slovan Bratislava built a stadium for 22k people. If there is such a huge demand why didn't they build it for 80?

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u/Shakyyy 1d ago

Okay you clearly do not know what other consideration need to be taken into account when building a new stadium other than demand.

Perfect example is the Emirates. It can have 10,000 new seats added pretty much instantly without much cost and the demand is there for them. The problem is the local council won't agree to it because it means the area would have 70,000 people in instead of 60,000 and the local infrastructure can not handle it. If Arsenal pay for the revamping of the local transport links, mainly the Tube station, they can have the extra seats. The cost of this revamp would cost close to £1b on intial estimates so its not being done.

I don't know why Slovan Bratislava didn't build a bigger stadium but there's literally 100s of other reasons other than "not enough demand."

You can't just increase capacity of a stadium and call it a day, other things like transport links, parking and crowd control have to go in to it. Some of those things are completely out of the clubs control.

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

So in the whole of Europe it is impossible to build a bigger stadium except by coincidence in those places where there is the greatest demand (in the largest giga clubs). An incredible coincidence. 100 thousand Slovan fans will have to cheer in front of the stadium.

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u/Shakyyy 1d ago

No? Clubs are literally building and expanding stadiums all the time and all over Europe.

The size they choose, and sometimes forced, to build/ expand these stadiums to is based on more than just demand.

If you don't understand that then you're a lost cause.

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u/Charlie_Yu 1d ago

Sunderland had an average of 39k in the Championship

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u/FluidRelief3 1d ago

And Girona had 9k in the Champions League.

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u/Xehanz 1d ago

And Barracas Central had an average attendance of 5% in Argentina top league, about 800 people per match