FIFA can blame its own arrogance for near-empty Club World Cup stadiums

USA Today

4 hours ago

FIFA can blame its own arrogance for near-empty Club World Cup stadiums
We're not even a week into the Club World Cup, and the prevailing theme has to be embarrassing for FIFA.
Concerns about poor ticket sales have been realized across the country as fans haven't been turning up in huge numbers to watch the inaugural edition of the expanded club tournament. The images of near-empty stadiums have been so sad that many fans are already declaring the tournament a failure.
But really, FIFA only has its own arrogance to blame with puzzling scheduling decisions. Some common sense could have changed the tournament's entire perception in the early going.
As we covered in the lead-up to the tournament, ticket sales were poor due, in part, to the high prices and lack of overall prestige. But the game times and venues have also been a major factor in this initial embarrassment.
For Monday's game between the Premier League's Chelsea and MLS' LAFC, kickoff was set for 3 p.m. local time at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium — a time when people are largely at work. So, the idea of filling a 71,000-seat stadium at 3 p.m. on a Monday was silly — especially for a match that didn't include a local team. Mind you: Atlanta United leads MLS in average attendance. It wasn't an "Atlanta doesn't like soccer" issue.
That led to a scene like this at kickoff.
That looks bad, sure. But the announced crowd was still 22,000, which actually isn't awful for a 3 p.m. Monday match. If you put that crowd in any soccer-specific MLS stadium, FIFA would have been looking at a sellout and a totally different conversation about the tournament.
The same went for Tuesday's match between Bundesliga giant Borussia Dortmund and Brazilian side Fluminense. FIFA decided to hold that match at noon on a Tuesday at 82,500-seat Metlife Stadium. So, you had a crowd that looked like this:
If FIFA had instead opted to hold the match at Sports Illustrated Stadium (formerly Red Bull Arena in New Jersey), that's a packed stadium. It's that simple.
And sure, some matches have been able to draw impressive crowds at NFL or college football stadiums. The PSG-Atletico Madrid match drew 80,000 at the Rose Bowl. Miami's Hard Rock Stadium has also seen some solid crowds. But those were either weekend matches or taking place at night.
FIFA really should have considered the time and venue. It's a new tournament. People have work, and international fans aren't clamoring to travel to America in this political climate. That's not the recipe for a successful tournament.
FIFA only has itself to blame.