ATLANTA — At a FIFA Club World Cup match on June 19, Lionel Messi — arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport — scored a go-ahead free kick to give Inter Miami a 2-1 victory over FC Porto.
While Messi delivering a winning goal is not surprising, what is unexpected is that the match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium drew only 31,783 fans, less than half of the venue’s 71,000-seat capacity.
Indeed, attendance started off slowly for the American debut of the Club World Cup in Atlanta, an issue not lost on Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca.
“I think the environment was a bit strange,” Maresca said after his Premier League team’s 2-0 victory over Los Angeles FC on June 16. “You know, the stadium was almost empty. Not full.”
Through four matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium — two remain before the tournament’s semifinals and final are played in East Rutherford, N.J. — Atlanta has seen an average turnout of 39,971 per game. The low mark came in the Chelsea victory, which drew only 22,137 spectators.
“It was very surprising to see how many empty seats there were for that game,” Chelsea supporter and Atlanta native Chris Barbieri said. “The fans that were there were into the game and made the most of the 3 p.m. Monday start, but it wasn’t the environment I was expecting, at all.”
Atlanta, one of 11 American cities chosen last September to host the event, is hoping to present itself as a site worthy of next summer’s World Cup, part of which will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Attendance has improved in the latter days of the event, with Sunday’s match in Atlanta between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami — a 4-0 win by PSG — drawing 65,574 fans.
The previous version of the Club World Cup, held in Saudi Arabia in 2023, was met with positive reviews, with 50,248 fans setting the tournament’s opening-game attendance record for a Al Ittihad FC-Auckland City FC match.
So, as critics question whether Atlanta and other sites will draw for the World Cup next year, FIFA maintains that everything is on track.
“The appetite of the tournament speaks for itself,” the organization said in a statement. “Fans from 168 countries have already purchased tickets … a clear sign of global anticipation and reach.”
A possible explanation for the low attendance floated in a June 12 New York Times story is the increased presence of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the matches.
In a since-deleted Facebook post by the CBP, the group stated officers would be “suited and booted ready to provide security for the first round of games.”
FIFA president Gianni Infantino dismissed the notion that the agents played a role in suppressing attendance numbers.
“No, I don’t have any concerns about anything in the sense that we are very attentive on any security question,” Infantino said. “Of course the most important thing for us is to guarantee security for all the fans who come to the games — this is our priority.”
–Jack Batten, Field Level Media
