Nearly 50,000 empty seats! American reporter talks about the attendance rate of the Club World Cup: The game is on weekdays and the ticket price is also expensive

In the first round of the Group D of the Club World Cup Group D, Chelsea vs. Los Angeles FC was played at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, with the kick-off time at 15:00 US time. According to statistics, there were only 22,137 fans watching the game in this game, with an attendance rate of just over 30%.

According to the BBC, FIFA expects that the number of spectators in this game will be about 26,000. The central stands in the stadium seem to be basically full, but there are more than half of the spaces on the lower stands. Before the game, the cheapest tickets were around 37 pounds. Although the tickets would rise significantly before the game, there were still 26 pounds tickets on sale online during the game, and there were a large number of spare tickets in almost every area.

As a replacement for the disqualified Leon team, Los Angeles FC's location is more than 2,000 miles from Atlanta, spanning the southern United States, with only 150 hardcore fans coming. The stadium is usually the home court of Atlanta United, and it attracts 44,037 fans to cheer on the spot in each game. Regarding the cold sales of the Club World Cup tickets, the BBC interviewed several American journalists.

Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Doug Robertson believes that it is not the people here who don't care about football: "People didn't come because the game was at 3pm on Monday. To be honest, I'm already surprised that so many people are coming to the game. In addition, this event is not important in the United States because it is a new event. I think it's not attractive to spend money on tickets for a game you don't know much about. There will be a World Cup here next year, and people are saving money. If I were FIFA, I would arrange more games during the World Cup, and there is another issue worth paying attention to, that is, the ticket prices are also ridiculously high."

Jonathan Tannwald, a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, believes that FIFA's marketing strategy is the biggest problem: "If you come here to hold a game, you have to do a lot of marketing promotion, and you can't expect people to come and watch the game consciously. FIFA does not have a real local organization committee in the United States, and everything is handled internally. If you hold the World Cup here next summer, you will of course watch the game. But for the Club World Cup, they need to do more marketing. Will there be spectators in the knockout stage? Maybe. But in the group stage, when the tickets are too high and the game is in Atlanta, will people go to watch Chelsea against Los Angeles FC? No. People are smart. So it's a FIFA problem."

BBC chief football reporter McNalty said: "The sight of nearly 50,000 empty seats has embarrassed FIFA. There have been long concerns that this top event, which was forced into an already crowded schedule, will not attract public attention after a difficult and long season. Chelsea's match against Los Angeles FC, a large number of red empty seats confirmed this concern. "

" The game was watched at 3pm local time on Monday, which may be a reason for the scarcity of spectators. At the same time, Chelsea and Los Angeles FC teams may also be difficult. The scene of attracting the interest of local fans and lack of supporters undoubtedly disturbed FIFA senior executives, including FIFA President Infantino, who has always been confident. This may also be a warning to FIFA, reminding them that ticket prices should be set more reasonably in the US, Canada and Mexico World Cup next summer so that more people can afford it. Although the New Club World Cup program is just beginning, it is indeed worrying that such a bad situation will occur at the beginning of the game. "

Before the game, it was reported that students from a FIFA partner university in Miami were told that if they buy a 14.7 pounds Club World Cup ticket, they can get 4 free tickets. Ticket prices fluctuate according to demand, but tickets are still on sale per game, many of which cost £25. Later that day, more than 55,000 people were watching the game between Boca and Benfica at the 65,000-person Miami Hard Rock Stadium. There are still thousands of tickets to buy for most games, such as Real Madrid vs Riyadh Crescent, also played in Miami, with only 200 tickets left in the official channel, but there are still thousands of tickets in the second-hand market.