Why World Cup Attendance Figures Don’t Match the Empty Seats Fans See

If you are an avid football fan, or indeed watched South Korea vs the Czech Republic on the opening day of the World Cup, you might be wondering why the recorded attendance and the number of empty seats in the stadium did not necessarily correlate. For the second game of the tournament, the attendance at Guadalajara Stadium was officially set at 44,985, just under 700 seats short of the stadium’s listed capacity (45,664), according to FIFA. With that in mind, you would expect to need a keen eye to spot empties, and certainly not be taken aback by the sight of so many vacant seats. Well, that proved to be the case as South Korea won 2-1 to go level on points with Mexico at the top of Group A. Thousands of seats, particularly starkly concentrated around the centre circle, were left empty, raising questions about whether the recorded attendance figure actually reflects how many people were present at the game. Here, The Athletic explains why the recorded figures often do not match actual attendance. Put simply, football clubs and tournament organisers tend to publish the number of tickets sold rather than actual attendance. This is particularly true for domestic league games, where season-ticket holders may decide not to attend certain matches, leaving their seats unoccupied, even though the records show they are paid and accounted for. Tournament football can also be particularly at risk, given the high proportion of tickets given to corporate sponsors. This affects other sporting events like tennis’s French Open, where corporate sections (which are often front-and-centre on television) are empty or sparsely populated until the latter rounds of the grand slam. While there was a spread of empty seats in Guadalajara, the heavy concentration around the halfway line may be, in part, related to corporate ticket-holders not travelling to the Mexican city for the game. The capacity is also affected by administrative changes at the stadium, including additional space for advertising hoardings and international media coverage. In short, while local law enforcement, the Sports Ground Safety Authority in the United Kingdom, and leagues, including the Premier League, ask clubs for gate statements for policing, crowd management and other reasons, clubs and tournament organisers are at liberty to publish whatever attendance metrics they choose. Some football clubs are happy to announce the actual attendance, while others prefer to publicise the number of tickets sold. According to one source familiar with the inner workings of an EFL club, who prefers to remain anonymous to protect relationships, data companies may also ask clubs for actual attendance figures, which may help secure sponsorship deals and, to some degree, explain the widespread perception of attendance manipulation. So, if a fan or scalper thousands of miles away from Guadalajara bought a game ticket at face value and was not there for whatever reason, FIFA may choose to reflect that as an attendee. A FIFA spokesperson told The Athletic: “Official attendance figures reflect the number of tickets scanned and spectators present within the stadium footprint, rather than visual assessments of seating occupancy at any given moment during the match. FIFA works closely with stadium authorities and ticketing teams to ensure all published figures are based on verified operational data. “Please note that, during last night’s match in Guadalajara, several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match.” In January, FIFA said it received more than 500 million requests to buy tickets for the tournament during its month-long application window, which opened after December’s World Cup draw and allowed fans to choose specific matches. Not long after, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said “every match is already sold out” — a claim quickly walked back by the sport’s governing body. FIFA has held some tickets back for the most in-demand games which has the effect of creating an illusion of scarcity. For some matches, such scarcity will certainly exist. Mexico’s 2-0 win over South Africa, for example, was played in front of a sell-out crowd in Mexico City — and judging by the atmosphere around the city and stadium, they may have been able to entice twice as many people to attend. For other fixtures, like South Korea’s win over the Czech Republic in Guadalajara, the anticipation may not be so high. According to reporting by The Athletic, as of last Sunday night, there were listings of around 10,000 tickets to the United States’ opening game against Paraguay on various resale sites — 5,311 on FIFA’s resale platform, around 3,000 on SeatGeek, roughly 2,000 on Ticketmaster, several hundred on StubHub and more elsewhere.