FIFA has been forced to slash ticket prices for the Club World Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Fluminense as it continues to battle disappointing attendances at the tournament.
The price of a standard admission ticket for the game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Tuesday fell from $473.90 to $13.40 over the weekend, as per The Athletic and The Guardian.
To put the figure into context, it means fans who purchased tickets on Saturday paid less than 3 percent of the price tickets were on sale for three days earlier.
The original price was also marginally more expensive than a season ticket at West Ham, which at $470 is the cheapest in the Premier League and guarantees access to all of the Hammers’ 19 home games in the league.
As of Tuesday morning, the cheapest tickets available on Ticketmaster, the portal FIFA uses to sell tickets for the Club World Cup, started at $62.35 for a verified resale ticket in MetLife Stadium’s third tier.
Ticket prices for the second semi-final between Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain at the same venue on Wednesday start at $199.60.
The Spanish giants have been something of an exception at the tournament, drawing crowds in excess of over 60,000 in each of their three group games and in their Round of 16 tie against Juventus.
Over 76,000 fans attended Real Madrid’s 3-2 win over Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals at MetLife Stadium, which will also host the final on Sunday.
Dynamic pricing has backfired on Club World Cup
FIFA, which has used dynamic pricing throughout the tournament, also dropped ticket prices to $11.15 for two quarter-final ties involving Chelsea and Palmeiras in Philadelphia and Fluminese and Al Hilal at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
Tickets for the quarter-final between newly-crowned European champions Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich were reduced to $44 on Saturday.
The drop in prices was credited with boosting crowds over the weekend, with Lincoln Financial Field at 95 percent capacity for the fixture between Chelsea and Palmeiras.
Hard Rock Stadium was approximately 70 percent full as Fluminense beat Al Hilal, while Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta was at almost 90 percent capacity with just under 67,000 fans attending PSG’s 2-0 win over Bayern.
Sparse attendances have blighted FIFA’s latest jamboree from the start, amid a distinct lack of interest from fans.
Tens of thousands of tickets were still unsold for the tournament opener between Inter Miami and Egyptian team Al-Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium last month.
FIFA denied reports only 20,000 tickets had been sold at the 65,326 venue, but students at Miami Dade College are been offered the chance to buy a ticket for $20 and receive four complimentary tickets.
On Ticketmaster the cheapest ticket prices dropped to $70 ahead of the tournament opener.
For context, the cheapest tickets were priced at $349 after the draw was made in December and at $230 a month later.
The fact both semi-finals are scheduled at 3pm ET on a weekday has also been seen as detrimental to the crowds, as it limits the number of spectators who may be able to attend.
The kick-off time, however, is far from casual as it coincides with 9pm CET, the primetime slot for football across Europe.
Aside from hampering attendances, the kick-off times have also been a source of concerns for fans and players due to the oppressive heat that has swept across the US.
Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac called for FIFA to prioritize players’ welfare over TV revenues by pushing kick-off times back when the World Cup returns to the US in 12 months.
“The tournament needs some adaptations in some areas,” he said.
“One important point, in my opinion, is the start time of the match. The players should not have to work in the midday sun when it is [so hot] you should not even leave your house.
“In these conditions, these players had to bring their top performance. We will see next year [how they do it] in the World Cup. We really have to consider the players.
“We played two times in Cincinnati — the first time at 12 p.m. and the second time at 3 p.m. We had temperatures on the pitch that were around 45 C (113 F). So you can imagine, when you are running, it’s not amazing.
“Today it was 35 C (95 F) — not much better. I would suggest later kick off times. As a supporter, you want to see exciting, up-and-down football. When it is too hot, it is hard to play this football.”
European clubs the biggest draw in Club World Cup
According to FIFA, the Club World Cup has drawn an average crowd of 35,000 so far, which is approximately 12,000 higher than the average attendance for the 2024 MLS season.
By comparison, the Premier League averaged a shade north of 40,000 last term and the most recent World Cup drew an average audience of 53,000 fans per game in Qatar three years ago.
Just 11 of the 56 games played across the group stage and the Round of 16 were in front of stadiums at least 90 percent full, with eight fixtures taking place in venues that were less than 30 percent full.
That is partly down to the size of the stadiums chosen for the Club World Cup, with eight of the 12 host venues having a capacity of 60,000 or higher.
Significantly, European teams remain by far the biggest draw for fans. In terms of average capacity in matches up to the quarter-finals, Real Madrid played in stadiums that were 95 percent full.
Five of the next teams on this particular list are European, with the exception of Inter Miami, who rank second with an 81 percent figure, the same as Juventus.
But despite the prospect of an all-European meeting on Sunday, at the time of writing, thousands of standard admission tickets are still available for the final, starting at $264.25.
FIFA had previously confirmed the same dynamic pricing structure will also be in place at next year’s World Cup, which kicks off on June 11 and runs until July 19 across the US, Mexico and Canada.