World Cup attendance record broken - despite exorbitant ticket prices

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Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

A new single-day World Cup attendance record was set on Tuesday, surpassing the previous highest total from the 1994 edition in the US.

The four games on Tuesday provided some of the best viewing at this year's tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico so far. France kicked off the matchday with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Senegal in which Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappe notched a brilliant brace.

Man City goal machine Erling Haaland then made his highly anticipated World Cup debut and duly delivered two goals as Norway defeated an Iraq team that gave a very good account of themselves, at least in the first half of that game.

This was followed up by Inter Miami megastar Lionel Messi showing that he is far from washed at almost 39. The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner single-handedly dismantled Algeria, scoring a hat-trick.

The final fixture was, on paper, the weakest of the four as Austria took on debutants Jordan. However, this also quickly turned into a thrilling encounter, with both sides having a goal each disallowed early on. Austria would ultimately prevail by a score of 3 to 1 after a late flurry.

Attendance record broken

All four matches were staged in the US and attended by a combined 281,223 spectators, eclipsing the previous single-day record of 277,070, which had been set during a four-game matchday at the 1994 World Cup.

France versus Senegal was watched by 80,545 at New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, a slightly lower figure than the Brazil-Morocco clash had drawn three days earlier.

Messi's masterclass against Algeria at Kansas City Stadium was seen live by 69,045, while even Austria versus Jordan attracted a whopping 68,527 to the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. The 64,000-capacity Boston Stadium recorded an attendance of 63,106 for the Iraq-Norway match.

It is worth noting that FIFA's official numbers often don't match the eye test. There have been several games at the tournament where large sections of empty seats were visible, yet FIFA claims that there has so far only been a minimal attendance shortfall.

When asked by The Athletic about the discrepancy, FIFA said: “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."

There have been instances of people vacating their seats to seek shelter from the scorching summer heat in the concourses, but this alone isn't enough to explain why certain stadiums have only been filled by three-quarters.

Even if official numbers must be taken with a pinch of salt, it is fair to say that World Cup attendances have so far vindicated FIFA's controversial ticketing practices, which saw the governing body come in for fierce criticism due to the exorbitant cost of attending games.

FIFA used a dynamic pricing model, which saw tickets cost hundreds and thousands of dollars - and that's before considering travel and accommodation expenses, and the VISA headaches many travelling supporters have faced.

Consequently, there was an expectation that FIFA would either have to backpedal and offer entry to fixtures at vastly reduced rates or that there would be half-empty stadiums. So far, though, FIFA's greed has gone unpunished.

The PR hits FIFA has had to endure in recent months will be swiftly forgotten once the dust has settled and Gianni Infantino can smugly say that this has been the most commercially successful World Cup of all time.