PMLF Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Fifa under pressure over empty seats at opening matchesThe last time the World Cup came to Brazil in 1950, some 200,000 people are estimated to have piled in to the Estadio Maracana, to see the hosts shocked by rivals Uruguay. Sixty-four years on, this World Cup is becoming known for its empty seats rather than teeming crowds. Fifa and the local tournament organisers were last night under growing pressure to explain why almost all the early matches – bar the opener between Brazil and Croatia – have been played in partially unfilled stadiums, even when the games were meant to have been sold out. A World Cup in football-mad Brazil was meant to be the Copa das Copas – the Cup of Cups. But Brazil’s appetite for this eye-wateringly expensive tournament appears lukewarm. On Sunday afternoon, Switzerland played Ecuador in Brasilia, in the 72,500 capacity Arena Brasilia which appeared, at best, two-thirds full. While reports indicated that many fans were still outside waiting in security lines as the match kicked off, the ground didn’t appear to be substantially more full by the second half. Fifa gave the official attendance as 68,351. Television viewers also spotted hundreds if not thousands of empty seats at two of the most glamorous ties of the opening weekend – Spain vs the Netherlands on Friday and England against Italy on Saturday. On Sunday night, World Cup football returned to the Maracana, arguably the most illustrious football stadium in the world, for Argentina against Bosnia Herzegovina. But with hours to go before kick-off tickets priced around £80 were still available to purchase online. With Brazil having spent nearly £7bn of public money on the tournament, a large percentage of tickets are made available for the exclusive purchase of the home nation, which means the ticket sales website is divided in to two streams. On the page for non- Brazilians, only a few matches still have large availability, such as Russia vs South Korea in Cuiaba on Tuesday. But the Brazilian section told a different story. Much has been made of Brazil’s extravagant spending on the tournament while so many of its people live in conditions of appalling poverty. As such, it may not be surprising that £110 tickets for Bosnia Herzegovina vs Iran in Salvador next week remain largely unsold. In response to the growing empty-seat clamour, a Fifa spokesman claimed that a total of 2.9 million tournament tickets had been allocated, with only 9,327 remaining. However, an “allocated” seat is not necessarily a sold seat. Large numbers of tickets distributed to national Football Associations often go unsold and return to the general pot. England quickly sold all 2,500 of its official allocation for the game in Manaus on Saturday night. Italy were reported to have sold only 200 of their’s, and returned the rest. Manaus itself, a difficult- to-reach city with not much in the way of footballing culture, will also host matches between the USA and Portugal, Cameroon and Croatia, and Honduras vs Switzerland. What use the city will have for its £175m stadium, after it has finished hosting its four World Cup matches is also uncertain. Source: Independent http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/world-cup-2014-fifa-under-pressure-over-empty-seats-at-opening-matches-30357191.html Has there been any recent World Cup with so many empty seats? Even Italy vs England and Spain vs Netherlands had numerous empty seats. And there are still more nearly 300k tickets available and more should be made available as people don't collect their tickets or companies return some of the tickets they got. I bet that would't happen in a World Cup in England, Germany or the USA, etc... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew! Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I bet that would't happen in a World Cup in England, Germany or the USA, etc... The difference being there wouldn't be so much disaffection, not to mention the obvious differences in income. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divinity Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I haven't noticed it as much at this World Cup as I did in South Africa where there were ridiculous amounts of empty seats. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMLF Posted June 17, 2014 Author Share Posted June 17, 2014 The difference being there wouldn't be so much disaffection, not to mention the obvious differences in income. There are more than enough people in Brazil to fill all stadiums though, even more so considering many foreigners coming too. While the prices are indeed absurd, I think the main problems were: - Some unattractive games. - Some unattractive venues with too big stadiums. It's dumb to play a game like England vs Italy in Manaus, it would have packed easily in Rio or São Paulo. Ideally should have the biggest games in big venues and less interesting games in smaller venues which should have much smaller stadiums than the ones that were actually built. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
georginho_juventusygr Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Lowering the prices may help? GBP 110 for small-team games is ridiculous. Who is in charge of the pricing? Inviting children to the stadium? #JuveWay Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmr Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Haven't noticed it apart from the opening ceremony. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringwoodrob Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 We had problems with London Olyimpics,as said lower the price or let peeps in free! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anti Spiral Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 We had problems with London Olyimpics,as said lower the price or let peeps in free! The problem with the Olympics was not because people weren't buying them (Supply was much lower than demand) it was that the empty seats were corporate only and were not for sale to the general public. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimness Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 They wanted theater atmosphere at stadiums, now they have it. Every tournament fans are allocated small number of tickets in presale with lottery and similar BS yet touts are busy. Hopefully FIFA and continental organizations choke in their own corruption, starting with Blatter and Platini. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harryseaess Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 I think its disgraceful that the stadiums aren't full. It's the blood World Cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalkSport Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 LIES! Trademark FIFA, just saying BS as per. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangaea Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Sounds like there is a great atmosphere though, whether the stadiums are filled or not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divinity Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Yea, the match atmospheres have largely been incredible. So much noise coming through. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razzler Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 FIFA calculate their attendances the same way Arsenal do Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
georginho_juventusygr Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Nah, Matthew Le God's way. Sold out! Sold out! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Divinity Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Any mention about the stands moving at the Maracana? Video would make me ****ing worried if I was going to that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMLF Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Any mention about the stands moving at the Maracana? Video would make me ****ing worried if I was going to that. There is a video but it's not the stands that were moving: [video=youtube_share;5Ri_ZBmAF4U]http://youtu.be/5Ri_ZBmAF4U Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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