KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The crowd of 55,460 at Arrowhead Stadium Monday for the U.S. men’s national team’s 1-0 loss to Uruguay perfectly captured the contrast in attendance for the 2024 Copa América.
On the one hand, the boisterous, engaged and bipartisan crowd was ready to witness a high-stakes game. The attendance is roughly the same as that of Euro 2024 – the European continental tournament taking place in Germany from June 14 to July 14 – which saw around 50,000 fans per game attend the group stage. However, Monday’s attendance was also well below Arrowhead’s capacity of more than 76,000, with roughly half the upper tier empty for the tournament hosts in what was effectively a must-win game against a legendary – and, by FIFA rankings, favourite – South American team. This is not an anomaly.
Whether the glass is half full or half empty depends on how you analyse the many factors that come into play, from complicated ticketing procedures to the weather, which at times during the Copa América has been dangerously hot and oppressive. However, the price of tickets – not just in Kansas City, but in all 14 stadiums of the tournament – cannot be ignored as a deterrent for fans.
Moments before kickoff Monday, the seats furthest from the pitch, in the last row of the upper tier — with a kind of “view from the moon” that viewers were able to experience on the global network — were still on sale for $115 plus fees on Ticketmaster. These were not inflated resale market tickets, but the going price for tickets in the organizers’ primary market. Conmebol, which used dynamic ticket pricing, figured people would pay that price for a group-stage match in a continental tournament to which the Americans, even as the host country, were technically invited.
The match was just one of many in a tournament that has enjoyed a diverse crowd. Conmebol says nine of the tournament’s first 20 games have been sold out (although the confederation has only reported 100% capacity for one, with the others between 93% and 99% capacity). In contrast, several stadiums were roughly half full, including some in Las Vegas (Ecuador vs. Jamaica) and Santa Clara, California (Ecuador vs. Venezuela).
Meanwhile, the lowest attendance of the tournament so far was 11,622 for the Peru-Canada game at Children’s Mercy Park, which has a capacity of about 18,000. But it was also about 38 degrees that day.
The U.S. national team opened the tournament at AT&T Stadium near Dallas, drawing 47,873 fans to an 80,000-seat arena. Again, the attendance is a large and respectable number, but Conmebol clearly miscalculated the willingness of American consumers to pay to attend a group-stage match against Bolivia.
Weston McKennie, who previously played for FC Dallas, said after the match against Bolivia at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, that it was “sometimes frustrating to come back and play in big stadiums and not sell them out,” but he said he was “proud” of the Dallas area for producing an energetic crowd.
Four days later, in soccer-mad Atlanta, a crowd of 59,145 packed into Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a 71,000-seat arena. The crowd was loud and excited for a wild game (and a costly loss for the 10-man U.S. national team), but the stadium was also mostly empty.
Conmebol had its reasons for asking for ambitious prize money. Eight years ago, the United States hosted the financially successful Copa América Centenario. US Soccer earned about $75 million from the tournament, which increased its cash on hand year-over-year from $65.4 million at the end of fiscal 2016 — which ended March 31, 2016 — to $104.6 million at the end of fiscal 2017, according to USSF financial information.
All that money flowing into the U.S. Soccer Federation’s coffers has drawn the ire of Conmebol, sources recently told ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle, and the South American confederation saw the Copa América — held in the United States under different circumstances following the pandemic, and with the confederation in charge — as a way to cash in on the American soccer fan market that global entities covet.
Greed also manifests itself in more discreet ways, such as charging media $25 for a hot dog “meal” (to use the term generously). Sure, feeding journalists is not a priority for fans, but it shows that Conmebol either doesn’t fully understand this remote hospitality market or, more brazenly, simply doesn’t care and is trying to make the most of the event.
Fans felt the strain on their wallets in other ways too, including food and beverages and parking that cost $75 or more, but those things are commonplace in venues at any event now and aren’t unique to the Copa América. Tickets, on the other hand, are a direct reflection of interest and the balance of supply and demand for a given event.
From ticket prices to marketing, Conmebol has not found the right balance to allow this tournament to stand out from the noise of a crowded sporting and entertainment calendar.
Conmebol is the organizer of the Copa América and will not host the 2026 World Cup (that’s FIFA’s job, in conjunction with the host countries, the United States, Canada and Mexico), but this tournament is something of a test case for this grand stage in everything from the installation of the pitch – and there have been many complaints about this – to the marketing, logistics and tickets.
The generally uneven consumer response to this year’s Copa America, outside of a few well-supported teams like Argentina (the Lionel Messi effect), Brazil and Mexico (a sort of second national team), should serve as a lesson to the organizers of the 2026 World Cup, who have promised record attendance and revenue. The U.S. Soccer Federation has just launched a legacy program for the 2026 World Cup that focuses on grassroots development. Part of making this a genuine effort will be making the games accessible and affordable to the average person.
For years, American fans have been seen by outsiders as unicorns willing to pay for any product, at any price. That’s why summer tours by major American teams began to gain momentum more than 20 years ago, and it explains more modern ideas like La Liga’s controversial desire to host a regular-season game in the United States.
This year’s Copa America, however, showed that there is a ceiling to what fans are willing to pay. That ceiling is high, to be sure, but it is clearly demonstrated by the relatively expensive seats left empty during most matches.