Netherlands-Japan: World Cup match with most empty seats

Of all World Cup matches to date, the Netherlands-Japan had the most empty seats. Of the 70,649 available seats in the Dallas stadium, 1,364 were unoccupied. This is evident from official FIFA counts, Where The Athletic refers to.

At the start of the match, many empty seats could be seen behind the goals. These places were part of fourteen ‘hospitality boxes’, each box housing thirty fans. They are usually full during American football in the so-called AT&T Stadium, but at the start of this World Cup match there seemed to be hardly anyone in the ‘boxes’.

That changed ten minutes later. Suddenly the seats were filled with volunteers who had helped with the ceremony prior to the game. According to The Athletic were the volunteers, clearly visible in bright green vests, treated by FIFA on the spots, since no one had purchased the remaining eleven boxes.

Many empty seats were also visible at other matches. How does the international football association explain the apparent poor turnout?

‘In the Catacombs’

During the match between South Korea and the Czech Republic on Friday, apparently thousands of seats were empty for the entire match. Yet according to FIFA, only 679 of the 45,664 seats were unsold. The expensive seats at the edge of the field in particular remained unoccupied for a long time. A possible reason for this is that the places were reserved for companies that did not show up.

After the match in Guadalajara, FIFA explained that attendance is measured by the number of tickets scanned. Some fans were not in their seats during the match, but in the catacombs, the world football association said.

During the match between Switzerland and Qatar, the stadium seemed to be only three-quarters occupied, reports said The Athletic. At Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, near San Francisco, empty spots could be seen in all areas of the stadium.

According to FIFA, less than a thousand of the available 68,827 seats were unsold during this match. Levi’s Stadium is notoriously poorly sheltered. After half time and after the first cooling off break, there were a lot of empty seats – possibly due to the extreme heat in the stands.

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