The preliminary round of the club World Cup is over. Heat, storm and numerous empty places have determined the headlines. An ex-Bundesliga manager and USA expert takes stock.
Gigantic stadiums, horrendous prize money and lots of glamor-the World Association FIFA wanted to set a new gold standard in football with the redesigned club World Cup. After the preliminary round of the now 32 team, weather caps and hundreds of thousands of empty seating shells have determined the global headlines.
In this regard, the summit was the preliminary round duel of the Top Club River Plate with the Urawa Red Diamonds from Japan. While both fishing groups shouted out their souls directly behind the gates, there was one thing in the rest of the stadium: yawning emptiness. Almost 12,000 spectators found the way to the avant -garde Lumen Field, the gigantic arena in the heart of Seattle. Almost 60,000 places in the stadium, which is otherwise known primarily through American football, remained free.
Such pictures caused ridicule and doubt in Europe, especially whether the supposedly so increased enthusiasm of the Americans for “Soccer” is really real two years before the World Cup. Lutz Pfannenstiel has a clear opinion. “I see it relatively relaxed. The group phase is more of a preliminary skeleton, and in the games of the big teams such as Bavaria, Mancity or Real-and also with the South Americans-there was already a lot going on in the stadiums,” explains the 52-year-old T-online.
He observes the development of football in the USA up close and has been sports director of the St. Louis City SC from the Major League Soccer (MLS) there for almost five years. Pfannenstiel says to sparsely occupied stands in some club World Cup games, primarily in large stadiums with over 80,000 seats: “If the upper rank was vacant, this has nothing to do with the generally great enthusiasm of the Americans for football.” His forecast: “The stadiums will be full from the knockout phase at the latest.”
For this, the former goalkeeper uses the spectator statistics of his own team: since the entry into the MLS in 2023, every home game in the league has been sold out. However, the Energizer Park also has only 22,500 places.
For the overall manageable viewer interest at the club World Cup-seven out of eleven stadiums are in the range of 50 percent utilization and less-Pfannenstiel blames a different factor. “At the moment we have an oversupply of football in the USA,” explains the former Bundesliga manager, who worked from 2018 to 2020 at Fortuna Düsseldorf.
The MLS league operations continue in parallel to the club World Cup. In addition, the Gold Cup- the North and Central American equivalent to the European Championship- has been played in the United States since the beginning of June. The hosts of the upcoming World Cup are included with the US boys, Canada and Mexico.
Transferred to Germany, it would be as if the Bundesliga would continue to play in parallel to a club World Cup-and the country would also be hosting a European Championship that also runs in parallel. In a nation in which football is the number one sport, that would be an almost unimaginable scenario.
Even if the sports landscape in the USA is much more fragmented, Pfannenstiel states: “All competitions have their justification, but you would have to divide better-although this is of course difficult. The Gold Cup for national teams is a very big deal; the MLS runs from February to December, so it is very long, and accordingly the games have to be pushed through; and the KLUB World Cup is the test run for the World Cup in the coming year.”