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Have Club World Cup attendances really been that bad?
Have Club World Cup attendances really been that bad?

New York Times

time9 hours ago

  • Sport
  • New York Times

Have Club World Cup attendances really been that bad?

The group stage of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup has concluded and 48 of the tournament's 63 matches have now taken place. The competition, which is being hosted in the United States, drew plenty of criticism in the build-up — including for how many games were being held in large, out-of-town stadiums in cities traditionally lacking in football (or soccer) fandom. Advertisement So what have attendances actually been like? How many stadiums have come close to filling all of their seats? How have crowd sizes compared to the American-hosted 1994 men's World Cup and previous Club World Cups? And which have been the most and least-watched teams and groups at the tournament? Here, The Athletic dives into the numbers and lays out the facts surrounding the attendances so far. Firstly, this is what the attendance has been at each game so far at the tournament. The figures are FIFA's (the below table is sortable). FIFA has confirmed the attendance for both Mamelodi Sundowns vs Fluminense and Urawa Red Diamonds vs Monterrey (both played on June 25) was, by coincidence, exactly 14,312. The 80,619 fans who watched Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain thrash Atletico Madrid at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California is the highest attendance of the tournament so far. This match is, for now, the best-attended game in Club World Cup history. The previous highest reported attendances were the 73,000 who watched Manchester United vs Vasco da Gama (group stage) and Corinthians vs Vasco da Gama (final) at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro in the inaugural version of the competition in 2000. The lowest attendance is the 3,412 present for South Korean side Ulsan HD's clash with Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa at the Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Florida on June 17, which was also delayed for 65 minutes given fears of thunderstorms. The nearby Walt Disney World averages that many visitors roughly every 30 minutes. The last men's World Cup game to have a lower attendance was Wales vs Hungary in a group-stage play-off in Sweden in 1958 (2,823) and the last Premier League match (excluding games during the coronavirus pandemic) to attract a smaller crowd was Wimbledon vs Everton at Selhurst Park in January 1993, with just 3,039 people at the ground. Advertisement It is not, however, the lowest-attended Club World Cup match ever (excluding games held during the pandemic). That distinction is held by the second-round match between Mexican club Leon and Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds at the 2023 tournament in Saudi Arabia. Just 2,525 people (in a 27,000-capacity ground) watched Urawa win 1-0. The average attendance at the 2025 Club World Cup has been 34,759. The average across the previous 18 — much smaller — editions that were not affected by the pandemic was 32,505. While, at face value, this suggests attendances have been better than usual for the tournament, larger stadiums have been used for this edition, which must be taken into account. Here is the average attendance for each day of the tournament. The highest figure, on June 14, was set on the first day of the competition, when the only game was between Lionel Messi's Inter Miami and Egyptian side Al Ahly at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The lowest was on June 25, when the final games in Groups E and F took place. Three of the four matches were attended by fewer than 15,000 people and just 14,312 people watched Monterrey's victory over Urawa Red Diamonds at the Rose Bowl. That meant more than 75,000 seats — a figure higher than Old Trafford's total capacity — were left empty at the stadium that hosted the 1994 World Cup final. Looking at the 12 stadiums being used for the tournament, the Hard Rock Stadium tops the list for percentage of seats filled. The ground in south Florida has been, on average, 81.8 per cent full during its six games hosted so far. Notably, two of these matches have involved Messi. The lowest is the Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, which has only been 19.9 per cent full. The MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — which will host both the final of this tournament and next summer's World Cup, which the U.S. is jointly hosting with Canada and Mexico — has the third-lowest percentage of seats filled so far, with just under 45. The club to have played in front of the most fans so far at the tournament are record 15-time European champions Real Madrid with a total of 197,474, averaging 65,825 over their three games. And the side to have been the least-watched are Mamelodi Sundowns, who totalled 31,730 at an average of 10,577 per game. Advertisement The group with the highest total attendance was Group B (PSG, Botafogo, Atletico and Seattle Sounders) with 289,725 at an average of 48,288 per match and the one with the lowest total attendance was Group F (Borussia Dortmund, Fluminense, Mamelodi Sundowns and Ulsan HD) with 104,026, averaging 17,338. So, how does the group stage at the 2025 Club World Cup, with an average attendance of 34,759, compare to the 1994 World Cup in the U.S.? Well, that tournament 31 years ago averaged 67,526 for group-stage attendance — not far off double what we have seen this summer. As for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, that averaged 51,188 in the groups and the average attendance across the 380 Premier League games in 2024-25 was 40,423. But a word of caution when comparing different competitions across different eras: this is the first edition of the rebranded Club World Cup and it is far less popular than the World Cup and the Premier League, so the lower attendance figures are to be expected. So while crowd sizes have not been — on the whole — disastrous so far, FIFA will hope they increase during the knockout stage. And, at next year's World Cup, the sport's governing body will be desperate to avoid the scenes we have seen at several games this summer, with well over 50,000 empty seats in some stadiums. Even so, the added prestige and global interest in the World Cup will inevitably mean higher attendances in the group stage of that tournament — although ticket prices and difficulty in reaching some out-of-town stadiums could pose a challenge.

Bigger, better, more popular: Women's Euro 2025 set to break records
Bigger, better, more popular: Women's Euro 2025 set to break records

Associated Press

time2 days ago

  • Sport
  • Associated Press

Bigger, better, more popular: Women's Euro 2025 set to break records

Around 1,000 fans were on hand when England played one of the very first matches of the inaugural Women's European Championship in 1984. How things have changed. More than half a million tickets have already been sold for the 31 matches of this year's edition of the tournament, which kicks off next week in Switzerland. Organizers expect to break the attendance record of 575,000 set at the previous women's euros in England in 2022 when 87,000 people packed into Wembley Stadium for the final. The popularity of women's soccer in Europe — and around the world — has accelerated in leaps and bounds in recent years. Players are becoming stronger, faster and more technically skilled, making the game more entertaining to watch. While it hasn't yet closed the gap with men's soccer in revenue, the women's game is seeing rapid growth in investment at both the international and club level. Players who started their careers over a decade ago say the pace of change has been stunning. 'If you look at a match from five years ago, it has nothing to do with the ones being played now,' said Barcelona's two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas, who made her senior debut in 2010. The 31-year-old Spain midfielder told The Associated Press that her generation and earlier generations never thought they would be able to make a living from playing soccer when they grew up. 'For sure it's about making our sport a little more visible, so that girls can dream of being soccer players,' she said. 'I think that in recent years there has been a very good evolution. In the end, we just needed people to invest in us, to help us improve, and I think that change is happening.' Club connection Governing bodies have set up initiatives to drive the game forward, such as European soccer body UEFA's 'Unstoppable' strategy — aimed at making football the most-played team sport for women and girls in every European country by 2030, while increasing the number of professional leagues across the continent. A major shift has happened at the club level, as Europe's powerhouse clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea started taking women's soccer seriously . More women's leagues across Europe have turned professional over the past decade, inspiring a new generation of female soccer players. 'In the last decade real progress happened, especially on the club side. You see real professionalization,' Norway FA president Lise Klaveness told AP. 'It is very important to have a full pyramid that girls can see that they can have this as a job.' She said the real DNA in soccer is the connection with local clubs. 'We haven't really had that with women. Now you see it more and more,' she said. She added that many top leaders on the men's side show real ambitions to raise their women's teams. 'If you meet the Arsenal president or (Joan) Laporta at Barcelona he feels very close to his women's team. When the women's team plays, he is there,' Klaveness said. International expansion As the club game has gotten bigger — England's top women's league is expanding — so have the international competitions. At Euro 1984, there were just four teams in the inaugural tournament: England, Italy, Sweden and Denmark. It wasn't until 1997 that it was expanded to eight teams, becoming 12 in 2009 and increased to the current format of 16 from the 2017 edition. At Euro 2009 there was an average attendance of just over 5,000 at the matches in England. In the same country in 2022, the average was 18,544. And just as attendance levels have soared, so have television viewing figures. Euro 2022 had a global cumulative live viewership of 365 million across TV, out-of-home viewing and streaming. That was more than double the number of live viewers compared to the 2017 edition (178 million) and 214% more live viewers than in 2013 (116 million). The rise in attendances is also evident in club soccer as women start playing in stadiums with bigger capacities and clubs start to invest more in their women's teams. A couple of Barcelona's Women's Champions League matches in 2022 drew more than 90,000 fans. A major change that's happened in recent years is investors are now looking at women's soccer as something you can make money off, said Seattle Reign coach Laura Harvey, who coached Arsenal and Birmingham City in her native England before moving to the U.S. 'For those of us who've been in this a long time — I was Birmingham City's head coach in 2006 — and to think where the game's evolved in 19 years or whatever it's been, it's just wild,' she told AP. 'I'm glad that I can be part of it.' Unbundling sponsorship The continued growth in popularity of women's soccer has the knock-on effect of more sponsorship, more prize money and more to invest in grassroots soccer and clubs. In 2017, UEFA made what was perceived as a bold move: unbundling sponsorship rights for its women's competitions and selling the commercial rights separately from the men's. That was done with the express purpose of 'accelerating the growth of women's football competitions' and was considered a success. So much so that FIFA has followed suit, as have governing bodies of other sports. UEFA now counts 11 dedicated women's soccer partners among its wider portfolio, including Visa, Amazon and Adidas. There are more than 20 sponsors for Euro 2025 and that revenue is projected to increase by 145% compared to 2022, according to UEFA. 'The impact of Women's Euro 2025 extends far beyond the competition itself,' UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in a report last month. 'With record prize money and unprecedented interest from sponsors, the tournament will bring more investment into the women's game than ever before.' The prize pot at Euro 2025 has been set at 41 million euros ($47 million), more than double the 16 million euros ($18.3 million) received by national associations in 2022. Moreover, players will receive a guaranteed share from their national associations for the first time. The men's Euro 2024 had a total prize fund of 331 million euros ($347 million), with each of the 24 teams receiving a minimum of 9.25 million euros and champion Spain earning 28.25 million euros. UEFA's aim is that Euro 2025 will act as a catalyst for further progress in the women's professional game in Switzerland and across Europe. However, Klaveness has a warning: that the richest leagues shouldn't financially separate themselves completely from the currently semi-pro ones. 'Now I think the next step that's really important to go further now is … not to let the head move away from the body, then we would do the same as the men's side,' she said. ___ AP Sports Writers Tales Azzoni in Madrid, Graham Dunbar in Geneva and Anne M. Peterson in Portland, Ore, contributed to this report. ___ AP soccer:

Little evidence of success for schools' truancy fund, data analysis shows
Little evidence of success for schools' truancy fund, data analysis shows

RNZ News

time3 days ago

  • General
  • RNZ News

Little evidence of success for schools' truancy fund, data analysis shows

Seventeen schools received funding from the scheme. (File photo) Photo: 123RF Data-matching found little evidence of success from a fund which gave schools $10-million a year to tackle truancy . The then-Labour government set up the Regional Response Fund in mid-2022 as a four-year, $40m initiative to support school-driven initiatives to deal with poor attendance and the current government ended it in this year's Budget. A Ministry of Education report on the fund said schools reported moderate and even high improvements in attendance from initiatives paid for with the extra money. But it found little evidence of improved attendance when it used national student numbers to monitor changes in attendance among students targeted by the scheme at 17 schools. "For the most part we see no real change in mean year on year attendance of the selected cohorts from before and after the RRF funding, or, where there is change, this change likely reflects the higher-level change in the national average. "The one possible exception is one school cohort that may be worth continued review, as the data indicates that average attendance for the selected cohort has started to improve in 2024," the report said. The 17 schools received amounts ranging from $1000 to $17,000 and used them for initiatives including a kapa haka attendance programme, 10-week attendance and engagement projects, and a walking bus and breakfast club. However, the report also said the fund's support was short-term and schools said they needed long-term commitments to improve attendance. "Short-term funding cycles created challenges in sustaining successful interventions," it said. The report concluded the fund had improved attendance with 74 percent of schools that responded to a survey saying it had a high or very high benefit for participating students and 64 percent reporting increased attendance. "Numerous reports from RRF recipients in the RRF survey responses have indicated positive outcomes and benefits to student engagement and attendance resulting from RRF initiatives. "This was further evidenced through in-depth reports from case study participants," it said. One group of schools said: "We have seen a huge shift in the engagement of our Pacifica learners - at the start of the year, 24.7 percent of our Pasifika learners were chronically absent, and now only 11.03 percent of our Pasifika learners are chronically absent". The report said the accounts of positive outcomes were valid, but the ministry was "unable to validate the extent of increase to attendance rates against individual initiatives funded through the RRF and as a result cannot make judgements on attribution or causation". The report said the fund was a high-trust programme aimed at supporting locally-led and responsive initiatives. They included hiring staff to visit families at home, running community events to build a sense of school community, and paying for specialists like counsellors, social workesr and nurses. Some schools used the funding to help familes find financial or social and health support, and to drive students to school. In its first year, the fund supported 432 projects in 738 schools, and in its second year 450 projects in 842 schools. The ministry's evaluation was undertaken in 2024 and covered projects run in the first two years of the fund. The report said schools' initiatives were tackling "complex barriers" to school attendance and achievement such as disconnection from school and unmet wellbeing and learning support needs. It said the fund's support was short-term so schools tended not to use the money for the most chronic truants. "RRF recipients noted that they wanted to avoid letting vulnerable students and families down, because the RRF was short-term funding and could not support the kind of relational commitment that is required to address the underlying issues effectively," it said. "Furthermore, funding recipients expressed that tackling chronic absence requires building relationships and trust over time, and sustained investment to allow for initiatives to embed and overcome any early implementation improvements." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Dodgers Set Franchise Attendance Record, Surpassing 2 Million Fans in 40 Games
Dodgers Set Franchise Attendance Record, Surpassing 2 Million Fans in 40 Games

Fox News

time19-06-2025

  • Sport
  • Fox News

Dodgers Set Franchise Attendance Record, Surpassing 2 Million Fans in 40 Games

The Los Angeles Dodgers have surpassed two million in attendance in just 40 games this season. The defending World Series champions have had 2,026,238 through the gates so far. The team said Wednesday that it's the fastest they've reached that mark in franchise history. Last season, it took 42 games and in 2019, when the Dodgers set their all-time season attendance mark of 3,974,309, it took 43 games. The Dodgers have made 12 consecutive postseason appearances since 2013, winning World Series titles in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and last year. They lost back-to-back World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018. Los Angeles is 46-29 this season, good for first place in the National League West and No. 2 in the NL as a whole. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!

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