Big disappointment

Fan popularity at Copa America remains limited

After all, when the Argentinians have played, fan interest has been consistently high ...

(Bild: AFP)

In a way, the Copa America in the USA also serves the organizers as a trial run for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held jointly with Canada and Mexico. However, spectator numbers at the continental tournament have so far left a lot to be desired ...

So far, only defending champions Argentina and Brazil have been the main draws, otherwise there have been no sell-out matches. The fact that the hosts, the USA, have also failed to fill the stadiums is a cause for concern.

In the US tournament opener against Bolivia (2-0), there were fewer than 48,000 fans in the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium, while in the 2-1 defeat against Panama, 59,145 of the 71,000 seats in the Mercedes Benz Stadium were filled.

Sold-out sign underutilized so far
Even in the final 1-0 defeat to Uruguay, which sealed the US team's elimination, the sell-out sign could not be displayed outside Arrowhead Stadium.

High heat and significantly more expensive tickets than at the European Championships
All of these arenas will also be used for the World Cup in two years' time, with the majority of the group stage matches being played in the USA.

In other games, the arenas were not even half full. This is probably due to the extreme heat and significantly more expensive tickets than at the current European Championship in Germany, for example, which is enjoying great public interest.

The Continental Confederation of National Associations of South America (CONMEBOL) pointed out that one million tickets had been sold by the end of the group stage and that it will probably be 1.5 million by the end of the tournament. This is the same number of fans who watched the 2016 Copa in the USA.