Only 22,127 fans watched Enzo Maresca's side cruise past Los Angeles FC at Atlanta's 70,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Roll up, roll up to the greatest show on earth!
As Chelsea’s bemused players strolled out one by one onto the pitch at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, they were met with an unfamiliar sight: rows upon rows of empty red seats.
According to Fifa, the Club World Cup is supposed to herald a glitzy new age of football, the “most coveted” club competition worldwide, in the words of their president Gianni Infantino.
Instead, the sparse crowd resembled a throwback to the grim Covid era when only a restricted number of fans were allowed to attend games due to social distancing measures.
How did Chelsea get on?
If Chelsea’s players were caught off guard by the apparent lack of interest in their tournament opener, they soon got over it.
Pedro Neto fired past ex-Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris to give them a first-half lead against Los Angeles FC, with Enzo Fernandez making it 2-0 in the second.
It was a polished Chelsea performance that included a barnstorming debut off the bench from new £30m signing Liam Delap, who assisted Fernandez’s goal with an excellent cross.
But the main talking point was the poor attendance.
Why were there so many empty seats?
The scheduling of the game was ideal for UK-based Chelsea fans, with kick-off at 8pm GMT standard for midweek football. It was far less so, for American supporters.
An inconvenient local time of 3pm on a Monday certainly contributed to the swathes of empty seats, with Atlantans engaged at work, college and everyday life commitments.
It was a hot day too, with the temperature ticking over 30 degrees. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium roof was closed to help keep the players cool.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - JUNE 16: General view inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the first half of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 group D match between Chelsea FC and Los Angeles Football Club at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on June 16, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Andrew J. Clark/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Thousands of seats were unfilled before kick-off (Photo: Getty)
Clearly, Fifa hopes that this competition will eventually overtake Uefa’s Champions League in prestige and significance, but the half-hearted atmosphere and mismatch on the pitch gave it more of a pre-season summer tour vibe.
Considering a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta is over four hours, and given the USA have some of the most miserly annual leave benefits in the world, it’s hardly surprising that more people didn’t fancy taking the time off.
The timing was undeniably a major factor. Over 60,000 watched the opener between Inter Miami and Al Ahly on Sunday, while the official attendance for PSG’s 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid at LA’s Rose Bowl later on that day was 80,619 (overall capacity 89,702).
What about ticket prices?
By the time Fifa realised that they may have misjudged the enthusiasm for the tournament and adjusted their ticket prices accordingly, it was already too late.
Ticket prices started eye-wateringly high when first released in December, with the cheapest offering for the first match between Inter Miami and Al Ahly priced at $349 (£257).
Since then, prices have plummeted due to a lack of interest. A dynamic pricing model has been used whereby the value of tickets increase or fall based on demand.
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According to the BBC, tickets for Chelsea’s match were available for £37 (roughly $50) before kick-off and were still being sold for £26 (roughly $35) after the match had started.
Before the tournament began, *The Athletic*reported that Fifa offered university students the opportunity to buy tickets to Inter Miami vs Al Ahly for $20 (£14.74) with up to four complimentary tickets.
Will attendances improve?
Fifa will hope and expect attendances to rise as interest and intrigue in the competition increases. Fixtures between major European and South American sides, in particular, should draw plenty through the turnstiles, with Chelsea likely to play in front of a bigger crowd when they face Brazil’s Flamengo in Philadelphia on Friday.
However, more short-term pain is inevitable given the lower profile of some of the clubs in the competition and the size of the stadiums. Eight of the 12 in use hold between 60,000 to just shy of 90,000 fans.
As the first match involving a Premier League side demonstrated, there is still limited appetite for Fifa’s bloated new tournament.