Why organisers are struggling to get fans into the stadium for FIFA Club world matches
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Reading Time: 3min | Sat. 05.07.25. | 19:05
The average attendance so far is 35,000, an impressive return by many standards but not for a competition of its calibre
With the United States of America (USA) hosting next year’s FIFA World Cup, organisers will have to contend with the popularity of baseball arguably the country’s number one sport.
The on-going FIFA Club World Cup has been struggling to attract fans and it is easy to see why.
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On Friday, 4 July which also happened to be America’s Independence Day was a national holiday. The same day English side Chelsea were playing Brazilian club Palmeiras in the quarter-final match of the FIFA Club World Cup at the 62,000 seater Lincoln Field Stadium.
Despite it being a holiday, the match was pushed to kick off at 9pm (local time).
But just a few meters away from the Lincoln Stadium is the Citzen Banks Park.
The park is home to Baseball side Philadelphia Phillies. On the same day, the Phillies as they are popularly known were playing the Reds.
The match started at 1:30pm but from 10am thousands of fans were already gathered outside the Arena buying tickets to watch their favourite team.
At the nearby, ABC Sports Arena some fans who did not get a ticket some going as much as $200 (Ksh25,600) gathered to catch the match on giant screens while gulping their favorite drinks.
With the summer sun lighting up the streets, young, old and middle aged came out in their famous white and red stripped shirts with a red cap to cheer their home team.
By the time the match kicked off the stadium was almost 90% full.
But as soon as it was clear that the Phillies were losing, the fans started streaming out in huge numbers.
I managed to catch up with a group or four fans and inquired if they will be coming for the Chelsea match later that night.
Ken one of them actually expressed surprise that there was such a match even in the first place.
“I knew that the Lincoln Field was going to host one of the quarter final matches of the FIFA Club World Cup but I was not aware it was today or even who were playing,” he said.
But when I proded him further asking whether he would come for the match with his friends later now that the baseball game was over, he added: "Football is not part of our culture. We all love baseball. We don’t have strong American teams playing at the highest level so we dont have interest.”
As the baseball game wound down, the fans in their thousands walked away far from the direction of the Lincoln Field while others returned to the ABC Sports Arena to continue drinking and watch other live sports.
But not to take away from the FIFA Club World Cup match, the stadium was almost 90 percent full perhaps and could easily be one of the most attended fixtures. A strong Brazilian contingent of travelling fans and those living in Philadelphia turned out in large numbers.
