When it comes to attendance at the 2024 Copa América, Monday’s crowd of 55,460 at Arrowhead Stadium for the US men’s national team’s 1-0 loss to Uruguay accurately reflected the disparity. On the one hand, the enthusiastic, involved, and cross-party audience was excited about a high-stakes match.
The attendance figures bear comparison to those of Euro 2024, the European continental competition taking place in Germany from June 14 to July 14. In that tournament, each group stage match drew around 50,000 spectators. But Monday’s attendance was also significantly below Arrowhead’s 76,000+ capacity, with over half of the upper deck vacant for the host country of the tournament in what was essentially a must-win matchup against a legendary — and, regardless of FIFA rankings.
Depending on how one examines the numerous details surrounding anything from difficult ticketing processes to the weather, which has occasionally been dangerously hot and humid during the Copa América, one may determine if the glass was half-full or half-empty. But the cost of tickets cannot be disregarded as a factor in reducing fan attendance, not only in Kansas City but also throughout the tournament’s 14 venues.
The final row of the top deck’s farthest seats from the field, which offered a “view from the moon” similar to what TV watchers saw on the global feed, was still available for purchase on Ticketmaster moments before kickoff on Monday. The price was $115 plus taxes. Those were the going prices for primary market tickets from the primary market, not inflated resale market tickets.
The game was just one piece of data in a tournament that had a varied amount of fan support. Nineteen of the tournament’s first twenty matches, according to Conmebol, were sold out; yet, the confederation strangely only displays “100%” capacity for one of those matches, with the remaining matchups being between 93% and 99% full.
In comparison, there were a few ugly stadiums in Santa Clara, California (where Ecuador was playing Venezuela) and Las Vegas (where Ecuador was playing Jamaica). The lowest attendance of the tournament to date, however, was 11,622 for Peru vs. Canada at Children’s Mercy Park, which can hold up to 18,000 people. even if the temperature that day was also close to 100.
