Chelsea's 2-0 victory against Los Angeles FC at Club World Cup was only watched by an estimated 22,137 people, in a stadium that can hold 71,000 spectators. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium is home to one of the most popular football clubs in the MSL, Atlanta United, which averaged 44,000 fans per match, and is also venue of USA men's and women's national teams.
Tickets were on sale during the match and were lowered to around 30 dollars, significantly less than when they were announced. This paints a worrying image for FIFA, whose new Club World Cup doesn't seem to attract many fans in the US, a country that will host the World Cup next summer.
However, there are other circumstances that could explain the low attendance of the match. One is that there probably weren't many LAFC fans in Atlanta, which is 3,200 km, 2,000 miles away from Los Angeles, and the strange kick-off time, 15:00 local time on a working day (20:00 BST in the UK), means that few LAFC supporters could have been able to attend.
Other Club World Cup matches have been more successful, particularly the one between PSG and Atlético de Madrid in Los Angeles, with more than 80,000 people. The opening 0-0 between Messi's Miami and Al-Ahly was seen by 60,927 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, at 93% of capacity.
However, the 10-0 thrashing between Bayern Munich and Auckland City was only witnessed by 21,152 fans in Cincinnati (in a stadium with a capacity of 26,000 people) and Botafogo vs. Seattle Sounders only attracted 30,000 people, less than half of the Lumen Field stadium in Seattle. From the upcoming group stage games, only the ones with Real Madrid and Boca Juniors are sold out.
It is to be expected that, from the round of 16 games onwards, with perhaps stronger teams and more at stake, more people will show up at the stadiums. FIFA certainly hopes so, if they want to avoid international ridicule...