Empty seats mar South Korea v Czechia World Cup tie in Guadalajara | OneFootball

Rows of empty seats were visible throughout the World Cup meeting between South Korea and Czechia, which finished 2-1, in Guadalajara on Thursday. It was the second match staged in Mexico. Attendance was given as 44,985 from a 48,000 capacity at Estadio Akron.

Television pictures showed banks of red seats left vacant, including in the side stands. The Athletic reported that the cheapest lower tier tickets were around 500 dollars, with some hospitality priced up to 5,000 dollars.

It is hard to pin the gaps on a single cause. The match-up offered limited pull for many local fans, and thousands of tickets for other games were still available on FIFA’s resale platform.

The pictures arrived amid wider criticism of the tournament’s pricing policy. Before the group stage kicked off, nearly 180,000 tickets were still on sale.

With demand proving lower than expected for some fixtures, prices for a portion of seats were later reduced.

Source: L'Équipe