EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — The boisterous droves of Fluminense fans in the north end of MetLife Stadium were only amplified by the cavernous emptiness that surrounded them.
The first two matches of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup at the usual home of the NFL’s Giants and Jets, which seats 82,500, have struggled to hit the halfway mark of its capacity, as Tuesday’s Group F opener between German giants Borussia Dortmund and the famed Brazilian side — whose fans clad in red, white, and green with matching flags nearly redeemed another light day at the gates — could only draw 34,736 on Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s not easy [playing in this kind of atmosphere],” Dortmund manager Niko Kovac told amNewYork. “If national teams were playing, then the whole country is coming into the stadium and supporting the national teams. At the Club World Cup, each team has a group of supporters. That makes it a little bit difficult for this competition when you talk about the support.”
Not even an attempt to drop ticket prices — they were as low as $33 on second-hand sites less than two hours before kick-off — could not provide a last-minute boost for a non-traditional noon ET kick-off. The lower bowl, consisting of roughly 33,000 seats, was 80% full, which accounted for most of the afternoon’s turnout.
“It was an OK atmosphere, but it was a [noon] kick-off,” Kovac added. “I imagine that there will be more people watching the game without supporting the team if the time would be different.”
It was a noticeable drop off from the 46,275 who attended MetLife Stadium’s opening match of the Club World Cup, which featured FC Porto and Brazil’s Palmeiras on Sunday; only further suggesting that this is too large a site for this portion of the competition.
“The issue is that the stadium is absolutely huge,” Palmeiras manager Abel Ferreira said. “46,000 people in the stadium, in my opinion, is fantastic. Maybe they could have closed the third ring, the upper ring of the stadium and placed everybody on the first and second rings.”
Of course, the attendance problems for this tournament are not exclusive to the New York City area.
The Club World Cup’s opener in Miami, pitting Lionel Messi’s MLS side against Al Ahly of Egypt, drew over 60,000 fans at Hard Rock Stadium, but not before FIFA had to run insanely-discounted deals that allowed college students to pick up four tickets to the match for $20.
On Monday, English powerhouse Chelsea’s opening match against LAFC of MLS drew a measley 21,137 to the 70,000-seat Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca described the setting as “a bit strange.”
“You know, the stadium was almost empty,” he said following his side’s 2-0 win.
For a tournament whose attendance will be highly reliant on the United States’ immigrant population and fans traveling from outside the country, President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has provided understandable hesitation for those planning on attending matches.
While the epicenter of unrest remains in Los Angeles, where President Trump deployed the Marines, ICE and US Customs and Border Protection agents have been positioned across the country. In a since-deleted post last week, the CPB’s social media account threatened that they would “be suited and booted, ready to provide security for the first round of games.”
MetLife Stadium will have a significantly larger role to play not only in this tournament but also during next year’s World Cup. Within the next month, it will host a Club World Cup quarterfinal, both semifinals, and the finals, which is a dress rehearsal for hosting the 2026 World Cup Final—the largest singular sporting event on the planet.
The turnouts will likely improve, whether it be because of the gravitas of the event or the scheduling, but the first impression of this iteration of the Club World Cup is decidedly underwhelming.
