What do you think the average attendance of the non-NZ non-US group games in New Zealand going to be?. I have a bad feeling that it won't be impressive
So there are more weaker teams and more weaker fixtures.
Attendances will be diluted across the two host countries because of this.
Last time in France, the lowest attendance in the tournament was for the Ferns v Cameroon (8,009)
Lowest in other groups: 9354 (Sweden v Thailand), 11,058 (Norway v Nigeria), 11,814 (Spain v China), 12,016 (Italy v Jamaica), 13,188 (England v Scotland)
And all those matches involved European countries who didn't have to travel far to follow their teams. You couldn't really travel further to a World Cup than to NZ from most countries.
Plus the fact that our second most-populated city Christchurch isn't hosting any matches.
And France has over thirteen times our population.
So I would consider 4000 - 5000 at the least attractive matches acceptable considering our small population.
France predictably attracted 28,000 to 45,000 in their three group matches.
But the games in their group not featuring France only attracted 11,000 to 13,000.
Location and how many foreign fans were following their side affected attendances.
Games at the Parc des Princes, Paris not featuring France in the group stage attracted 20,000 to 45,000.
While matches at some stadia in the regions attracted only 8,000 to 12,000.
Nigeria's two group matches in France's group not featuring France were in Reims and Grenoble and attracted only just over 11,000.
Some games in the knockout phase were not well-attended.
Australia v Norway in the Rd. of 16 had only 12,229
The quarter-finals not featuring France attracted 21,000 to 25,000
Despite France not making the semis, they were both well attended in the women's football hotbed of Lyon (perennial French and European champs);
England v USA: 53,512
Netherlands v Sweden: 48,452
3rd / 4th play-off: England v Sweden (Nice): 20,316
Final: USA v Netherlands (Lyon): 57,900
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There will always be poorly attended matches featuring weaker footballing countries in every World Cup.
I'd be more interested to see how many attend NZ's matches, the stronger teams like USA, Netherlands and Spain and the knock-out matches.
Spain, Japan, Costa Rica and Zambia seems an attractive group to me.
But probably not many will go to Costa Rica v Zambia in Hamilton.
The USA has two attractive opponents in the Netherlands and Portugal so even Vietnam's games will have one good team.
But I don't know how many will go to Portugal v Vietnam in Hamilton.
Sweden, Italy, Argentina, South Africa will also have appeal in every match.
Plus a lot of South African expats will get behind their side.
And I noticed at the 2015 FIFA u-20 men's World Cup that African immigrants got behind African countries other than their own too.
The Black Ferns rugby team played a 4 way tournament in Canada recently and their game against Canada had an attendance of 10,000. For a home match against the current world champs, that isn’t a big crowd. We will get proportional crowds to our population base. The sad thing is people will realise after the fact they should have gone and the tickets are sooo cheap. The fifa adverts should show more of the great goals and skills female players have, rather than images of the players that are famous- but not widely known in NZ. The perceived lower skill level is what seemly puts people off watching the games. They are uneducated.
https://twitter.com/AndrewBloch/status/1680493920172556288