The Copa América, with the two Group C matches on Monday (United States-Uruguay and Bolivia-Panama), will surpass one million fans in the stands, achieving a historic milestone before the end of the group stage, according to Conmebol.
Ruben Olavarrieta, commercial manager of this Copa América, reveals the significant numbers that have been reached in just eleven days of the tournament: “Today we will have one million spectators, taking into account the matches on Sunday and those on Monday. It fills us with joy because we still have ten matches ahead of us and reaching one million in the group stage is very gratifying. We aim to continue to surpass our own attendance records,” he said.
None of the Copa América editions organized in CONMEBOL countries can be taken as a reference due to the capacity of the stadiums, which are lower than in the United States, but they could be compared with the ‘Centenario’ of 2016, which is already below the figures currently being handled.
“The capacity of the stadiums is key to this. Generally, the operation of each stadium in terms of security, access, flows… makes attendance happen. With so many fans travelling from all over, but also many locals, the fact of knowing the facility, being close, the community that already follows football here, makes us surprised that we not only have fans from Latin America coming, but also a lot of local public,” says Olavarrieta.
The application of dynamic ticket pricing used in the United States is a novelty for Conmebol and helps adjust prices based on demand with a positive and direct impact on attendance.
“We were quite cautious with our projections, due to the fact that we did not know the dynamic pricing methodology inside out, but we are really surprised that, in certain cases, although everyone talks about the upward impact of prices, in other matches the price also helps you to have more attendees when it goes down. With all this we manage to maximize the number of attendees and that more fans can attend our competition,” Olavarrieta highlighted.
Nine matches sold out in the Copa America
So far, nine matches have sold out, with Argentina standing out and managing to have all three of their matches played in full stadiums.
According to Olavarrieta, “the goal is to beat our record for attendance at the Copa America.” But in addition, records of fans are being broken in some stadiums, both for soccer matches and other types of events.
The match with the largest number of fans was the duel between Chile and Argentina, attended by 81,106 spectators, filling the impressive MetLife Stadium.
As for prices, which have reached over a thousand dollars in official sales, the average is “a little below two hundred dollars.” A figure in line with Conmebol’s previous estimate regarding revenue.
In relation to what other teams apart from Argentina contribute, Conmebol has been very surprised by the ability of Colombia to attract players, as well as Venezuela, once they have consolidated themselves with three victories.
At the same time, Mexico’s failure to advance to the next round is a major setback. “The fact that a country like that falls affects us, but we can make up for it with the great response from Colombia and now also from Venezuela,” says Olavarrieta.
Keep reading:
Copa America 2024: Yeferson Soteldo caught calling a Mexican fan a crybaby (VIDEO)
“It is an aesthetic perception”: Conmebol rejected complaints about the state of the Copa América fields
Copa America 2024: Quarterfinals take shape and tiebreaker criteria are defined