Fewer Americans Will Be in Gorky Park, or World Cup Seats

The United States national soccer team failed to qualify for the men’s 2018 World Cup in Russia, the first time it will miss soccer’s biggest event since 1986. This won’t keep all American fans away from Moscow and the 10 other cities hosting the tournament in June, but it’s one of many factors that might have dampened interest.

Dan Wiersema, head of communications for the American Outlaws, a group of U.S. Soccer fans that organized trips to the last two men’s World Cups and the 2015 women’s World Cup, said that in a country as diverse as the United States, plenty of Americans would root for other teams competing in Russia — but ticket sales show a clear drop compared with the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“In Brazil, American fans had a huge presence,” Wiersema said. “Being in a relatively similar time zone and an attractive destination made it very easy for an American fan to travel there.”

According to FIFA, the world soccer federation, of the nearly 5 million ticket requests made before its random selection draw sales period ended Jan. 31, roughly 87,000 were from fans in the United States, the 10th-most of any country. (Russia was first, followed by Germany.) For the 2014 tournament, spectators from the United States purchased nearly 200,000 tickets, more than any other country other than the host.

Some may also be waiting for the 2019 women’s World Cup in France, which is a potentially more attractive travel destination for Americans in terms of infrastructure and location. Also, fans can root for the defending-champion U.S. women’s team.

“You’re talking about a country that has a great rail network and is relatively close to East Coast-based airports,” Wiersema said. “When you put that all together as an American soccer fan and a travel fan, there’s a lot of people who have eyeballs on it.”

Wiersema also cited potential worries related to Russia’s geopolitical situation, the violent reputation of some of its soccer fans and its government’s position on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Fan safety may be of particular concern for fans in England, where ticket sales have also been significantly lower.

During a 2016 European Championship match in Marseille, France, Russian and English fans clashed violently in the days leading up to and during the match between the two teams; over 30 spectators were injured. The disciplinary committee of UEFA, which oversees European soccer, fined and sanctioned the Russian soccer federation as a result.

“As demonstrated during the FIFA Confederations Cup last year, Russia’s already high security standards have been adapted to meet the specific needs of such major sporting events,” a FIFA spokesman told Reuters in February after Russian soccer fans got into another violent altercation.

More recently, the poisoning of a former Russian spy in southern England has added to the tension between the two countries heading into the World Cup.

“We do need to be very, very careful for British fans who are traveling there that they are not in any way caught up in the politics of this,” Tom Tugendhat, a British lawmaker, told the BBC.

Still, do not expect to see many empty seats at this year’s World Cup, which is easily one of the most anticipated sporting events every four years.

The fact that there will still be several thousand Americans attending, in addition to many others from around the world, highlights the strong pull this event has, no matter where it is played.

“I have friends who are excited to go because they wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this,” Wiersema said.

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