Club World Cup off to rocky start with player protest, slow ticket sales
A soccer tournament with the top professional teams from around the world starts Saturday, June 14, at stadiums across the U.S. Judging by ticket sales, however, fans don’t seem excited about the Club World Cup.
Who is playing in the Club World Cup and why are ticket sales sagging?
It marked an embarrassing start for FIFA, soccer’s world-wide governing body. The 32-team event was considered by officials to be a dry run for next summer’s World Cup, especially in terms of stadium logistics, transportation and security. With sparse crowds, that may no longer be the case.
The biggest clubs in the world like Real Madrid from Spain, Bayern Munich from Germany, Inter Milan from Italy and River Plate from Argentina will be on what amounts to an 11-city tour around the U.S.
FIFA assumed those soccer giants would have fans clamoring for tickets, but appeared to have initially set prices too high. Over the last couple of weeks, using a dynamic pricing model for the first time, they’ve slashed prices dramatically.
In Seattle, fans were being offered free tickets. Seats for Saturday’s match featuring Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami were over $400 a few weeks ago. Good seats were under $100 on Ticketmaster Friday morning.
Why are players from the MLS teams frustrated?
Poor ticket sales weren’t the only black cloud hanging over the tour. The $1 billion prize pool FIFA put up for the tournament drew a lot of attention, as did the T-shirts the Seattle Sounders wore during warm-ups before their Sunday, June 1, MLS game with Minnesota. Stenciled on the front with Mr. Monopoly, the shirt reads “Club World Cash Grab,” and on the back, “Fair Share Now.”
At issue was the portion of the prize money allocated to the three MLS teams in the tournament: Inter Miami, Seattle Sounders and LAFC. Each club has already earned almost $10 million each just for qualifying. Every win a team has in the tournament is worth an additional $2 million, and every draw is worth an extra $1 million.
The players were upset that their share was capped at a total of $1 million for each roster while the rest of the money went to team owners. It amounted to a 10-1 ratio before the tournament even began.
Sounders captain Stefan Frei and forward Cristian Roldan said wearing the shirts in protest was necessary.
“Our message on the weekend was to try to get a point across that hey, we want to sit down and talk,” Frei said. “I think we made that point and I think it was received.”
Roldan, who has played with the U.S. National Team during his career, said the issue was raised by the MLS Players Association when the pay structure was announced, but it was ignored.
“I think the league knows that this money,” Roldan said, “this amount of money that’s being granted for playing in this tournament, needs to be distributed in a fair way.”
How did MLS respond to protests?
The league responded last week with a proposal that would give the players an additional 20% of the prize money earned for a win or draw. The players said that is still too low, and are now caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Players are excited to have the opportunity to compete with the best teams in the world, but they also face the issue of what they perceive as unfair pay.
“You practice good faith, negotiations in good faith,” Roldan said. “And I’m not sure if I’m seeing that from the MLS side. We came up with an offer back to them after they stalled for a week. We gave them an offer within 24 hours and we haven’t heard back.”
There were also complaints from other top players around the world about FIFA crowding the soccer calendar with more matches. The expansion of the Club World Cup from seven teams to 32 this year came during what players said is their much-needed break between the regular season schedules of several European leagues.
Will MLS players refuse to take the field if they don’t receive more money before the tournament kicks off? It is an option, but Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said Thursday, June 12, it is unlikely. His players feel they owe it to their fans to compete in what is considered a major tournament.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
