FIFA faces prospect of more empty seats at WCup_1
In addition, 1,700 tickets are available for the second-round matchinvolving United States and Ghana on Saturday night at Royal Bafokeng Stadium inRustenburg.
Filling the stadium in Port Elizabeth—which has a capacity of 42,486—hasbeen particularly problematic. Already there were 11,000 empty seats for theSouth Korea-Greece game; 5,000 empty seats for England-Slovenia; and 4,000 emptyfor Germany-Serbia.
Empty seats could become a bigger problem in the knockout rounds, becausemany fans purchase “team specific” tickets to follow their team, but if thedraw doesn’t play out as expected—such as England playing in Bloemfonteininstead of Rustenburg—many tickets need to be re-allotted.