The United States is set to take on Costa Rica at Red Bull Arena on Tuesday night, but it doesn't look like many people are too interested in going. A quick check of Ticketmaster shows that there are a lot of unsold seats at the 25,000-seat stadium.
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All of that blue is unsold seats. Hardly anyone will be in the upper deck, which will be nearly empty, and there will be thousands of empties in the lower level too.
Tickets for the match aren't cheap, but they're hardly exorbitantly expensive. It costs $36 to get in, which is an entirely fair price for a match in a soccer-specific stadium where every seat has a good view. Could lower ticket prices have helped attendance? Undoubtedly, but it's tough to argue that it's a driving factor here, or close to it. The Mets having a playoff game, not to mention it being midweek against a non-name opponent play into this too. There isn't one thing responsible for it all, but there is a big one.
This has to be seen, to some degree, as a reflection of the state of the U.S. team and fans' belief in it. The Americans' struggles since the World Cup, culminating with a disastrous Gold Cup and loss to Mexico in the CONCACAF Cup, has fans questioning Jurgen Klinsmann and the direction of the team. They're not winning, they're not playing attractive soccer and there's not a ton of belief that things will get better. Why would fans who feel like that -- and not all fans do, but there are a lot -- show up to see them play?