General Discussion

to watch matchups like Belgium vs Egypt, or Jordan vs. Austria in person, instead of just turning on the TV.

While there are always some well off diehards from other countries who will travel the world to watch their team, the venues had to expect that the vast majority of ticket buyers would be domestic, and most likely local. Even with the popularity of youth soccer, and despite all efforts to make it sound cool, major soccer is a niche sport that has little interest to the vast majority of US sports fans.