From the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 opener to the India vs Afghanistan clash on Wednesday, all matches had one common theme: Stadiums not houseful. Barring the two India matches, stadiums have been hardly 50% full for all games. While fans have lashed out at the BCCI & ICC apart from BookMyShow for the World Cup ticket debacle, the 2023 WC has already smashed 2015 and 2019 WC attendance records in the first 10 days alone.
World Cup 2015 in Australia & New Zealand had a total attendance of 6,23,247 as per Austadiums data. The 2019 World Cup in England & Wales had a total attendance of 7,52,000 as per ICC.
ICC ODI World Cup 2023 has already registered a total attendance of 6,24,279 in the first nine games alone as per in-stadium data. With India vs Pakistan as well as 38 games more to go, the World Cup crowd number will only double. It will eventually break 2011 World Cup crowd record when 1.2 million fans watched matches from the stadiums.
Empty Stadiums?
Hence, those arguing that the stadiums in 2023 WC are empty, are not wrong. Indian stadiums have better capacity than in Australia and England. For example, in a 1,32,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad for the England vs New Zealand opener, it only registered 47,518 official attendances. That was only 36% of the huge stadium.
For India vs Australia match, there were 3,810 empty seats. And in Delhi for India vs Afghanistan match, there were still 2,700 empty seats. BookMyShow had tickets available even 15 minutes before the start of the match.
However, all those won’t matter on Saturday for India vs Pakistan match. The 1,32,000-capacity stadium is likely to be full to the brim, making it the most attended ODI World Cup match ever.
Why are stadiums in World Cup not full house?
However, in a cricket-crazy country, how are stadiums going half-full in the World Cup? There are several reasons for this.
Costly tickets: There has been a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) against BCCI & ICC for setting ticket rates in Lucknow at Rs 3,250. Many feel that is on the higher range. With rampant black-marketing of tickets, rates have been higher for big matches as well.
Poor ticketing management: It was only 40 days before the World Cup started that BCCI and ICC released tickets. With news of further changes in the schedule, not many showed interest in travelling. Furthermore, even in 2023, BCCI stuck to physical tickets rather than issuing e-tickets.
Heat: With the changing weather pattern, October is no longer a “cool” period. Instead, the temperatures in some parts of the country soar above 35 degrees Celsius.
Poor facilities: Despite BCCI spending over Rs 500 Crore in revamping the stadiums, nothing much has changed. Fans complained of bird-poo on the seats. Even though BCCI has promised free bottled drinking water, dirty toilets and seats have forced many fans to choose the comfort of their homes.
Festive month: In India, October-November are festive months. And many have chosen to save the money to spend on bigger purchases than going to the stadiums for World Cup games.
All that combined, people listened to Virat Kohli’s advice of watching it from home.
Free live streaming on mobile devices has also changed the crowd at the stadium. For example, the India vs Afghanistan match had over 2 Crore concurrent viewers on Disney+ Hotstar. Similarly, other games also had around 50-60 lakh concurrent viewers. Hence, empty or not, World Cup crowd record is all set to be broken again.
