What made the Club World Cup one to remember? The massive drop in ticket prices.

Clint Dempsey saw what everyone could see.

The reluctance of many to buy tickets for the FIFA club World Cup has led to a significant drop in ticket sales. In an effort to catch up, the director of football has reduced prices to a number of games.

The result? A much better atmosphere.

“You cannot assess the working class by going to the games,” said Dempsey recently on his podcast men in Blazers, The Deuce. “You want to be with passionate people because it’s contagious.”

Dempsey largely made the low participation rate for the American national team in the Golden Cup matches Concacaf, but the feeling also works for the Club World Cup.

What has been described by many as a simple money by the Director of World Football Corps has in fact been a success in the presentation that football is much larger – and much more passionate – than the brand nourished here in the United States by the broadcasters of the English Premier and the Liga of Spain.

Games featuring Manchester City, Chelsea and even Real Madrid have pale compared to the games showing Brazilian clubs like Fluminense and Flamengo, or by looking at the noisy support in club stands like Boca Juniors Argentinians or the financial field of Morocco in Morocco during his Philadelphie match.

“Do you prefer to sit with Boca Juniors fans or with Urawa Japanese fans, and bounce with them?” The men asked the Blazers that Roger Bennett. “Or do you prefer to sit in a very empty AT&T stadium?”

During the second week of the tournament, FIFA announced that it had sold more than a million tickets for various group phase matches across the country and provided that this number increases as the direct elimination stages were beginning. Much of the brass band came from tickets assessed for some slightest half of their original list.

“It was great to be able to take the family to see a game and not have the impression of having dripped,” said Mark Mullin, who attended the 4-2 victory from Fluminense to Ulsan at the Metlife Stadium at East Rutherford, NJ “Then we arrived and that the crowd was incredible, the songs, the smoke all that, you forget that it is the game.”

The newly extended format of the Club World Cup has also enabled American sports fans to have a much better overview of world football. With the European game, the main driver of the eyes and dollars here in the United States, to see the passion of clubs in South America, Asia and Africa was enlightening – especially in front of the largest FIFA World Cup next year.

Photo of Qian Jun / MB Media / Getty Images

Has FIFA lost its shirt on the tournament? Time will tell us, in particular given the $ 1 billion tournament scholarship in addition to $ 11 million, it was promised to accommodate cities for sustainability efforts. But even if they are what is a victory, it is that this tournament presents football in a very different light from what is usually presented in the United States.

Safeguarding money or not, there is a real argument that the club World Cup book them.

“You want to be with people who have love for you like you,” said Dempsey. “These are experiences, you will remember where you were, certain goals … You will sit around the table in Thanksgiving, Christmas, special moments with your family, you will sit and talk about it. You need more of these moments.”