Stories from Copa America: Lessons for the World Cup, $132 to park and a tiny yellow car

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It’s day 12 of Copa America (although anyone keeping tabs on this tournament probably has no idea what day it is!).

It’s been a whirlwind of soccer across 14 cities in the United States, packed with surprising outcomes, extreme weather and Messi Mania. There have been 20 games played to date with only 11 more to go over the next two weeks.

With so much soccer — 1,800 minutes played to be exact, plus added time — it’s easy to have missed some of what’s been happening on the pitch, never mind off it. So here is a snapshot of some of the storylines that have developed as we head into another week of Copa America chaos…

Soccer crowds in NFL stadiums. Hit or miss?

Before the tournament, we wondered how well-attended some of these matches would be. Would international fans travel with their teams? Will the prestige of this traditionally South American competition translate to fans in the U.S.? Was staging games inside NFL-sized stadiums the right move?

Copa America started with a sellout crowd of more than 70,000 fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for Argentina versus Canada. It’s fair to say it was mostly Argentinians in the crowd, as ‘banderazos’ have followed La Albiceleste wherever they play — particularly when a certain No. 10 is involved.

But not all games have been so full, or anywhere close. The match between Ecuador and Jamaica at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, which kicked off at 3 p.m. local (6 p.m. ET) only drew a crowd of about 24,000. The stadium’s capacity is closer to 61,000 for soccer games.

Swathes of empty seats were visible for Ecuador’s 3-1 win over Jamaica (Candice Ward/Getty Images)

Only three of the 14 venues selected for Copa America are smaller, soccer-specific stadiums. There’s Q2 Stadium in Austin, Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City and Inter & Co Stadium in Orlando. The recent Canada-Chile match in Orlando drew a near-sellout crowd of 24,841, and while a smaller crowd may bring in less revenue, the atmosphere inside the stadium was electric.

Would that have been true in an NFL stadium? Let that game be a good example of why some matches might benefit from a smaller stage.

There’s also the fact that most NFL stadiums were not designed with competitive soccer in mind. This means the fields are not always as pristine as players are used to and, in the case of Copa America, they are the smallest they can be for an international soccer event.

As the United States men’s national team midfielder Weston McKennie said: “You’re playing on a football field, with laid grass that’s all patchy and it breaks up every step you take. It’s frustrating.”

It will all look very different come the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada because soccer’s world governing body FIFA has different standards to South American federation CONMEBOL, but grass, or lack of it, was a big talking point in the opening days of Copa America.

Costs, costs, costs (good luck, Argentina fans)

It’s no secret international soccer has looked to the U.S. as a potential breeding ground for business opportunity. It’s why the country has experienced an unprecedented level of investment, with an onslaught of competitions slated here over the coming years.

In 2016, Copa America Centenario was the ultimate test for that theory, drawing record-breaking crowds by the tournament’s standards. The 1994 FIFA World Cup also remains one of the most attended World Cups in history, despite the sport being in its infancy in the United States.

All this is to say that U.S. fans are willing to pay — and organizers know that. That’s partly why Copa America is as expensive as it is. That and the use of dynamic ticket pricing.

Argentina fans pay homage to Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi at Hard Rock Stadium (Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

Right now, the cheapest price for a pair of tickets to Argentina’s quarterfinal match in Houston to a still-undecided rival costs $630 (£500). These re-sale tickets come at a base price of $315, plus booking fees. That’s not counting parking, which can cost anywhere from $26 to $132 for one parking pass on StubHub, as of Sunday evening. Fans traveling are also spending even more when considering accommodations like flights and hotels.

Tickets for Argentina games are the most expensive and most sought after, and will only go up if Lionel Messi’s side gets closer to the final at Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, on July 14.

As of Sunday night, a pair of tickets for the final start from $1,114. Ouch.

A tiny car, a box and an eagle named CAPITÁN

Before some of the early matches, a little remote-controlled yellow car zoomed onto the pitch to deliver the game ball before kick-off.

This was thanks to a marketing campaign by Mercado Libre, an Argentinean online marketplace that sponsored the vehicle for some matches. It was seen before the Mexico–Jamaica game in the first round of the group stage but it’s been seen more sparingly throughout the tournament, and latterly replaced by a child walking onto the field carrying the ball in a cardboard box.

Fans of the UEFA European Championships may remember a similar tiny car from the 2021 European Championship. That car was sponsored by Volkswagen, and the vehicle on X has amassed a following close to 22,000 fans. While this may live on as a post-Covid innovation, Copa America certainly picked up on the buzz a tiny football car generates.

Copa also has a more original marketing ploy: CAPITÁN, the tournament’s official mascot, a giant eagle.

Four suspensions, and one formal complaint

The head coaches of four teams — Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela – have been suspended in just a few days. All for the same transgression: overseeing their players’ late arrival to the pitch.

The latest suspension came down on Uruguay’s Marcelo Bielsa on Sunday ahead of their match with the United States on Monday. Competition organizers CONMEBOL’s regulations state teams must “strictly respect the schedule set for the start of the game” and should follow the match delegate’s instructions for a “timely entrance to the field of play” before kick-off and after half-time.

They also indicate that for any infringement “the coach of the team concerned shall in all cases be held responsible”, although the coaches’ federations have also been fined.

Bielsa will not be allowed to sit on a cool box on the sideline for Uruguay’s final group game (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

“We have to keep looking at the stopwatch (in the changing room) so we don’t go over the time limit (15 minutes for half-time),” said Brazil’s Bruno Guimaraes on Sunday. “We know what a delay can lead to and we don’t want to lose our coach (Dorival Junior), who is very important to us. We don’t want to be out late, so when the stopwatch gets to 11, 12 minutes, we have to run back out to the pitch. We don’t want to lose anyone on the way to the final.”

Are the delays mind games, the result of the longer walk back to the field in bigger NFL stadiums or simply tardiness? Who knows. But they are more regular occurrences in CONMEBOL-backed tournaments, particularly the Copa Libertadores.

What may not be so common is a nation publicly condemning a tournament’s referees, as Chile did following their exit from Copa America this weekend. After a scoreless draw to Canada in Orlando, the Chilean Football Federation called on CONMEBOL to suspend the referee in charge, Wilmar Roldan.

In the 27th minute, Roldan issued a second yellow card to Gabriel Suazo, forcing the team to play one man down. CONMEBOL declined to comment.

Lessons for the 2026 World Cup

While Copa America is organized by CONMEBOL and the World Cup is organized by FIFA, the two organizations have a working relationship — as we saw with Gianni Infantino’s presence at Argentina and Canada’s opening game in Atlanta.

Infantino greets Messi before the opening game (Steve Dinberg/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

Local organizers can also begin analyzing things that might not work so well during a World Cup, such as hosting a presidential debate in the same vicinity as a U.S. group-stage match or setting up a New Jersey state fair in the MetLife parking lot on game days. While FIFA’s host city demands wouldn’t allow either to happen in 2026, it’s a reminder that poor planning has the potential to cause major headaches for fans, and can easily be avoided.

Now, as sides slowly exit Copa America, one of the first questions for any team leaving the tournament will be: how do you prepare for the World Cup qualifiers in the coming months to ensure you are back in the United States in two years?

That’s also an important question for the United States, Mexico and Canada to consider, even though their spots are guaranteed in the competition as host nations. What’s more important is how far they make it in this tournament, because that may determine their relevance as real contenders in 2026.

(Top photo: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)