On July 1, CONMEBOL held a press conference to explain many questions from public opinion, including the grass surface of the fields not meeting the requirements, whether holding the Copa America final in Miami City was because of the Messi effect or not… Press The US is concerned that at this time storms often occur in Miami that could affect the matches, especially the finals.
According to Mr. Frederico Nantes, CONMEBOL’s Copa America 2024 Organizing Director: “We always have a plan B in any case, but hopefully we will not use it. Organizing the final match in Miami (Sport Hard Rock in Miami Gardens) has nothing to do with the Messi effect or anything else, because we don’t know whether the Argentine team will reach the final or not.
Organizing the final match in Miami is because it is convenient for fans from South America to fly here, and this place already has the logistics from the semi-finals taking place on the East Coast of the United States. In addition, this is also easy for television work because stations in Europe are concentrated here.”
Regarding the grass surface of the fields at Copa America 2024, it has been criticized for being too bad and unresponsive, because many fields use artificial turf and are only covered with natural grass a few days before the match. CONMEBOL denied, saying “it’s just the aesthetic perception of some players”.
“In fact, they said the fields were very bad, but no one told us why. Inspections showed that the fields met all playing standards. In addition, the fields at Copa America 2024 has the same size (100 x 64 meters), smaller than regular fields (105 x 68 meters), but still meets all FIFA (World Football Federation) standards”, CONMEBOL expressed.
The South American football agency also said: “The natural grass surfaces of the fields at all competition venues are meticulously cared for. Hard Rock Stadium, where the final match will be held, will be replanted with grass in about 4 days.” before the final. This stadium has a very good drainage system, so it will not be affected if there is heavy rain during the final.
Argentina team sets viewership record
In 3 group stage matches, the Argentine team set a record with a total of 216,642 spectators coming to watch the matches. This audience accounts for the majority of the total 960,075 people watching the Copa America 2024 group stage (20 matches, as of July 1).
“We were surprised by the viewership at this year’s Copa America. Not only the matches with the Argentinian team playing, most of the other group stage matches had a large number of viewers. Total number of viewers today (the group stage has not yet ended), but has surpassed the record of viewers for the entire tournament in 2019 in Brazil (867,245 people) or nearly equal to about 1.4 million people at Copa America in 2016.
Ticket prices at this year’s Copa America have the lowest price of 70 USD (about 1.7 million VND) and the highest price of 200 USD (more than 5 million VND)”, CONMEBOL emphasized.
Compared to EURO 2024 taking place in Germany after the group stage with a total of 36 matches with about 1.8 million viewers, the number of spectators at Copa America has reached nearly half, while there are still 4 more matches to go. end of group stage.
