MOSCOW _ The World Cup opener in Moscow drew a rabid crowd of more than 78,000 Thursday, but the tournament wasn't as warmly embraced in Yekaterinburg, where Friday's game between Egypt and Uruguay was watched by wide swaths of empty seats.
Attendance at Yekaterinburg Arena was listed at 27,015, more than 6,000 below capacity, although that appeared to be a very generous account given the vast number of empty seats visible on TV. Most of the vacant seats were the bright orange ones in the lower bowl, where viewers couldn't miss them.
Crowds at the two other second-day games were much better. In Krestovsky Stadium, a modern $1.1 billion retractable-roof venue in St. Petersburg, 62,548 showed up to watch Iran beat Morocco, although that's still nearly 2,000 short of capacity. In Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Portugal vs. Spain _ one of the World Cup's most compelling first-round matchups _ drew 43,866. Not a sellout, but close.
None of the tournament's first three games had an attendance that matched the stadium capacity, although the World Cup's official ticketing website showed nearly all seats had been sold for every match, except some in the expensive 1 and 2 categories.
As the World Cup approached, that forced desperate fans to turn to the secondary ticket market where seats for another first-round match in Yekaterinburg _ between Peru and France _ were selling for nearly $1,400, which is more than six times face value.
Last week FIFA filed a criminal complaint against Viagogo, a Geneva-based secondary ticketing company, after receiving numerous complaints.
