As Bay Area hosts World Cup, empty red seats are everywhere at Levi's Stadium

Fans watch from the stands during the World Cup Group B soccer match between Qatar and Switzerland in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, Saturday, June 13, 2026. Eakin Howard/AP hide caption

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — There appeared to be thousands of empty seats scattered throughout Levi's Stadium for the World Cup match between Qatar and Switzerland on Saturday.

On an unseasonably warm June afternoon by Bay Area standards, with the temperature at kickoff around 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius), many of those vacant seats were on the east side of the stadium that typically can get very hot for much of the year.

With the Swiss fans clad it bright red, they blended in with the empty red seats.

On Friday, FIFA blamed the empty seats during the World Cup match between South Korea and the Czech Republic in Guadalajara on fans who watched from the concourses.

For NFL games at Levi's Stadium, crowds are often late arriving because of tailgating outside the venue in the heart of Silicon Valley, but it is not allowed for World Cup matches. That made for smooth entry Saturday as small lines formed outside several hours before kickoff.

Levi's Stadium holds 68,500 for NFL games but can be expanded to more than 70,000 for soccer. Brazil and Colombia drew 70,971 two years ago in a group match at Copa America.

The stadium in Santa Clara staged the Super Bowl only four months ago.