More Latin American Middle Class Citizens Purchasing World Cup Tickets: Report
With the World Cup now in full swing, tens of thousands of people from all over the world are expected to travel to Brazil to support their country.
Despite ticket prices costing hundreds of dollars, the month-long soccer tournament has seen a recent rise in turnout from Latin American middle class citizens, which represents an economic shift in the region, Al Jazeera America reported.
According to a World Bank announcement in 2011, there were more Latin Americans living as middle class citizens than living in poverty for the first time.
Traditionally, only Latin America's political elite and upper class citizens could afford to make the trek and pay for admission in the last decade, the tournament has seen many more caravans of Latin American fans accompanying their teams. The 2010 games in South Africa saw a considerable amount of people come from Brazil and Mexico.
Based on television pictures alone, looks can be deceiving as there is no guarantee that a person sporting a jersey or shirt for a Latin America team, or any team for that matter, is an actual citizen from that nation. During Saturday's match-up between Colombia and Greece, roughly 20,000 out of the 57,000 people watching the game at the Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte were wearing a yellow.
According to Chilean media, about 10,000 Chilean citizens headed to Cuiaba to watch Chile dominate Australia during the final game of the Friday matches.
Support for Mexico's national team reportedly dwarfed the small Cameroon presence during the rain-soaked game Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera reported.
FIFA's official ticket sales revealed that six of the top 10 ticket buyers outside of Brazil came from the wealthiest countries of the industrialized north. The biggest buyer with 125,000 tickets went to U.S. citizens with Germany, England, Australia and France close behind with sales of 55,000, 51,000, 40,000, and 35,000, respectively.
However, the remaining four top ticket buyers came from Colombia with 60,000 tickets, Argentina citizens, who purchased more than 50,000 tickets, and Chile and Mexico citizens, who each purchased more than 30,000 tickets.
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