WILLEMSTAD (DA) — Curaçao’s home attendance more than doubled during World Cup qualifying under Dick Advocaat, and the national team has continued selling out its available seats despite security restrictions that reduced stadium capacity.
The latest home matches drew reported crowds of 7,485 against Nicaragua on Sept. 27 and 7,662 against Trinidad and Tobago on Oct. 1. Both exhausted their available ticket allocations.
As previously reported by Deporte Awe, the Curaçao Football Federation (FFK) confirmed the Oct. 1 attendance as a sellout. Security restrictions limited the number of spectators admitted, accounting for the smaller crowds compared with late 2025.
Advocaat’s first competitive home match, a World Cup qualifier against Barbados on June 5, 2024, attracted 4,254 spectators to Stadion Ergilio Hato. A year later, 7,715 attended the June 6, 2025, qualifier against Saint Lucia — an increase of approximately 81%.
The final qualifying round brought larger crowds. Reported attendance reached 9,474 against Bermuda on Sept. 9, 2025, then 9,850 against Jamaica on Oct. 10 and 10,000 against Trinidad and Tobago four days later.
Those three matches averaged approximately 9,775 spectators. The Trinidad and Tobago attendance was about 135% higher than the crowd for Advocaat’s competitive debut.
Reflecting on the expanding support after Curaçao’s 1-1 Nations League draw at Trinidad and Tobago, Advocaat offered his own description of the transformation.
“We start with 90 people in the stands and we finish it with 14,000,” he said.
Advocaat appeared to be using hyperbole to emphasize the growth in support. He did not identify the matches behind those figures, which have not been independently verified against individual match records. Published attendance figures nevertheless document a substantial rise during his tenure.
That support carried into 2026. The June 6 farewell match against Aruba sold out, according to the FFK and Curaçao’s official tourism website, although an exact final attendance was not established.
The September and October sellouts followed under the reduced capacity. Even with those limits, the 7,662 spectators at the latest home match represented approximately 80% more than attended the Barbados qualifier in June 2024.
Advocaat credited the president, sponsors and journalists who came to understand the team’s work with helping build support.
“You have seen from the moment we arrived there was nothing, only one man, that’s the president and he did everything,” he said.