PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (AP) — The opening match of the World Cup knock-out rounds attracted the lowest crowd of six games staged so far at Nelson Mandela Bay stadium.

FIFA declared an attendance of just 30,597 for Uruguay’s 2-1 victory over South Korea yesterday — meaning almost 12,000 seats were empty. More than half the corporate hospitality suites appeared unused.

The 42,486-capacity Port Elizabeth stadium, which was built specially for the World Cup, also was not filled for the five group-stage matches it hosted.

Its biggest crowd was 38,294 for Germany’s 1-0 loss against Serbia. The previous smallest of 31,513 also featured South Korea, when they beat Greece 2-0 in a Saturday lunchtime kick-off on the second day of the tournament.

Nelson Mandela Bay will also stage a quarter-final next Friday afternoon — potentially pitting Brazil against the Netherlands — and the third-place match on July 10.

Yesterday morning, FIFA said that 5,000 tickets were still available for the Uruguay-South Korea match, suggesting that at least 7,000 ticket-holders did not show up for a game that began on a sunny afternoon before rain started falling at half-time.

In addition, 1,700 tickets were available for the second-round match involving United States and Ghana last night at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg.

“It’s true the next game will have a number of empty seats, but that happens everywhere — not just in South Africa,” FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said at a news briefing. “It happens at all World Cups and we’re beyond the ticketing level of Germany in 2006.”