This week’s attendance report has come out slightly later than normal as we decided to include both the weekend’s and the mid-week’s playing. We’ve also decided to make the attendance report a biweekly feature (i.e. once every two weeks), which means that the next one come out in a week-and-a-half.
English Premier League
The Premier League analysis includes two matchdays: the 32nd and 33rd.
During the two matchdays about 91% of all seats were sold and a total of 11 stadiums were completely filled or almost completely filled. All sold-out matches were of teams that regularly sell out though, and few of the other team surprised in a positive way. Blackburn recorded its 4th highest attendance of the season, but the visitors were Liverpool who always attract extra crowds.
Aston Villa, on the other hand, recorded its worst attendance of the season only just beating the 30,000 mark. West Bromwich also recorded one of its lowest attendances of the season, though still filled almost 90% of the Hawthorns. In fact, both Chelsea and Liverpool technically recorded season lows, but in reality this only meant a few hundred visitors less than normal.
Wigan’s attendance (10th of the season) was possibly one of the most disappointing as they received Manchester United and the team has shown real fighting spirit recently. Wolves’ fans also did not warm up for the Arsenal match, but in their case there is few to get excited about.
Bolton’s attendance returned to more average levels after a spike up in their last home match. They prove once again to be the most fickly fans of the Premier League. On any match day attendances tend to be 20% higher or lower than their last.
German Bundesliga
The Bundesliga analysis includes the 29th and 30th playing round, which together form the 15th home match of the teams. A very average round on most accounts: the 15th home match rates as the 7th best attended of the season, half of the matches sold out, and about 93% of all tickets got sold.
Most full houses came from teams that have at least regularly sold out this season. Freiburg’s recent push up the table has not gone unnoticed with the fans: it recorded its fourth sell-out in a row. Wolfsburg and Köln sold out for the second time in a row. But after selling out its previous two games, Hoffenheim failed to do so this week.
The rest of the attendances were rather average, though Leverkusen’s and Hertha’s rank among the lowest of the season. Apparently Leverkusen fans do not get excited about a fight for a Europa League spot, whereas Hertha fans may have started to despair about the team’s poor form and ranking.
There is still a small fight going on between Schalke and Gladbach for the honour of being Germany’s third popular team this season (after Bayern and Dortmund). Schalke lies currently in third but may loose their spot if they fail to attract a (close to) full house at Bremen.
Primera División
After a couple of rounds with high attendances, these have now fallen slightly back in the last two playing rounds. On average 71% of all seats were sold, which meant an average attendance per match of just under 29,000.
The lower attendances are mainly caused by falling levels of spectators at the bottom teams. Sporting Gijón set a record low of the season, Racing also could not get its fans excited for the encounter with Mallorca, and Sociedad’s attendances continued the downward trend. Surprisingly also Getafe and Osasuna, both arguably performing better than expected, set their lowest attendance of the season in their last home match.
On the other end both Granada and Málaga, the only two teams to regularly sell out, continued playing for sell-out crowds, though they were accompanied this time by Zaragoza and Atlético who received Barcelona and Madrid.
Madrid just edged Barcelona in terms of attendance and their season average is also just above Barcelona’s (76,000 vs 74,600). Barcelona still has the chance to make up though as they have the advantage of having a bigger ground.
Ligue 1
Ligue 1, which only played one league round, also could not keep up with previous high attendances and fell back to average levels which stand at about 18,500 per match and 71% of seats occupied.
Paris Saint-German set a season high though in their match against rivals Marseille, and Dijon set a second-high against Nancy. Both Ajaccio’s and Nice’s attendances are following their results on the way up, and Caen rebounced from a poor showing last week. These were however offset by relatively poor attendances in the other home games.
There is still a bit of competition for the title of club-with-the-fourth-highest-average-attendances (after PSG, Marseille, and Lyonnais) with Toulouse, Saint-Etienne, Rennais, and Bordeaux all averaging close to 21,000 spectators per game.
Eredivisie
Also only one round of matches in the Eredivisie due to the Cup final on Sunday. No Big 3 home matches this round so lower aboslute numbers, but still an above-average 93% of all seats filled and four (almost) full houses.
NAC Breda had one of the lowest attendances of the season, though in absolute numbers not much less than the average. Roda JC attracted the second highest crowd of the season, though received Feyenoord who always attract more fans.
Ajax will end the season with the highest average, and if they keep selling out they may just pass the 50,000 mark. Feyenoord will be second with an average of in the mid 40,000s, and PSV Eindhoven third with a likely average of around 33,000.