This weekend saw the French Ligue 1 and Dutch Eredivisie kick off the 2012/13 season:
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s league debut could not fill the Parc des Princes though. A total of 38,102 Parisiens found their way to the stadium, far below last season‘s average. Of course, many French are still celebrating the summer holidays.
- Newly promoted Troyes will likely also hope that attendances will pick up once their fans get back from holiday. Only 10,602 people paid to see the club return to the top league, while their Stade de l’Aube can hold almost double.
- Stade de Reims did manage to sell out on their return to Ligue 1, but Reims fans of course had to wait 33 years for top-flight football and had Marseille entertaining the occasion.
- The Dutch Eredivisie is traditionally off to a slow start and made no exception this season. Particularly disappointing were the attendances of Heerenveen (20,000) and Roda JC (11,855), who both recorded lower than their lowest attendance last season.
- FC Utrecht’s attendance of 18,084 was also much lower than usual when Feyenoord visit Stadion Galgenwaard.
- There were quite a few derbies across the globe this weekend. No sell out for Chivas USA though, as 17,601 saw their club surrender to LA Galaxy.
- At the other end of the planet, 18,578 people witnessed the Japanese derby between Gamba and Cerezo Osaka, the largest attendance of Gamba Osake this season.
- In Russia, 23,567 spectators watched home side Kuban Krasnodar beat neighbours FC Krasnodar, but also no sell out of Stadion Kuban, which can hold about a third more.