Last weekend saw the Premier League and Primera División kick off. We all know the scores, but how about the attendances?
- Last season, the Premier League clubs sold almost 92% of all tickets. With Blackburn and Bolton gone one expects this to improve, and if the first round is any indication, this is surely set to come true. Over 96% of all tickets were sold and seven of the ten matches sold out. The Premier League is sure off to a flying start.
- Thank god there is always Wigan to spoil the fun a little, because it was the only club to lag somewhat behind with an attendance of 19,738 for their match against Chelsea. This filled only 79% of the DW Stadium.
- Last season, Barcelona and Madrid battled out a fierce battle on who would end up with the highest average attendances, which was in the end just won by Madrid. There was no contest last weekend, as the Madrileños clearly seem to be going more positive into the season than their rivals from Barcelona. A total of 74,000 people came to the Bernabéu, while only 57,721 paid to enter Camp Nou.
- In the French Ligue 1, Lille sold out the opening of their new home, but apart from that there was few that impressed in Ligue 1, and the average got no further than 18,832 after two rounds, which is almost 1,000 lower than last season.
- Attendances in the Dutch Eredivisie have been equally dreadful as 7 of the 16 teams recorded a lower attendance in their first home match than their lowest over the whole of last season. The average has been held up though by reasonable attendances of the big clubs, resulting in an average of 18,761 over the first two rounds.