This week’s attendances facts:
- The first two playing rounds of the Bundesliga suggest that the league’s attendances won’t be breaking any records this year. The average is down 4,000, though this is more due to the new entrants than the remaining teams.
- Things should pick up though once Fortuna Düsseldorf can use the full capacity of the ESPRIT arena (which was reduced as a punishment for last season’s crowd trouble) and once Frankfurt’s fans flock to the Commerzbank-Arena to celebrate the team’s good start.
- That Dortmund has become a real big team was highlighted by the fact that they were able to sell out Stadion Nürnberg, something only Bayern managed to do last year. And that while the recently renamed stadium (the easyCredit sponsorship deal expired) saw its capacity increased with another 1,500 places.
- Serie A averages are thus far at about the same level as last year’s, though both Milan clubs disappointed. They both reported much lower season ticket sales, only 36,288 people showed up at Milan’s home match last week, and just 43,385 people made the journey to San Siro to see Inter play the interesting fixture against AS Roma.
- Ligue 1’s attendances keep tumbling, and particularly disappointing were the mere 32,707 people that came to see Lille play against Paris Saint-Germain, only just over the number of season tickets sold. Has Grand Stade Lille Métropole not lived up to expectations?
- Only a few years ago, the English Championship was the world’s fifth best-attended league, but has in the meantime been passed by the Dutch Eredivisie, Ligue 1, the MLS, and the J-League. Still, the current average of 17,160 is still something most top flight leagues would kill for.
- Promoted Sheffield Wednesday leads the ranking over two home games, closely followed by Brighton & Hove Albion, who continue to pack The Amex even after its expansion. Both average slightly more than 25,000 over their first two home games.