From now on we will provide you every Monday evening with a report of the attendances of Europe’s major leagues (and soon the Major League Soccer). This report will generally be published on Monday evening, depending on what matches are still to be played. Here’s our first, discussing this weekend’s attendances:
English Premier League
A very average round of attendances for the English Premier League, with the home teams managing to fill about 91% of seats and sell out 5 matches. Of course, none of the (old) Big 4 played a home match.
Still, some noticeable attendances with Blackburn recording its highest attendance of the season and Newcastle its second highest. No wonder though, as they played Manchester United and Liverpool who have proven to be the most popular teams in the league. Both teams manage to fill about 96% of the stadiums they visit.
The good run of Wigan has also had its effect on attendances with the club attracting a third high of the season, though not beating the 20,000-mark as in their previous home match. Wigan will likely have to improve if it does not want to end up as the club with the lowest occupancy rate (73%). Currently only Blackburn does slightly worse.
Overall, attendances in the Premier League are slightly on the up, averaging about 34,500, though they are also characterised by stability, in general not moving more than 3% up or down per home match.
German Bundesliga
This weekend the Bundesliga could not match last weekend’s spectacular attendances when 98% of available places were sold. Still not a bad weekend overall, with 93% of places sold (11th out of 28 rounds) and 5 sell-outs.
It was the first sell-out of the season for 1. FC Nürnberg, who hosted FC Bayern. Not that much of a surprise as Bayern is the only Bundesliga club to have sold out all its home AND away matches this season. Looking at the club’s remaining away matches – FC Köln, Dortmund and Bremen -, it is likely to complete the season without having seen one empty seat.
Kaiserslautern fans realised the match against Hamburg may have been their last chance for survival and recorded its 5th highest attendance of the season with 44,745 fans showing up. Hertha fans however did not feel the urgency yet, or have already given up, as they recorded a – for them – not so stellar attendance of 46,388, a third from last of the season. Hoffenheim, on the other hand, is back to selling out after a dip in attendances mid-season.
Overall attendances seem to be edging up with the end of the season nearing. The 13th home game of the clubs was the best attended of the season, and the 14th (this and last weekend) the third best.
Spanish Primera División
Primera División attendances tend to be very volatile, with averages moving up and down by about 15% per week. This weekend’s round saw a season high of 34,333 visitors per match showing up, which was mainly helped by the critical Barcelona fans showing up in large numbers for the match against Bielsa’s Bilbao. The attendance of 88,207 was a season high, though they obviously still get Madrid at home.
Atlético and Valencia, both with a set of very fickly fans, also scored high attendances. As did Osasuna for their home match against Real Madrid, though Osasuna fans tend to be amongst the most loyal in the Primera División. Real Madrid turned out to attract more fans in Pamplona than Barcelona did earlier in the year, whereas it usually is the other way around.
Gijón also attracted a season high attendance (of almost 30,000) as their fans realised the importance of their match against Zaragoza. We have a similar story in Santander, which recorded its third-highest attendance of the season in their match against fellow-strugglers Granada. At both club the increased support was however to no avail.
French Ligue 1
The French Ligue 1 could not maintain its excellent attendances of the last two rounds and fell slightly back to 74% of seats sold. Still a very decent 7th place (out of 30) for the season.
The fans of the two bottom clubs, Auxerre and Sochaux, rallied around their teams, with Auxerre recording an attendance of just over 14,000 (4th of the season) and Sochaux a record attendance of 17,299 in their match against relegation competitor Stade Brestois.
Caen fans, however, have become rather disillusioned by the club’s poor form and only recorded an attendance of 13,480, third from bottom this season. Lorient set an absolute season low, but this was only about a thousand fans less than their median attendance of 15,563, as the club’s attendance are among the most stable in the league.
Nancy recorded its second highest attendance of the season against Paris Saint-Germain, France’s second favourite club after Marseille. Both club manage to fill 85% to 90% of the stadiums they visit, whereas the average lies at about 70%.
Dutch Eredivisie
The Dutch Eredivisie recorded its highest round of attendances of the season with an average of 27,204, about 8,000 more than their season average. No wonder though, considering that Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV and FC Twente played a home match.
Still, the eight home teams managed to sell 92% of available seats. And the clubs’ 14th home match (this and last weekend’s round) was with 20,146 the second best attended of the year, only just being beaten by the 13th home match (20,159).
The tight league standings are clearly making fans excited, with all top team (almost) attracting full houses. Vitesse fans also got excited about their match against league-leaders AZ, setting the second highest attendance of the season with 22,164. The only fans not joining the fun were those of RKC and Utrecht. The latter have little to get excited about with a probable mid-table finish, but surprise-of-the-season RKC is still in contention for Europe, and therefore should have done better than a third from worst attendance of the season.
Most popular club in Holland is Ajax, who manage to fill 98% of the seats of the stadiums they visit, but Feyenoord and PSV or still competing for second place, with the end result probably getting decided by the fickle fans of Roda JC, that both teams still have to play.
Disclaimer: It is important to realise that about a thousand caveats apply when analysing attendances, and that we are obviously depending on the data that is reported (with especially the Primera División data somewhat unreliable). Feel free to ask any questions you have in the comment section. We expect to include an analysis of both the Serie A and Major League Soccer as from next week.