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December 22, 2004
Football attendances on the up again!
A new survey in the Daily Telegraph shows that football attendances throughout the Football League are up again this year confounding the claims of the doomsayers.
With an impressive 13.4 million people attending games in the Premier and Football Leagues so far this season (an improvement of 2% over the same point last season), only League Two has seen a significant decline in attendances. The Championship had the biggest improvement (partly thanks to the arrival of the large crowds attracted by relegated Leeds United, Leicester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers) with an increase of over 10% compared to last season. Overall, the Football League looks like it will be healthier than last season - which was the best in 40 years! The F.A. Premier League similarly suffered with the replacement of the generally high-capacity stadiums of the relegated teams with the lower-capacity Selhurst Park (26,309), Carrow Road (24,349) and The Hawthorns (28,003) and posted a small overall loss in attendances this year:
| 2003/4 | 2004/5 | Avg. % Capacity | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club (home games this season) | At this point | Current Avg. | +/- % | (this season) |
| Arsenal (9) | 38,023 | 37,848 | -0.46 | 98.3 |
| Aston Villa (9) | 34,044 | 36,805 | +8.11 | 85.6 |
| Birmingham City (8) | 28,855 | 28,647 | -0.72 | 95.4 |
| Blackburn Rovers (8) | 23,416 | 22,494 | -3.94 | 71.7 |
| Bolton Wanderers (8) | 26,183 | 25,865 | -1.21 | 90.0 |
| Charlton Athletic (8) | 26,319 | 25,981 | -1.28 | 95.8 |
| Chelsea (8) | 41,171 | 41,874 | +1.71 | 98.6 |
| Crystal Palace* (9) | (15,678) | 23,363 | +49.01 | 88.8 |
| Everton (9) | 38,691 | 36,299 | -6.18 | 89.5 |
| Fulham (9) | 15,965 | 21,940 | +26.90 | 99.7 |
| Leeds United*** (9) | 35,654 | (28,251) | -20.76 | 70.3 |
| Leicester City** (9) | 31,159 | (23,647) | -24.11 | 72.8 |
| Liverpool (8) | 43,566 | 42,831 | -1.69 | 94.4 |
| Manchester City (9) | 46,830 | 45,037 | -3.83 | 93.8 |
| Manchester United (8) | 67,663*** | 67,851*** | +0.28 | 99.5 |
| Middlesbrough (8) | 30,485 | 31,697 | +3.98 | 90.3 |
| Newcastle United (9) | 52,100 | 51,840 | -0.50 | 99.1 |
| Norwich City* (9) | (16,353) | 23,782 | +42.43 | 97.7 |
| Portsmouth (8) | 19,982 | 20,052 | +0.35 | 99.6 |
| Southampton (9) | 31,571 | 29,768 | -5.71 | 92.3 |
| Tottenham Hotspur (8) | 34,428 | 35,739 | +3.81 | 98.7 |
| West Bromwich Albion* (9) | (24,377) | 25,760 | +5.67 | 92.0 |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers** (9) | 28,654 | (26,773) | -6.56 | 91.1 |
| * Promoted ** Relegated *** Muppets | ||||
The average attendances at Elland Road, Walkers Stadium and, to a much-lesser extent, Molineux, show the dangers of relegation with Leeds and Leicester seeing declines in attendances of 21% and 24% respectively - in human terms that sees over 7,000 less people through their turnstiles for each game.
Though Arsenal's average attendance is down slightly, we still average 98.3% of the capacity of Highbury, though we are somewhat shamed by Fulham, whose move back to Craven Cottage now sees an average crowd that leaves just 60 seats spare and Pompey who seem to leave just 49 of their 20,101 seats empty for their home games. The top ten teams, by average percent of capacity filled this year are:
| Position | Club | Average Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Fulham | 99.7% |
| 2. | Portsmouth | 99.6% |
| 3. | Manchester United | 99.5% |
| 4. | Newcastle United | 99.1% |
| 5. | Tottenham Hotspur | 98.7% |
| 6. | Chelsea | 98.6% |
| 7. | Arsenal | 98.3% |
| 8. | Norwich City | 97.7% |
| 9. | Charlton Athletic | 95.8% |
| 10. | Birmingham City | 95.4% |
Posted by gcurtis at December 22, 2004 11:13 AM