By Paul Nicholson
January 2 – Attendance for the three fixtures of the holiday period for the Premier League in England averaged over 95% of stadium capacity for the matches December 26, December 28-29 and 1 January 2014. Of a total of 1,147,696 available seats in stadia, just 30,802 seats were unfilled.
Of the three holiday fixtures, New Years Day was the weaker of the three in terms of overall attendance due to Sunderland filling a comparatively poor 81% of their 49,000 stadium capacity (over 9,000 empty seats). Sunderland are rooted at the bottom of the Premier League.
The other club with seating space was Aston Villa who had over 5,000 seats unfilled for both their home games on the period.
Take Sunderland and Villa out of the equations and there were only 10,000 unfilled seats across 27 games – an average of about 370 a game. It is likely that the bulk of these seats were either season ticket holders unable to attend due to other commitments or seat ‘kills’ – restriction on the number of seats that can be sold, usually for fan safety reasons.
Of the so-called big clubs Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City all filled over 99% of their capacity. Chelsea and Liverpool filled over 98% of capacity.
Fulham, Newcastle, Norwich and Tottenham Hotspur also filled over 98% of capacity.
Of the three rounds of fixtures, Boxing day (December 26) was the most difficult day on which to buy a ticket for a Premier League match. For most Premier League clubs there was no room at the Inn over the Christmas period.
The Premier League now takes a weekend break with attention switching to the FA Cup competition in England. With Premier League clubs matched up generally with lower league opposition in the early rounds, a number of clubs are currently running ticket promotions to bring the fans in – season tickets do not generally include home FA Cup fixtures.
The one stand-out fixture of the cup weekend where a capacity crowd can be guaranteed is the North London derby between Arsenal and Spurs. Arsenal had just 351 unfilled seats in their 60,000 capacity Emirates stadium for their last Premier League match against Cardiff.
Round 20 Premier League attendances
Round 18-20 Premier League attendances
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