By Paul Nicholson
August 31 – The Premier League closed off its fourth round of matches going into the first international break of the season having sold a total of more than 1.4 million tickets – a remarkable 95.8% of all tickets available.
There were just 60,171 seats unfilled in 40 matches and out of a total ticket availability of just under 1.5 million seats.
The fourth round of fixtures saw a slight increase in the percentage of capacity filled, rising to 95.2%, up from 94,82% last week but still down on the opening weekend high of 97.36% when there were just 6,878 unfilled seats across the country.
Eight clubs recorded more than 95% of capacity with only Aston Villa below 90% at 82.73%. This is a huge drop from the 98% capacity they recorded in their first home game of the season, and represented 7,389 unfilled seats.
Southampton were the club with the second most unfilled seats with 3,116 left open for the Sunday lunchtime kick off. The Saints will be disappointed with this, but there may be some fatigue with fans after having played two home games in the Europa League.
Swansea City were the big winners of the week reporting an attendance of 28 more than their official capacity. And there was even more singing in the Welsh valley with their 2-1 win over Manchester United.
The figures are calculated from the official capacities of club stadium and their reported match day attendances. Note, the figures are for seats filled and not figures for seats sold ie some seats may have been sold but the ticket holder was unable to attend the match. Similarly, safety concerns and media provision will often reduce stadium capacity from the official number stated.
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