By Paul Nicholson
December 22 – English High Street retailers wondering where their shoppers were on the last weekend before Christmas will find a good bulk of them were at Premier League football grounds. Out of more than 400,000 seats available for round 17 fixtures, just 8,976 were unfilled in what is proving to be a bumper season for attendances.
Five clubs reported more than 99% capacity filled in their stadia, with no club under 90%. Newcastle United were the only club under 95%, at 92%.
In terms of total stadium capacity filled over the whole league, the figure was 0.01% behind the opening day record for the season, but Round 17 had 40,000 more tickets available than opening day
Christmas has come early for the Premier League and with most clubs reporting sold-out fixtures for the holiday season, the celebrations will continue in accounting departments and boardrooms throughout the country.
Man Utd topped the weekly chart for the first time this season – a significant achievement as they have the biggest stadium at 75,731 capacity. Chelsea were a solid second in the table in the week they lost their mercurial manager Jose Mourinho.
Newcastle United again lagged at the bottom of the table, accounting for almost half the unfilled seats available in the Premier League with 4,171 being left empty for the visit of the league’s bottom side Aston Villa.
The Premier League now goes into its Christmas spectacular of three rounds of matches in just eight days.
Premier League Attendances, Round 17
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