By Paul Nicholson
January 4 – The Premier League’s Christmas and New Year extravaganza of three matches in 10 days saw more than 1.16 million fans attend matches with just 37,444 seats unfilled across the 30 home games, of which more than 10,000 of the unfilled seats were at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.
Rounds 19 and 20 saw the same home teams on each match day. Round 19 had just 9,411unfilled seats and round 20 had 17,198 unfilled seats, predominantly due to Sunderland again, though it should be noted that Sunderland’s round 19 attendance was a big improvement on previous gates. One reason for the lower attendances is often the long distance away fans have to travel to the north-eastern stadium.
West Ham again topped the tables for the past two rounds with Manchester United and Leicester close behind.
For round 19 five home clubs reported more than 99% capacity at their stadia – just 1,207 seats unfilled. Every club, including Sunderland, reported more than 90% capacity.
This dropped for round 20 with Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion dropping below 90%. West Brom had filled 98% of their 26,850 capacity for round 19 but had 3,632 seats unfilled for
Next weekend clubs play in the FA Cup where gate revenue is share 50/50 with opposing teams. The arrival of the Premier League clubs in the competition generally brings a significant cash boost to the lower league clubs, especially for those outside England’s second tier Championship.
The Premier League resumes with a mid-week round of fixtures for match day 21. In January clubs will play six times (perhaps more if they are involved in any FA Cup replays), offering little respite from the busy holiday schedule.
The test will now be to see whether there is any fan fatigue with any drop in attendance levels resulting from the volume of matches stacking up.
The Insideworldfootball stats are taken from the club’s reported attendance figure. They do not take account of tickets that might have been sold but the ticket holder did not turn up. Also, for some games stadiums will have slightly reduced capacities due to media and safety requirements.
Premier League attendances, round 19
Premier League attendances, round 20
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