September 3 – England’s top flight has continued its strong attendance figures despite an uncharacteristic drop on just the second matchday of the season.
Fans now face a two-week wait for the Premier League to return dues to the international break but look likely to continue their encouraging support as statistics suggest the division is beating its attendance tallies from this time last year, despite the match week two hiccup.
Boasting the largest capacity in the league over the fortnightly period, Old Trafford was the scene of a crushing 0-3 defeat to arch-rivals Liverpool which saw the home attendance significantly thin by the final whistle.
It still achieved a percentage capacity score of 99.23% as almost 74,000 fans took their seat for the clash-of-the-titans affair, which saw Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah combine for the 0-3 scoreline.
Newcastle United and West Ham United are leading the charge in terms of attendance percentages. The Magpies narrowly edged out West Ham by one-hundredth of a percent, claiming the best percentage capacity of the fortnight.
This pattern mirrors last season, which maintained West Ham and Newcastle as the two teams most frequented in the elusive ‘99% club’.
Overall, the league saw a slight dip in capacity from match week one but recovered by match week three. Out of the 440,537 available seats, only 5,724 remained unfilled.
Match week two was a slight cause for concern, having dropped in %capacity by almost 1% despite having fewer seats available. The lowest capacity of the 20 fixtures was hosted by St Mary’s, which filled to 96.19% of its capacity as Southampton were beaten by Nottingham Forest.
On top of this, no club in match week two managed to break the 99% capacity mark, but match week three saw this barrier surpassed on four occasions as the attendance figures recovered.
Despite these fluctuations, both match weeks showed improvements over last year’s figures, with capacity percentages rising from 97.38% and 97.98% to 97.99% and 98.47%, respectively. The trend indicates a continued strong turnout for Premier League fixtures as the season progresses.
Match week four begins on September 14 following the international break, as 19th-place Southampton look to boost their attendance versus Manchester United in the early kickoff.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at moc.l1735006888labto1735006888ofdlr1735006888owedi1735006888sni@g1735006888niwe.1735006888yrrah1735006888